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Taylor Brown

Author of FALLEN LAND, GODS OF HOWL MOUNTAIN, and REDNECKS

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The River of Kings: Cover Art!

River of Kings Cover ARt

Excited to share the cover art for The River of Kings, coming on March 21, 2017. Here’s the description:

The Altamaha River, Georgia’s “Little Amazon,” has been named one of the 75 “Last Great Places in the World.” Crossed by roads only five times in its 137-mile length, the blackwater river is home to thousand-year-old virgin cypress, descendants of 18th-century Highland warriors, and a motley cast of rare and endangered species. The Altamaha has even been rumored to harbor its own river monster, as well as traces of the most ancient European fort in North America.

Brothers Hunter and Lawton Loggins set off to kayak the river, bearing their father’s ashes toward the sea. Hunter is a college student, Lawton a Navy SEAL on leave; both young men were raised by an angry, enigmatic shrimper who loved the river, and whose death remains a mystery that his sons hope to resolve. As the brothers proceed downriver, their story is interwoven with that of Jacques Le Moyne, an artist who accompanied the 1564 expedition to found a French settlement at the river’s mouth, which began as a search for riches and ended in a bloody confrontation with Spanish conquistadors and native tribes. In The River of Kings, SIBA-bestselling author Taylor Brown artfully weaves three narrative strands—the brothers’ journey, their father’s past, and the dramatic history of the river’s earliest people—to evoke a legendary place and its powerful hold on the human imagination.

 

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French Cover for Fallen Land!

French Cover Fallen Land

The French publisher of Fallen Land, Editions Autrement, recently unveiled the cover art for the French of the book, which has been re-titled La Poudre et La Cendre, or Powder and Ashes.  This title has more resonance in French, and I love it, as well as the new artwork. This edition is coming in February. I hope that French readers enjoy it, as one of the main storylines in the next novel, The River of Kings, follows French artist Jacques Le Moyne, the first European artist to capture the flora, fauna, and natives in the New World.

“Rhino Girl” in The Rumpus!

Rhino Girl

I’m over the moon to let you know that my short story “Rhino Girl,” which follows the story of a Georgia-born anti-poaching ranger in South Africa, has been published in one of the biggest venues there is, The Rumpus, alongside some incredible artwork by Clare Nauman.

Read “Rhino Girl” Here

“Rhino Girl” was a finalist for the 2015 Rick DeMarinis Short Fiction Contest, awarded by Cutthroat:  A Journal of the Arts, and also a finalist for the Tenth Annual Danahy Fiction Prize, awarded by Tampa Review. The story was also awarded second place in the 2016 Doris Betts Fiction Prize, sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network and managed by the North Carolina Literary Review.

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Waylon Tribute in Garden & Gun!

Good-Dog-Taylor-Brown-cropped-2

I’m thrilled to let you guys know that my tribute to Waylon, my German Wirehaired Pointer rescue, has been published in one of my favorite magazines, Garden & Gun (June 2016 issue).  The piece is part of the monthly Good Dog column, and it’s titled “Creature Comfort.”  It’s now online, so you can read it here:

Read “Creature Comfort” Here

 

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Two Pushcart Nominations for 2015

Pushcart Prize 2016I’m very pleased to announce that two of my short stories from 2015 have been nominated for Pushcarts:

  • “Riverkeepers” — published in Chautauqua
  • “World without End” — published in the North Carolina Literary Review

“Riverkeepers” is actually the basis for my novel The River of Kings, set on the Altamaha River near where I grew up.  It is forthcoming from St. Martin’s Press, probably in 2017.

Thank you so much to the editors of these publications for featuring my work.  I’m so very grateful and honored.

Rave Reviews for FALLEN LAND

For Sale Now!

Fallen Land Reviews

Starred-Reviews-Fallen-Land-2

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ISBG Finalist for 2015 International Book Awards!

International Book AwardsI’m pleased to announce that In the Season of Blood and Gold has been honored as the finalist in the Fiction:  Short Story category of the 2015 International Book Awards!

Press 53 was well represented, as Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, edited by Clifford Garstang, was the finalist in the Fiction:  Anthologies category.

Congratulations to the winner of the Short Story category, John Henry Fleming, for his collection Songs for the Deaf, published by Burrow Press.

Advanced Praise for Fallen Land!

Fallen Land is due out January 12, 2016.  You can now pre-order it.  Here are some of the blurbs:

“A shattering debut that puts one strongly in mind of the young Cormac McCarthy, and the best historical fiction I’ve read in ages.”

