Luke Geddes is the author of Heart of Junk (Simon & Shuster) a hilarious debut novel about an eclectic group of merchants at a Kansas antique mall who become implicated in the kidnapping of a local beauty pageant star.

Equally comical and suspenseful, Heart of Junk is also a biting commentary on our current Marie Kondo era. It examines why certain objects resonate with us so deeply, rebukes Kondo’s philosophy of wholesale purging, and argues that “junk” can have great value.

Jenn Shapland is the author of My Autobiography of Carson McCullers (Tin House Books). While working as an intern in the archives at the Harry Ransom Center, Jenn Shapland encountered the love letters of the late author, McCullers, and a woman named Annemarie–letters that were tender, intimate, and unabashed in their feelings.

Shapland felt compelled to undertake a recovery of the full narrative and language of Carson’s life: She waded through the therapy transcripts; she stayed at Carson’s childhood home where she lounged in her bathtub and ate delivery pizza; she relived Carson’s days at her beloved Yaddo.

In genre-defying vignettes, Jenn Shapland interweaves her own story with Carson McCullers’s to create a vital new portrait of one of America’s most beloved writers, and shows us how the writers we love and the stories we tell about ourselves make us who we are.

After time in Texas, singer-songwriter Brandon Kinder is back in his native Memphis with more than one musical project going. The Rocketboys is an indie rock band he started that has toured this country and overseas. The Wealthy West is a side project in the Americana/singer-songwriter vein. He is also the host of Earth Tones, a folk-bluegrass show on DittyTV.com.