Author Talk: Michael Czyzniejewski

"The Amnesiac in the Maze"

Join us to hear Springfield, Missouri based author Michael Czyzniejewski discuss his new story collection "The Amnesiac in the Maze".

The stories in Michael Czyzniejewski’s new collection showcase a menagerie of personalities: the Bigamist, the Pyromaniac, the Nihilist, among others—all of whom reveal a moment of existential crisis. This is not a question of “How the world works” or “How best to live” but “What happens when life leads us to the edge of understanding.” In “The Hemophiliac Engages the Glass Eater,” this unlikely relationship pushes the couple to re-imagine their lives not only for the sake of love, but also for changing how they think of themselves as people. In “The Atheist Reconsiders,” the protagonist, sure that God does not exist, is thrown into crisis when aliens visit Earth wearing something that looks suspiciously like a Crucifix. And in the title story, “Amnesiac in the Maze,” the Amnesiac, having lost his long-term memory, loses himself in a farmer’s corn maze, not because he can’t escape, but because maybe he doesn’t want to. In stories that challenge the reader at every turn, Czyzniejewski’s The Amnesiac in the Maze never fails to engage and surprise.

Michael Czyzniejewski is the author of three previous collections of stories: I Will Love You for the Rest of My Life: Breakup Stories (Curbside Splendor, 2015); Chicago Stories: 40 Dramatic Vignettes (Curbside Splendor, 2012); and Elephants in Our Bedroom (Dzanc Books, 2009). He is Professor of English at Missouri State University and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Moon City Press and Moon City Review, as well as Interviews Editor of SmokeLong Quarterly.

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