An Afternoon with Timothy Schmand and J.J. Colagrande

***Please note: This event will take place at the Books & Books in Coral Gables at 265 Aragon Ave. Tickets are FREE and books will be available for purchase at the event. Want your copy early or can't make it in-person?

The Danbury Chronicles offers a rust belt magic realism tale of a snowy Thanksgiving weekend, in Buffalo NY, 1969. Twelve-year-old Patrick Barry, his talkative reflection providing constant commentary and advice, navigates his working-class neighborhood with his combative brother. Through a darkly comic lens we see glimpses of his world: the survival strategies of adults around him, a fierce dog’s bizarre funeral orchestrated by two damaged WWII vets, and a legendary football game, where the Bills beat the Cincinnati Bengals in a blizzard. Kirkus Reviews calls it "A funny, thoughtful, and inventive portrait of teen angst."

Timothy Schmand left Buffalo to join a wagon train and settled in South Florida in 1982. His fiction, though rooted in reality, never strays far from an imagined world where a hole dug in the ground might lead to China. Schmand’s award winning fiction has appeared in literary journals, popular magazines and anthologies, including the Miami Herald, Time Out Miami and the Holland Herald. He is a recipient of the Calvino Prize. The Danbury Chronicles offers a rust belt magic realism tale of a snowy Thanksgiving weekend, in Buffalo NY, 1969. Twelve-year-old Patrick Barry, his talkative reflection providing constant commentary and advice, navigates his working-class neighborhood with his combative brother. Through a darkly comic lens we see glimpses of his world: the survival strategies of adults around him, a fierce dog’s bizarre funeral orchestrated by two damaged WWII vets, and a legendary football game, where the Bills beat the Cincinnati Bengals in a blizzard. His first two novels, True Tales of Bad Benny Taggart and Just Johnson: The London Delivery, are published by Jitney Books.

J.J. Colagrande is the author of Headz: a Trilogy, Reduce Heat Continue To Boil and Deco 2.0. He is also a full-time Professor at Miami-Dade College. J.J. earned his MFA from Florida International. As a cultural contributor, he has written about Miami for almost 20 years, with The Miami Herald, Miami New Times and Huffington Post. He is also the publisher of Jitney Books.

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