Fiction. Avi Heyer's rollicking adventure begins when he returns to Elsbeth, North Carolina, to settle his mother's affairs. A student chef with the wrong girlfriend and a mud-loving dog, Avi soon finds himself dragged into a criminal conspiracy. His world is churned up, down and sideways by the diabolical Camel and her hired henchwomen; an unknown phone caller who somehow tracks his every move; an enticing hippie who may be trying to steal something from Avi; a plainspoken building contractor with a suspicious hearing aid; and a news reporter desperate for love. And then there's Avi's whale, with its graceful bulk and keening song, a whale that becomes more than an obsession.

Author City: DAVIDSON, NC USA

In addition to his seven books of poems, Alan Michael Parker has published two novels and served as editor of the anthology, THE IMAGINARY POETS (Tupelo Press, 2005). His poems and prose have appeared in The Believer, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, Paris Review, Salon, The San Francisco Chronicle, Slate and elsewhere. He has received the Pushcart Prize, the Fineline Prize from The Mid-American Review and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, among other awards. He teaches writing and literature at Davidson College and in the Queens University low-residency M.F.A. program. He lives in Davidson, North Carolina, with the artist Felicia van Bork. His most recent poetry collection is LONG DIVISION (Tupelo Press, 2012).

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