READING | THURSDAY, APRIL 9 | 7 PM | FREE
UNM Creative Writing Program presents Joshua Wheeler
Part of the Russo Reading Series
The UNM Creative Writing Program invites you to join them at FUSION | The Cell on April 9, at 7 PM, for a reading from Joshua Wheeler, author of Acid West and The High Heaven. After the reading, Wheeler will give a brief audience Q&A. Books will be available for purchase!
“Joshua Wheeler’s debut novel has got me rethinking my stake in the universe. . . . Oliver and Izzy’s buddy exploits are the most entrancing first 100 pages of a book I’ve read in some time. . . . Even when Izzy’s journey descends into dark territories, Wheeler . . . writes like he’s having a blast.”—Rien Fertel, The Times-Picayune
In 1967, on the night of the first Apollo mission, a child named Izzy is orphaned when the doomsday cult she was born into clashes with the sheriff in the high desert of New Mexico. She’s taken in by a struggling rancher who is trying to keep his mind from falling apart as NASA rocket tests encroach on his outer range. Inspired by the true story of a UFO cult in a village near White Sands, this novel traces Izzy Gently’s whole life: from tragedy on the ranch, through addiction and a rich cast of eccentrics in Texas, to New Orleans, where Izzy is haunted by her past even as she uses lessons from childhood to counsel people who have lost the ability to see the moon.
In The High Heaven, Joshua Wheeler explores American piety as it mutates over the course of the Space Age, as technology changes notions of both humanity and the heavens. Shot through with the speculative while paying homage to three iconic genres—neo-Western, picaresque, and Southern gothic—Izzy’s life story becomes a mirror for the warping of manifest destiny and, ultimately, a testament to the human will to seek meaning from the universe.
Suffused with the absurdist history of American space travel and the wide-open landscapes of the Southwest, The High Heaven chronicles a larger-than-life adventure of one extraordinary woman who, despite tragedy, never loses sight of redemption.
ABOUT JOSHUA WHEELER
Joshua Wheeler is from Alamogordo, New Mexico. He's the author of the essay collection Acid West, which was named a best book of 2018 by Newsweek, The Paris Review, and O, The Oprah Magazine.
UNM’s English Department offers a full array of creative writing workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction on the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Undergraduate students may register for introductory, intermediate, and advanced workshops in all three genres. Additionally, they are invited to attend readings sponsored by UNM’s Masters of Fine Arts Program and participate as readers on Blue Mesa Review. Qualifying undergraduates interested in pursuing creative writing on the graduate level are encouraged to work with a faculty mentor on a creative writing Honors Thesis. And every fall undergraduate creative writers compete for the prestigious Lena Todd Awards, a small cash stipend and the opportunity to share their work at the Works-in-Process Reading Series.
UNM’s MFA Program in Creative Writing is designed for graduate students committed to pursuing the writing life. This three-year degree combines studio-based workshops in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction with craft seminars and coursework in literature, teaching pedagogy, and professional writing.
Quality bar service provided by Safe House Distilling Co. and Teller Genuine Vodka.
