The Writer’s Center welcomes author TJ Butler for a reading and discussion of her debut story collection, Dating Silky Maxwell. TJ is in conversation with author and filmmaker Tara Stillions Whitehead. Book signing to follow.
TJ will be giving away three copies of her book and three sets of custom-blended herbal tea that were inspired by her collection and created at a boutique apothecary in Crofton, Maryland.
Free and open to the public, limited space, registration required below.
TJ Butler is a writer and photographer who divides her time between a tiny house and a sailboat on the Chesapeake Bay. She writes fiction and essays that are not all fun and games, teaches workshops, and coaches writers. Her work has appeared in media outlets such as Huffington Post and Insider and various literary journals. She has a degree in a field she will never return to, and she was one of those kids who wanted to be a writer when they grew up. Her black-and-white photography mimics her writing’s gritty themes. Dating Silky Maxwell is her first collection. Connect with her at TJButlerAuthor.com.
Tara Stillions Whitehead (she/her) is a filmmaker and author of three books of hybrid prose. They More Than Burned, her most recent release, is a fiction best-seller at Small Press Distribution. She has received nominations for the Aspen Words Award, Maya Angelou Award, Pushcart Prize, and Best of the Net anthology. Her work has been selected twice for the Wigleaf Top 50 and was included as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2022, edited by Alexander Chee. She is a Professor of Film, Video, and Digital Media at Messiah University.
About the Book
“Butler’s sharp short story collection focuses on women’s choices.” Kirkus Review
A facial scar alters a former sex worker’s identity, and a social media influencer leads a double life. Wishes are granted for a price when a mysterious, fortune-telling stranger comes to town. A jilted bartender leaves her seaside inheritance in flames. While defending her dog, a woman kills an unnerving stranger, and a left-at-the-altar office worker finds her roots at a truck stop. A homesteader calls on nature to defeat a perpetrator, and a lonely heart’s new boyfriend may have questionable motives. Taboo subjects like sex work, suicide, abortion, incarceration, identity, and fraught family relationships are handled with grit and grace. From a rundown coal country dog track to a glittering Washington, DC highrise, this chorus of passionate, damaged characters leave their pasts behind and reinvent themselves until their mistakes no longer define them.
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.