Swag Tuesday

Today's Swag Tuesday giftie is Bang Crunch, the new short story collection from gay Canadian author Neil Smith, now available from Random House.

In Neil Smith’s nine stories, average people find themselves in decidedly unusual situations, as the mundane and the fantastic collide. A woman mourning the loss of her husband finds solace in talking to his ashes, entombed in a curling stone. The title story zeroes in on a girl with Fred Hoyle syndrome, whose age expands and contracts like the universe. The members of a support group for people with benign tumors begin to suspect that their meekness has caused their medical woes. Bang Crunch creates an extraordinary world inhabited by all-too-human characters, and heralds the arrival of a literary talent with an unfailing, exacting concern for the profundities of our lives.

Smith will host a reading and signing of Bang Crunch on Friday, Feb.15th at 7:30pm at the West Village Barnes & Noble and on Sunday, Feb.17th at 7pm at KGB bar in the East Village. Enter to win a copy of Bang Crunch by commenting on this post. Please remember to leave your email address. Publicists: if you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.