New Experimental Novel Inspired by College Experiences in Flint and Chicago
Author: Connor Coyne
708.224.5297
connor@connorcoyne.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Flint, MI / July 18, 2013 – Flint-based writer Connor Coyne is raising funds through Kickstarter.com to publish his novel Shattering Glass through the Gothic Funk Press. Shattering Glass, released serially online in 2011 and 2012, will be available in print and electronic versions this October if Coyne is able to raise $5600 by July 31st.
Shattering Glass is an avant-garde romp through four students’ first term of college, in which challenging coursework, expensive tuition, and romantic entanglements compete for attention with supernatural engines that turn memories into electricity. Samo has to overcome his poor high school grades, Ezzie is almost paralyzed by social anxiety, Dunya faces dropout if she can’t obtain financial aid, and Monty is obsessed with the new college’s secrets. The novel combines many features of Coyne’s hometown of Flint, Michigan and his alma mater of the University of Chicago, and is set in the fictitious city of Arkaic, Michigan.
Media review blog Critcal Winking has praised Shattering Glass for “startling bright characters that ground a story that is prone to the fantastic” while Gordon Young (author of Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City) has described the Kickstarter campaign as “a great way to support an artist, husband, and father.” The project has also been the subject of an interview by Tiny Toe Press, and Coyne’s earlier work has received printed praise from Arlene Malinowski, Jan Worth-Nelson, Leila Sales, Heartland-prize winning author Jeffery Renard Allen, and the Cleveland Review.
The $5600 sought by Coyne will cover printing and promotional costs, including an initial print run of 180 copies of Shattering Glass and launch events in both Flint and Chicago. Kickstarter, a fundraising service supported by Amazon Payments, allows qualifying projects to raise money toward a set goal by a specific deadline. Backers are not charged unless the goal is met. Shattering Glass can be backed at http://connorcoyne.com/shatteringglassfund.
About the Author
Connor Coyne recently represented Flint’s 7th Ward as its artist-in-residence for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Our Town grant, during which artists engaged ward residents to produce creative work in service of the new City of Flint Master Plan. Coyne’s first novel Hungry Rats, published in 2010, has been hailed by Heartland prize-winner Jeffery Renard Allen as “an emotional and aesthetic tour de force.” Coyne’s work has also been published in Santa Clara Review, Moria Poetry Zine, the Flint Broadside, The Saturnine Detractor, and Qua. After spending fourteen years in Chicago and New York City, Coyne has returned home to Flint, Michigan, with his wife Jessica and their daughter Mary. They live in the College Cultural neighborhood, where he grew up, and is excited to resume participation in Flint’s thriving arts scene.
# # #