The Writer’s Center presents a FREE virtual chat about the craft of fiction! We’re joined by Marguerite Sheffer to discuss her debut story collection, The Man in the Banana Trees. Marguerite is in conversation with Zach Powers, author and Artistic Director at The Writer’s Center.

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We encourage you to order a copy of the book from your local, independent bookseller or online from Bookshop.org »

Marguerite Sheffer teaches courses in design thinking and speculative fiction at Tulane University, and is a founding member of Third Lantern Lit, a local writing collective, and the Nautilus and Wildcat Writing Groups. Sheffer lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

About the Book

The stories in The Man in the Banana Trees take place in the past, present, and future—from the American Gulf South to the orbit around Jupiter. We meet teachers and students, ghosts and aliens. An ice cream consultant in the year 2036 predicts a devastating flavor trend and a disgruntled New England waiter investigates a mysterious tanker crash. Although wildly varied in setting, length, and genre, a thread of the fantastic unites these stories, as characters struggle to understand that thing lurking at the edge of their perception: something sinister, or maybe—miraculous.

Sheffer dips into science fiction and fantasy to defamiliarize everyday horrors and confront them with heart and sly humor. Her stories explore complicity, whiteness, the lack of bodily autonomy that women face, and what we are willing to destroy—or not—to dream a better world for our children.

If you need an accommodation for this event, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.