Green Apple Books Talk “Spell Heaven” (9th Ave.)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Join us on Wednesday, May 25th at 7pm PT when Toni Mirosevich celebrates her collection, Spell Heaven, with Frances Phillips at 9th Ave!

Masks and Proof of Vaccination Required

Or watch online by registering HERE

About Spell Heaven

“A seamlessly written book full of beautiful connections.” —Kirkus Reviews

After moving to a coastal town a gay couple is drawn to a group of outsiders living on the edge of the sea.

In Spell Heaven, a linked story collection, a lesbian couple moves to a coast town and unexpectedly finds a sense of belonging with a group of outsiders.

Stories include the tale of an undocumented boy’s drowning when a wave pulls him out to sea, an ex–FBI agent’s surveillance of a man who leaves chocolate bars at a tree in a weekly ritual, a mother on meth who teaches a lesson on mercy, and Kite Man, who flies kites from a fishing pole and sells drugs on the side. His motto: When the kites fly, you can buy.

The narrator of these stories, raised in a working-class Croatian American fishing family and immigrant community, chooses an early career in labor-oriented jobs. Years later, she finds herself in an academic position in a white-collar world “where the clothes are clean but the politics are dirty.” She questions her own stereotypes about her neighbors and gradually begins to question her life path. Spell Heaven celebrates those who are looking for a human connection in an increasingly isolated world.

About Toni Mirosevich

Toni Mirosevich was raised in a Croatian American fishing family in Everett, Washington. She is the author of a book of nonfiction stories, Pink Harvest, winner of the First Series Award for Creative Nonfiction, and five books of poetry. A professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University for many years, she currently resides with her wife in Pacifica, California.

About Frances Phillips

Frances Phillips recently retired after 27 years as program director for arts and the Creative Work Fundat the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, a family foundation based in San Francisco. Prior to her work at the Fund, she was executive director of Intersection for the Arts (1988-94) and director and assistant director of The Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University (1982-88). For many years, she also taught creative writing and grant-writing at SF State, where she met Toni Mirosevich.

Frances is the author of three small press books of poetry from Hanging Loose Press and Kelsey Street Press and of reviews in The Hungry Mind Review, Poetry Flash, San Jose Mercury News, and other publications. With her husband Stan Hutton she co-authored five editions of The Nonprofit Kit for Dummies. On stage, she has interviewed Jamaica Kincaid, Nadine Gordimer, Margaret Atwood, and other writers for City Arts & Lectures.

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