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 CLIPPINGS        &    OCCURRENCES

 

LitHub has titled my essay: "A History of My Violence to the Ones I Love: Silas Dent Zobal On Learning to Be Hit and Hitting Others." Originally, I'd titled it, "On the Side of Dissonance." Which is a lyric stolen from Run the Jewels. Read More!

Short essay titled "On the Impoverished World." It's about growing up poor. Read more here!

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

Jeremy Schraffenberger asks really good questions here. I answer fitfully. Like so: "Sometimes I think that existing is an act of ungodly egotism. Sometimes I can feel the strain of it, the constant effort of defending myself so that I hold distinct from the laurels and the dew, from which I am not, in any sense beyond my own insistence, really distinct at all." Read more!

THE MILLIONS YEAR IN READING 2016

The People of the Broken Neck in A Year in Reading. "A searing debut novel: terse sentences juxtaposed with ambiguous, surreal descriptions of violence and the after-effects of trauma." Read more!

BOOKRIOT'S BIG GUIDE TO WONDERFUL BOOKS

The People of the Broken Neck in Bookriot's guide to wonderful books of 2016 from Indie presses! Read more!

IN WHICH J.D. SCHRAFFENBRGER WRITES A REVIEW AND NEARLY CATHES A WOOZLE

A review of The People of the Broken Neck in the North American Review: "In a 1978 debate on fiction between William Gass and John Gardner at the University of Cincinnati, later printed in The New Republic, Gardner points out the difference between the two of them as writers: 'Our definitions of beauty are different,' he says. 'I think language exists to make a beautiful and powerful apparition. He thinks you can make pretty colored walls....' It’s hard not to think of beauty and language while immersing oneself in the pages of Silas Dent Zobal’s remarkable novel The People of the Broken Neck, but would one would call his writing Gassian or Gardnerian?" Read more!

OPEN BLINDS, CLOSED BLINDS: THE VIOLENCE OF DETAIL

I've written a short essay for the Missouri Review blog. It's an essay about growing up poor, and about my many misapprehensions: "Driving on the highway at dusk in Pennsylvania, I see a fire on the side of the road. There is this billowing smoke. It’s a grand thing, both gorgeous and threatening. But as I get closer, one apprehension gives way to another. The fire becomes a yellow-flowered shrub in the golden hour. The billowing smoke becomes an oddly-shaped cloud." Read More!

BOOKBROWSE PICKS 'THE PEOPLE OF THE BROKEN NECK' AS AN EDITOR'S CHOICE AND GIVES A NICE REVIEW, TOO

"Unbridled Press has nurtured the early careers of many talented authors including one of my favorites, Emily St. John Mandel. In Zobal, they have another winner. His clipped and poetic prose is saturated with the weight of its storytelling obligations and delivers handsomely." Read more!

'THE PEOPLE OF THE BROKEN NECK' MAKES MONSTERS & CRITICS LIST OF THE “BEST BOOK PICKS FOR THE 2016 HOLIDAY BREAK”

“A fantastic debut novel, which is a hybrid of mystery, thriller, noir fiction and travelogue. The poetic style of this story paints vivid imagery in each short chapter where we follow three main characters, a father and his two adolescent kids as we follow their lives and learn their paths. This is a story of how a war hero deals with reintegration back into civilian lives.” Read more!

THE US REVIEW OF BOOKS

A nice, short review. "Silas Dent Zobal...beautifully brings still mountains and hushed woods to life in a way that seems inextricably connected to the Sawyer family's heartbeat and lifeline." Read More!

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Mar 22, 2018

7 PM

READING AND KEYNOTE AT LOCK HAVEN UNIVERSITY

Keynote address at the English Association of Pennsylvania State Universities (EAPSU) conference. More information available here.

Feb 06, 2018

7 PM

READING AT BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

A Reading from the People of the Broken Neck. More information available here.

SUSPENSE MAGAZINE RADIO

An interview on Suspense Magazine radio coming in December.

Oct 29, 2016

BOOK TALK WITH KOREY FRENCH

Korey French and I talk about violence in the U.S. and post traumatic stress disorder. Listen here!

Nov 06, 2016

A NOVEL IDEA

A radio interview with Suzanne Lang about The People of the Broken Neck on her show, A Novel Idea, on Bay Area NPR-affiliate KRCB. Listen here!

Oct 12, 2016

CONVERSATIONS LIVE RADIO

Cyrus Webb and I talk about families, violence, love and The People of the Broken Neck on Conversations Live Radio. Listen here!

Apr 08, 2015

12:00 PM

SUSQUEHANNA UNIVERSITY READING

A reading from The Inconvenience of the Wings. Isaacs Auditorium. Susquehanna University.

Apr 08, 2015

3:00 PM

AWP BOOK SIGNING

A book signing at the AWP Bookfair. Table 1555.

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ADMISSION:

Public presentations make me uncomfortable. I don't like to be at the center of things. Do you? My daughter, Lake, likes to put on shows. So does my son, Emerson. They stage productions of fairy tales.  They tell jokes.  ("What happened to the wooden car, with the wooden wheels, and the wooden window?" ... "It wooden go!") They didn't inherit this showmanship from me. Inheritance isn't supposed to run backwards, but don't you wish it was possible for us to inherit the hearts of our children?

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