About The Dunning Man
• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Lavender Ink (October 19, 2014)
The six stories in Kevin Fortuna’s hilarious and gripping debut story collection, The Dunning Man, feature anti-heroes who reject society’s rules, and often show a gritty, Irish American take on the worlds in which they live. Characters from all walks of life—a rogue hip-hop star, a blackjack dealing mom, a middle-aged drunk plowing through his inheritance, and an empty nester housewife trying to make peace with the past. They each exist in the here and now, living for what’s possible and what’s left—not what they’ve left behind. Redemption awaits all, but only along the rutted, gut-churning path of honest self-examination. Age quod agis.
Set in Atlantic City, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., the Hudson Valley and Manhattan, Fortuna’s stories depict the violent clash between society’s expectations and the chaotic arc of individual destiny. These are powerful tales of truth seekers imbued with larger-than-life personalities and the all-consuming need to find something worth seeking.
Praise for The Dunning Man
These stories are by turns wry and funny, harrowing and heartbreaking. Kevin Fortuna writes with startling clarity and insight about success, hope and longing and about people struggling to do the right thing, and sometimes failing. He writes with his heart and his head and with a sheer ballsy velocity you don’t come across very often. — Kevin Moffett, author of Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events and The Silent History
With clear, exacting prose Kevin Fortuna presents damaged yet indelible characters grappling with shame, pain, and darkness as they teeter on the brink. One gets the sense that these men and women are only hanging on by a thread, and Fortuna triumphs by refusing to let us look away. — Skip Horack, Stegner Fellow and award-winning author of The Southern Cross and The Eden Hunter
Fortuna’s people defy life by living, and suck every last breath out of a deflated balloon. They are exhilarating people with fully lived lives, expertly drawn. Fortuna’s people are people you’d want to know, whose lives you may well admire. They may even be you. — Mark Warren, Executive Editor of Esquire
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About Kevin Fortuna
Kevin Fortuna lives in Cold Spring, New York. He obtained a Bachelors degree in English Literature from Georgetown University, where he graduated summa cum laude. He is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship, the Quicksall Medal for Writing, a Fellowship in Fiction at the Prague Summer Writers Workshop and a Full Fellowship in Fiction at the University of New Orleans, where he received his MFA.
Kevin’s Tour Stops
Tuesday, October 28th: A Dream Within a Dream
Thursday, October 30th: Built by Story
Monday, November 3rd: The Book Binder’s Daughter
Monday, November 10th: I’d Rather Be At The Beach
Thursday, November 13th: Bibliotica
Tuesday, November 25th: guiltless reading
Friday, November 28th: Walking With Nora
Monday, December 1st: Conceptual Reception
Saturday, December 6th: Tiffany’s Bookshelf
Thursday, December 11th: Read a Latte