Wes Blake and Chris McGinley will discuss their writing journeys, read from their new books – Pineville Trace & Once These Hills – and answer audience questions.
Wes Blake is the author of Pineville Trace, winner of the Etchings Press Novella Prize and finalist for the Feathered Quill Book Award for Debut Author. The book was featured on Deep South Magazine’s 2024-25 Reading List. Blake has been called a “writer to watch” by Pulitzer Prize finalist Lee Martin. Smokelong Quarterly called his debut book “an utterly compelling read,” and Heavy Feather Review called it “an introspective, haunting tale that remains with us.” His novel, Antenna, was a finalist for the UNO Press Book Prize and Sundress Publications’ Open Reading Contest. His fiction and essays have appeared in Electric Literature, storySouth, Louisiana Literature Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Blood & Bourbon, among others, and he holds an MFA from the Bluegrass Writers Studio. He lives in Nonesuch, Kentucky with his wife and cats, where they’ve planted over 100 trees.
Chris McGinley is the author of the story collection, Coal Black (Shotgun Honey Books, 2019) and the eerie literary thriller Once These Hills (Shotgun Honey Books, 2023). His fiction and commentary on literature and film have appeared in LitHub (Crimereads), Mystery Tribune, Cutleaf, Reckon Review, and many other forums. In the last few years, McGinley has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appeared twice on the Best American Mystery Stories “Honor Roll” list. He lives with his wife in Lexington, KY where he teaches middle school English and Social Studies.