We’re pleased to welcome Steve Wiegenstein to the Skylark virtual reading series to celebrate his new collection of short stories, Scattered Lights. Many of the stories have been previously published in literary magazines and anthologies, but some are appearing here for the first time. Ann Weisgarber, author of The Personal History of Rachel DuPree, wrote of the collection: “With his pitch-perfect sentences and compassionate insight, Wiegenstein’s memorable characters are achingly real as they grapple with their ordinary lives and peer into the uncertain future. Scattered Lights is one of the best collections of stories I’ve read in years.” 

Steve will be interviewed by acclaimed author Steve Yates, whom some Skylark regulars will remember from his appearance at the Unbound Book Festival a few years ago.

To register for this free event, please click here.

To buy a copy of Scattered Lights, please click here.

Steve is also the author of The Language of Trees (2017), This Old World (2014), and Slant of Light (2012).  Slant of Light was the runner-up for the Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction, and This Old World was a shortlisted finalist for the M.M. Bennetts Award in Historical Fiction. The Language of Trees received the Walter Williams Major Work Award from the Missouri Writers Guild in 2018.Steve grew up in the Ozarks, the setting for his novel series, and worked there as a newspaper reporter before entering the field of higher education. An avid hiker and canoer, he returns to his home region every chance he gets; he also writes and blogs about rural and Ozarks issues at stevewiegenstein.wordpress.com. He has taught journalism, English, and communication for a number of colleges and universities during his career. His academic degrees are in journalism and English from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

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Steve Yates, originally from Springfield, Missouri, is the author of five works of fiction including The Legend of the Albino Farm: A Novel from Unbridled Books. He is the author of the Knickerbocker Prize-winning Sandy and Wayne: A Novella, the Juniper Prize-winning Some Kinds of Love: Stories, and the novels Morkan’s Quarry and its sequel, The Teeth of the Souls. His fiction has been anthologized in Yonder Mountain: An Ozarks Anthology and The Literature of the Ozarks. He is associate director / marketing director at University Press of Mississippi, and lives in Flowood with his wife Tammy. Learn more at fictionandhistory.wordpress.com.

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