My essay, “Esto Perpetua,” which first appeared in Ecotone, was selected as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2013. This is my fourth Notable Essay (the others were given the nod in 2007, 2008, and 2009.) It’s a pleasant surprise to find your own name in there brushing up against other “S” authors …
I was recently asked by Sports Illustrated to write a review of the Corner Club bar here in Moscow, which is another way of saying I was paid to go to a bar, drink, and write about drinking in said bar. Well, okay then. You can check it out here.
“Let’s get one thing out of the way right off the bat: Schrand is a fantastic writer and a great storyteller, weaving detail and humor in such a way that you don’t notice the pages flying by. Complete honesty reigns in this memoir about his transition from boyhood in rural Idaho to becoming a man …
The New York Review of Books gave Works Cited a Starred Review: “Tracing his reading life from A to Z, Schrand’s second memoir is a self-deprecating and hilarious look at the transition, not always successful, of one Gen Xer from boy to man.”
Booklist gave Works Cited a Starred Review. “Often forgiven, Schrand has led an oddly charmed life, which he reveals through 27 essays about the benefits and dangers of reading particular books, which he arranges alphabetically by author. This has strong book-discussion possibilities.”—Rick Roche, Booklist starred review
In the last issue of Brevity, Joe Wilkins and I published an interview on memoir, form, and experimentation. Joe’s memoir, The Mountain and the Fathers is a bare-knuckled, beautiful read, and happens to be written in fragments. Check it out. http://brevitymag.com/craft-essays/on-form-and-experimentation/
While Works Cited doesn’t officially release until March 1st, you can order a copy online now over at Amazon (not sure why that is, but then again, there is a lot of the publishing world that is baffling to me). So, yeah, check it!
Just back from the awesome NonfictioNow Conference in beautiful Melbourne, Australia. It was good to see friends and meet new NF junkies and practitioners, or fellow “word sluts,” as David Shields rightfully deemed our ilk. My final panel–Memoir–Contemporary Forms–was a ton of good fun. What else would you expect with the eminent Bret Lott (one …
You can pre-order my new book, Works Cited: An Alphabetical Odyssey of Mayhem & Misbehavior now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the University of Nebraska Press, or through your local indie bookshop.
My essay, “Esto Perpetua,” is in the current issue of Ecotone. It sits along some mind-blowing work by Peter Orner, Amy Leach, Robert Hass, Ron Rash, and others. The issue’s theme is “Remembrance.” Check it out. You know you want to.
