Emily Jon Tobias, author of MONARCH - an in-person Boswell event

Boswell Book Company presents an evening with Emily Jon Tobias, author of Monarch. In conversation with Valerie Laken.

In Monarch, stories subvert the reader's common perceptions about how love can heal, how loss and suffering can transform, and how every character deserves a second chance. America's city scars, sewers, alleyways, and bars are landscape to their wars, as characters heal and transform under wind turbines and on open roads, in golden cornfields and with the wails of Chicago blues. Heroes in this collection are the marginalized, the sufferers, the down-trodden, the misfits, the wanderers, and the wounded, shaped by grief but not defined by their scars.

Honoring the human capacity for change, characters drive the collection, turning up the dial to raise the volume of voice for those who live on the fringe and are often ignored. Characters bear traumas with their bodies, and often, they transgress. They break in, break down, and ultimately, break open. An inclusive invitation, Monarch aims at an intimate portrayal of scarred characters on American streets beating the drum of current culture against the fierce rhythm of critical social justice issues.

From Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: “Superb, original and thoroughly alive with heartbreak and wonder. Tobias is electrifying.”

Emily Jon Tobias is an author and poet whose work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has been featured in literary journals such as Santa Clara Review, Talking River Review, Flying South Literary Journal, and elsewhere. Raised in Milwaukee, she earned her bachelor's degree in creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University Oregon. Monarch: Stories is her debut collection.

Click here to order your copy of Monarch from Boswell. Signed copies and personalization available on pre-orders. Please note that signed copies will not be shipped until after the event.