My panel "Master of None: Surviving and Thriving Without an MFA," will be on Saturday the 9th, from 3:00 to 4:15, in Room 101 on the Plaza Level of the Hynes Convention Center. I'll be joined by Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Samuel Park, Ru Freeman and a mystery guest!

I'll be reading, along with others, at the Black Rock Bar (3614 N. Damen, Chicago) for StoryStudio Chicago's takeover of the Sunday Salon! This will likely be my first-ever reading from the just-completed second novel.

I'll be reading at Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca at 5:00 p.m., along with several other writers involved with the Ithaca College New Voices Festival.

I will be reading at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY, as part of the first annual New Voices festival, along with Sheba Karim, Robin Ekiss, and Nathaniel Rich.

On Tuesday, May 14th, I'll be teaching a one-night class at StoryStudio Chicago. "The Blind Date" is, alas, not a matchmaking party, but a brainstorming workshop. Come set your abandoned, lovelorn, rejected story ideas up with each other and make narrative magic! Details are right here.

I'll be appearing at Chicago's Printer's Row Lit Festival on Saturday, June 8th at 12:45 on the panel "This Must Be the Place." I'll join authors Dina Nayeri and Benjamin Lytal to talk about the role of setting in fiction; StoryStudio Chicago founder Jill Pollack will moderate. At Jones College Prep; tickets required.

I will be a Teaching Fellow at the Wesleyan Writers Conference from June 12th to 16th. Limited space at the conference is still available (as of the middle of May).

On October 11th, I'll be doing two events for The Book Stall in Winnetka with Pamela Erens, author of the gorgeous new novel The Virgins. We'll be "in conversation" for both, with me trying to ask her semi-intelligible questions. Join us either for lunch at 12:00 at Avli (tickets required -- call 847-446-8880 to reserve […]

I'm thrilled to be visiting WriterHouse in Charlottesville, VA the weekend of October 25th. On Friday the 25th at 7 pm I'll be doing a "literary salon," in which I'll read from The Borrower and talk about getting characters to misbehave; on Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., I'll be leading a seminar called […]

I'll be teaching a craft class on Tuesday, January 21st at the Warren Newport Public Library in Gurnee, IL. The class, "Ending it All," is about the art of ending stories and novels. Free and open to the public. Registration is not required, but there's a link here anyway.