{"id":2540,"date":"2016-02-04T14:39:29","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T22:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getlitfestival.org\/?p=2540"},"modified":"2016-02-04T14:39:29","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T22:39:29","slug":"richard-fifield-brings-the-flood-girls-to-inks-scablands-lit-reading-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/richard-fifield-brings-the-flood-girls-to-inks-scablands-lit-reading-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Fifield brings "The Flood Girls" to INK's Scablands Lit Reading Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alex Baker<\/em><\/p>\n

\"richard<\/a>
Richard Fifield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Thursday February 25 from 7:00pm-8:30pm at the Spark Center, INK Art Space will be hosting their Scablands Lit Reading Series with author Richard Fifield, who will read from his debut novel The Flood Girls.<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s a lot of information, so let\u2019s break this down.<\/p>\n

First\u2026 What in the world are Scablands? My internet research brought me to Ars Technica<\/a>. Scott K. Johnson\u2019s article \u201cThe Scablands: A Scarred Landscape as Strange as Fiction\u201d<\/a> describes them as \u201cessentially wounds, still unhealed by time and erosion.\u201d They are a segment of the Eastern Washington that tells a story, a \u201cstory about excess\u2014excess of water, water that was torrential and sudden.\u201d Johnson goes into greater geographic-historical detail, but I\u2019ve had enough. There is still so much to cover.<\/p>\n

So, INK has invited Richard Fifield to read for their Scablands Lit Reading Series. Fifield has already made me laugh and we haven\u2019t even met. I was wandering through his website<\/a> and I got sucked into his brief anecdote about growing up (\u201cWhen I was six, I discovered my older sister\u2019s hope chest, where she kept her cigarettes and trashy books. I believe I was the only person to find hope there. Her romance novels caused my homosexuality. Don\u2019t believe the scientists.\u201d<\/em>), and soon I was laughing and clicking \u201cREAD MORE\u201d and reading blog post after blog post and wishing there was more. Well, there is<\/em>, in the form of his debut novel The Flood Girls<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"the-flood-girls-9781476797380_hr\"<\/a>The Flood Girls<\/em> is set in small-town Quinn, Montana, and follows Rachel Flood\u2019s return to town. The novel\u2014 which THE Jackie Collins called \u201cedgy, original, [and] worth the trip\u201d \u2013 covers an eclectic cast of locals, a bar called The Dirty Shame, and the town softball team that for years has done nothing but lose.<\/p>\n

Local author Sharma Shields has also praised Fifield\u2019s debut, saying, \u201cI started this book laughing out loud; I finished it grieving and grateful. Richard Fifield is the handsomest writer in North America, and perhaps its most compassionate.\u201d She also tweeted the following on The Flood Girls\u2019<\/em> release day:<\/p>\n

\n

Happy Book Birthday to @richard_fifield<\/a>! FLOOD GIRLS is the Great American Novel of 2016. pic.twitter.com\/pLTa2c7XQG<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Sharma Shields (@SharmaShields) February 2, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

High praise!<\/p>\n

Richard Fifield lives in Missoula, Montana with his three rescue dogs. He received his MFA from Sarah Lawerence College and now teaches creative writing at the University of Montana and memoir workshops for \u201cwomen of a certain age.\u201d Fifield has worked in case management and direct care for adults with developmental disabilities for the majority of his adult life and is also a proud volunteer at the Zootown Arts Community Center<\/a> and the Western Montana Gay & Lesbian Community Center<\/a>. Fifield’s stage plays have been performed at the University of Montana and the Crystal Theater in Missoula. His short story \u201cYou Can\u2019t Always Get What You Want<\/a>\u201d was shortlisted for the Bristol Prize and published in their anthology. Find more of his daily hilarity by following him on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019re all aware what Scablands are and all extremely interested in Fifield and his work, I\u2019m going to go mark this event in my planner. You can find all the details and RSVP at the Facebook event page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alex Baker On Thursday February 25 from 7:00pm-8:30pm at the Spark Center, INK Art Space will be hosting their Scablands Lit Reading Series with author Richard Fifield, who will read from his debut novel The Flood Girls. That’s a lot of information, so let\u2019s break this down. First\u2026 What in the world are Scablands? … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":924,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":[],"_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/924"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/getlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}