brandon r. schrand

As a longtime subscriber to the High Country News, I was delighted to see my book get some traction in its pages. Review Excerpted below.

“Schrand’s personal story reflects larger cultural truths: The transitory lives of his grandfather and stepfather mirror those of the down-on-their luck drifters who gravitate to the hotel. . . Schrand’s memoir breaks new ground. . . [and] makes Soda Springs and towns like it finally matter.” –High Country News.

My essay, “Eleven Ways to Consider Air,” has just won the Pushcart Prize. The essay, which also won the 2006 Willard R. Espy Award, was first published in Ecotone, and will be reprinted in both the Pushcart Prize anthology, as well as in the forthcoming book, Borne on Air: Essays by Idaho Writers.

You can check out an interview I did with the local Moscow, Idaho paper–The Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Make the jump to Red Room where I have blogged about two recent readings here on my home turf. You won’t want to miss it. Stay tuned, too, for some digital audio from the readings which will be posted here and at Red Room.

The Enders Hotel has garnered a Starred Review from Booklist. Here is what they have to say about the book:

I will be blogging from the road at Red Room, the swanky and hip author/writer website. To see how the book tour is going so far, check out my blog by clicking here.

I’ve been invited to read at the Ruskin Art Club in Los Angeles as part of the Ruskin Reading Series sponsored by Red Hen Press. Founded in 1888, the Ruskin Art Club is the oldest and one of the most respected associations in Los Angeles. Past writers that have read at the club include Galway Kinnell, Joy Harjo, Percival Everett, Li-Young Li, Chris Abani, Marvin Bell, and many others.

My reading is slated for May 18, 2009. If you are in the L.A. area next May, by all means, drop by.

Although my memoir won’t be hitting bookstore shelves until May 1st, you can order it online and receive it within a few days. Simply click on “Order the Book” (at the top of this page) and order it from any of the sites I have links to. Happy ordering!

I have been invited to read at this year’s Rocky Mountain Writers’ Festival on April 7th in Pocatello, Idaho–not too far, as it happens, from Soda Springs, the town in which my book takes place. I will also be teaching a class at Idaho State University. Now in its 18th year, the RMWF will run from April 7th–April 12th. Please visit their website for location information. Also reading at this year’s festival is the hugely talented Paisley Rekdal. Stay tuned for more details.

I’ve excerpted parts of my first review below:

Since 1919, the three-story brick hotel, complete with cafe and bar, has anchored downtown Soda Springs, the prosperity of which has always been tied to the notorious vicissitudes of mining, farming and ranching… For a young child, the hotel exerted a certain kind of magic, which Schrand effectively captures in his reminiscences… Holding the enterprise—and to a large extent, young Schrand’s life—together were his grandparents, whose charity and decency reassured a boy who never knew his father. As Schrand grew older, work and responsibilities mounted, as did the feeling that the hotel might be a failing venture. He worked out his resentment and anger in acts of gratuitous cruelty and petty vandalism that threatened to mark him for a future not so different from the dead-enders the hotel often sheltered.

An evocative account of a man coming to terms with his youth.–Kirkus Reviews