Join us in celebrating the Austin launch of John Jodzio’s latest short story collection, Knockout. With readings from John, Kendra Fortmeyer, and Tatiana Ryckman.

Knockout is full of flawless portraits of the deeply flawed. A recovering drug addict gets tricked into stealing a tiger. A man buys a used sex chair from his neighbor. A woman suffering from agoraphobia raises her son completely indoors. Jodzio wonderfully steers these stories into deeper places, creating a brilliant examination of those on the fringes of modern life.

The absurd, darkly humorous Americana of Knockout shows Jodzio at his imaginative best.” —J. Ryan Stradal, author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest

John Jodzio is a winner of the Loft McKnight Fellowship. His stories have appeared in a variety of places including This American Life, McSweeney’s, and One Story. He’s the author of three short story collections—the recently released Knockout (Soft Skull Press, 2016) as well as If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home and Get In If You Want To Live.

Kendra Fortmeyer likes to play in the genre divide. A Pushcart Prize-winning fiction writer, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Nonrequired Reading, One Story, The Toast, Black Warrior Review, Lightspeed and elsewhere. She received her MFA in fiction from the New Writers Project at UT Austin, and recently attended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ workshop in San Diego. Her debut magical realist YA novel, Hole in the Middle, is forthcoming from Little, Brown in 2017.

Tatiana Ryckman was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She is the author of the chapbook story collection, Twenty-Something; managing editor of the Austin Review; and assistant editor at sunnyoutside press.