The Meat and Spirit Plan

New
Paperback
2007
$17.43

Like an experimentally inclined Annie Proulx, Saterstrom tersely renders the effects of social violence on individual lives . . . the effect is shattering and transcendent. --Modern Times Bookstore newsletter
In lyric, diamond-cut prose, Selah Saterstrom revisits the mythic, dead-end Southern town of Beau Repose. This time, the story follows a strung-out American teenager influenced by heavy metal, inspired by Ginger Rogers, hell-bent on self-destruction, and more intelligent than anyone around her realizes. She is forced into rehab and private school, and her life, at least on the surface, changes course, eventually leading to theology studies in Scotland. But as the feverish St. Vitus's dance of her adolescence morphs into slow-motion inertia abroad, an illness brings her home again--to face the legacy of pain she left behind and to find a way to become the lead in a dance of her own creation.
An heir to William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, Saterstrom soars above the traditional boundaries of the American novel with exquisite, cut-to-the-quick language (Raleigh News & Observer) that makes her novels impossible to put down. Spare, raw, and transcendent, Saterstrom's unflinching examination of modern-day Dixie and contemporary adolescence lights up the dark corners of the American experience.
Selah Saterstrom is the author of The Pink Institution, a debut novel praised across the country for letting gusts of fresh, tart air blow into the old halls of Southern Gothic (The Believer). A Mississippi native, she is currently on the faculty of the University of Denver's Creative Writing Program. Visit her website at www.selahsaterstrom.com.

Synopsis

Like an experimentally inclined Annie Proulx, Saterstrom tersely renders the effects of social violence on individual lives . . . the effect is shattering and transcendent. --Modern Times Bookstore newsletter

In lyric, diamond-cut prose, Selah Saterstrom revisits the mythic, dead-end Southern town of Beau Repose. This time, the story follows a strung-out American teenager influenced by heavy metal, inspired by Ginger Rogers, hell-bent on self-destruction, and more intelligent than anyone around her realizes. She is forced into rehab and private school, and her life, at least on the surface, changes course, eventually leading to theology studies in Scotland. But as the feverish St. Vitus's dance of her adolescence morphs into slow-motion inertia abroad, an illness brings her home again--to face the legacy of pain she left behind and to find a way to become the lead in a dance of her own creation.

An heir to William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, Saterstrom soars above the traditional boundaries of the American novel with exquisite, cut-to-the-quick language (Raleigh News & Observer) that makes her novels impossible to put down. Spare, raw, and transcendent, Saterstrom's unflinching examination of modern-day Dixie and contemporary adolescence lights up the dark corners of the American experience.

Selah Saterstrom is the author of The Pink Institution, a debut novel praised across the country for letting gusts of fresh, tart air blow into the old halls of Southern Gothic (The Believer). A Mississippi native, she is currently on the faculty of the University of Denver's Creative Writing Program. Visit her website at www.selahsaterstrom.com.

$17.43

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Publisher: Coffee House Press
Published: Sep 2007
ISBN 10: 1566892015
ISBN 13: 9781566892018
Book Overview: 1. Galleys will be distributed with the sales kits in April and featured at Book Expo America. We will also be asking for early feedback from individual booksellers who supported the author's first novel and from others at major independents, including Powell's, Elliot Bay, City Lights, Shaman Drum, Northshire, Books & Books, Prairie Lights, Square Books, Lemuria, and Tattered Cover. 2. Our publicity efforts will focus on print coverage and interviews in newspapers, women's magazines, trade publications, and online, including outreach to major bloggers and all members of the Lit Blog Co-op. An author playlist will appear at Largehearted Boy, the popular music web site. 3. Additional marketing will include wholesaler advertising, online advertising, and display at Southern regional trade shows and all major library and academic trade shows. 4. The author has a web site at www.selahsaterstrom.com Tour: Raleigh-Durham, NC; Denver, CO; many more cities TBA

Author Bio

Selah Saterstrom is the author of the novels Slab, The Meat and Spirit Plan, and The Pink Institution, all published by Coffee House Press. Widely published and anthologized, she also curates Madame Harriette Presents, an occasional series. She teaches and lectures across the United States and is the director of Creative Writing at the University of Denver.