–Pinckney Benedict, author of Town Smokes, The Wrecking Yard, and Dogs of God

“In Taylor Brown’s riveting novel Fallen Land a young man and woman wander south through a post-apocalyptic landscape that portrays the horrifying ravages of the Civil War. It is rare thing for a writer to have the talent and scope to exhibit both the worst and best of humanity in one book, much less in one scene, but that’s what Brown does here: He literally floods the page with violent beauty and devastating grace. Well-known and oft-praised writers will look back on long and storied careers only to wish they had written a debut novel as flawless as Fallen Land.”

–Wiley Cash, author of A Land More Kind Than Home and This Dark Road to Mercy

“In Fallen Land Taylor Brown brings Civil War history alive with a special intimacy and intensity. A story of love and loyalty set within the madness and chaos of war, the novel is also a thrilling fugue, in both senses: of flight, and intricate composition. It is also the story of a revenge quest, the horrors of Sherman’s March, a noble horse named Reiver, of sacrifice, endurance, and redemption. No one who reads Fallen Land will ever forget it. In this first novel Taylor Brown proves himself a fresh, authentic, and eloquent new voice in American fiction.”

–Robert Morgan, author of Gap Creek, Boone, and The Road from Gap Creek

Reading: Messages & Bottles, 5/29!

Messages-Bottles-EventWhat: Messages & Bottles Reading Event
Who: Authors Steph Post, Schuler Benson, Beth Gilstrap, Taylor Brown
When: Friday, May 29 7:30 PM
Where: Palate Bottle Shop and Reserve
1007 North 4th St, Wilmington, North Carolina 28401.

I’m thrilled to be reading with three of my favorite writers at Palate on Friday, May 29.

Steph Post (A TREE BORN CROOKED, Pandamoon 2014)

Steph lives in St. Augustine, Florida, and she’s one of the most gracious writers I know. Here’s the rundown on her book:

A whirlwind road trip across the desolate Florida panhandle, as James Hart tries to stay one step ahead of the vengeful Alligator Mafia and keep his brother alive.

I actually blurbed Steph’s novel:

“Steph Post delivers a 12-gauge shotgun blast of country noir from the gun-shaped state, a grit-rich tale of blood and citrus sure to have you recalling the rough beauty of Daniel Woodrell’s work.”

Schuler Benson (THE POOR MAN’S GUIDE TO AN AFFORDABLE, PAINLESS SUICIDE, Alternating Current 2014)

Schuler, an Arkansas native, lives down in Myrtle Beach, where he’s completing his Master’s at Coastal Carolina University. His book was perhaps my favorite story collection of 2014.  Here’s the rundown:

Twelve stories, fraught with an unapologetic voice of firsthand experience, that pry the lock off of the addiction, fanaticism, violence, and fear of characters whose lives are mired in the darkness of isolation and the horror and the hilarity of the mundane. This is the Deep South: the dark territory of brine, pine, gravel, and red clay, where pavement still fears to tread.

Here’s what I wrote about it:

“I honestly can’t remember a voice this thrilling and fearless since Barry Hannah. These stories sing out at the edge of abandon, at the very edge of catching fire and burning you up. Schuler Benson is the real thing, and you should read this book before it internally combusts.

Beth Gilstrap (I AM BARBARELLA:  STORIES, Twelve Winters Press 2015)

Beth lives in Charlotte, and she’s Editor-in-Chief of Atticus Review. Here’s the rundown on her book.

This is a collection populated by characters at the fringes of contemporary society — working-class characters with a raging taste for self-destruction. Many of the stories take place in Charlotte, North Carolina — a place people rarely end up on purpose. These characters aren’t bankers or old money, nor entirely belles or rednecks, but some kind of poetry in between, always stumbling, and trying to survive. These are stories of how folks press on and reinvent themselves in a time when textile manufacturing is dead, and most of their friends and family have long since moved on.

Here’s the public url for the Facebook event:  https://www.facebook.com/events/960702297287753/

Reading: WHQR Studios, January 12!

whqrlogoI’m honored to be the first guest of the year for Prologue, the monthly book club co-sponsored by StarNews Media and WHQR Public Radio. I’ll be speaking, reading, and fielding readers’ questions beginning at 7 p.m. next Monday with Ben Steelman in the WHQR studios, upstairs at 254 N. Front Street (Wilmington, North Carolina).  Admission is free, books will be for sale, and there will be refreshments.  Come ask me about In the Season of Blood and Gold, Fallen Land, and anything that will be embarrassing for me to answer on air!  More coverage on the event from WHQR and The Star News.

A little taste from the pre-interview:

Much of his fiction is set in the old West, or during the Civil War, or in a post-apocalyptic future — a reaction, perhaps, from his regular day job managing an internet marketing firm. “Watering your horse in a stream is really different, aesthetically, from ordering a Big Mac at McDonald’s,” he said.

 

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