Join us for a reading with author Shannon McLeod, who will read from her new short story collection, Nature Trail Stories. A conversation with author Katharine Schellman will follow. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.
About the Book: The characters in Nature Trail Stories escape to nature and commune with it. A housewife fantasizes about avenues of her own demise, a young man wants to save his addict brother from himself, a counseling patient tries therapeutic screaming instead, a mother seeks bonding with her teenage son during lockdown, a young woman finds healing through sexual exploration at a music festival. Ruminative and reflective, Nature Trail Stories interrogates humans’ desperation for and struggle with connection, highlighting the power of solitude as an agent of personal alchemy.
About the Author: Shannon McLeod is the author of the novella Whimsy (Long Day Press, 2021) and the short story collection Nature Trail Stories (Thirty West Publishing, 2023). Her writing has appeared in Tin House, Prairie Schooner, Hobart, and SmokeLong Quarterly, among other publications. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and Best of the Net and was also featured in the Wigleaf Top 50. Born in Detroit, she now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. You can find Shannon on her website at shannon-mcleod.com.
About the Moderator: Katharine Schellman writes historical mysteries filled with intricate plots and smart, gutsy sleuths. Her newest series, set in Jazz Age NYC, launched in 2022 with Last Call at the Nightingale, a gritty, glamorous mystery that was a New York Times editors’ pick for June and named one of the best mysteries of the summer by Publishers Weekly, Bustle, Goodreads, and more. You can find out more about Katharine’s work at katharineschellman.com.
Nature Trail Stories will be released on March 24. To order the book, please see below for the New Dominion Bookshop book order form or call the shop at 434-295-2552.
"Shannon McLeod’s Nature Trail Stories is as much about nature trails as the craving for deeper connection and meaning that leads us out into the woods. With equal parts humor and melancholy, McLeod introduces us to a cast of quirky, nuanced, and heartbreakingly vivid characters whose looping paths and chance encounters invite them to confront their traumas and imagine new possibilities."
—Rebecca van Laer
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