Blog

The Conversation After the Signing

By Evan Swensen| 05/15/2026
The real work of a book signing doesn’t happen at the table. It happens in the conversation afterward. The line has ended. The last book has been signed. The store … 0 More

The Rooms We Stopped Building

By Evan Swensen| 05/15/2026
Cedar Valley News May 15, 2026 The Rooms We Stopped Building By Dan Larson A man in our ward stopped coming to church two years ago. I will not name … 0 More

The Hallway Was the Meeting

By Evan Swensen| 05/14/2026
Cedar Valley News May 14, 2026 The Hallway Was the Meeting By Chloe Papadakis The Riverside Inn has not been full on a weekend in three years. I walked past … 0 More

The Sixty-First Time

By Evan Swensen| 05/11/2026
On Tuesday, May 5, 2026, Kathryn Stockett’s second novel arrived in bookstores across the country. The Calamity Club is set in Oxford, Mississippi in 1933, during the grip of the … 0 More

Attention Is the New Cork

By Evan Swensen| 05/11/2026
Cedar Valley News May 11, 2026 Attention Is the New Cork By Teresa Nikas  A handwritten letter arrived on my desk last week. The envelope was addressed in the careful, …

Both Things Are True

By Evan Swensen| 05/09/2026
Cedar Valley News May 9, 2026 Both Things Are True By Aisha Khalid Tom wrote to me last Saturday after my column on polio. I have been thinking about his … Co...

Your Second Book

By Evan Swensen| 05/08/2026
The first book teaches you how to write. The second book teaches you who you are as a writer. The first book is a miracle. You started with nothing — … Continue...

Phones Went Away—Books Went Home

By Evan Swensen| 05/07/2026
Cedar Valley News May 7, 2026 Phones Went Away—Books Went Home By Chloe Papadakis Two hundred thousand books. The number is how many additional library books were checked out by … 0 More