Hugo Literary Series: Angela Flournoy, Megan Kruse & Phillip B. Williams

The new year will begin with writing on the theme of "Exile," featuring fiction writer Angela Flournoy, author of the National Book Award-finalist The Turner House; and Pacific Northwest native and writer, Megan Kruse, whose debut novel, Call Me Home, was called “uncommonly powerful” and “raw and fearless” by Jess Walter and Elizabeth Gilbert respectively; and emerging poet Phillip B. Williams. Electro-pop duo Crater will provide music for the evening.

Angela Flournoy is the author of The Turner House, a finalist for the National Book Award and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and a New York Times Sunday Book Review Editors’ Choice. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, and she has written for The New York Times, The New Republic, and The Los Angeles Times. 

Megan Kruse is the author of Call Me Home (Hawthorne Books). She teaches fiction at Eastern Oregon University’s Low-Residency MFA program, Hugo House, and Gotham Writers Workshop. She was the recipient of a 2016 PNBA Award, and one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” for 2015.

Phillip B. Williams is author of the chapbooks Bruised Gospels, Burn, and Thief in the Interior. He is a Cave Canem graduate and the poetry editor of the online journal Vinyl Poetry. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Callaloo, Kenyon Review Online, The Southern Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, West Branch, Blackbird, and others.

Crater is a Seattle-based electronic industrial pop duo consisting of Ceci Gomez and Kessiah Gordon. Since its 2013 inception, the group has released a slew of singles via Mermaid Avenue/Mom+Pop and their debut full-length Talk to Me So I Can Fall Asleep on Help Yourself Records in early 2015. They have toured nationally with the likes of Canadian goth pop artist TR/ST and glitter pop band MS MR.