The Shortest Distance Between Two Writers

Related Content

• The Shortest Distance Between Two Writers
  August 27, 2009
• Sneak Review: American Noodle Bar
  January 14, 2011
• Chuck Palahniuk at Miami Book Fair: Fainting, Projectiles, and Guts
  November 20, 2011
• 9-Year-Old Boy Crashes Mini Van, Drunk Dad Arrested for Making Him the Designated Driver
  October 26, 2011
• Cannes 2011: dysfunction junction
  May 19, 2011

More About

• Kris Radish
• Emma Gilford
• Tom Robbins
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Books & Books has, perhaps unwittingly, created a perfect pairing of authors to headline Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Both writers live in Florida, but that's where the similarities end.

J.J. Colagrande is a Miami native whose debut novel, Headz (BlazeVOX Books), is a kaleidoscopic romp through modern-day America's music festival scene. With influences that include Tom Robbins, Franz Kafka, and Jack Kerouac, Colagrande has a writing style that's breezy and fast-paced, even as it dissects the lives of several protagonists in fragmentary fashion. In other words, the plot might be a rabbit hole, but you're strapped to the back of the rabbit. Colagrande will read from Headz during his first Miami appearance this Tuesday.

In contrast, Kris Radish is a recent transplant to Apollo Beach, a veteran of best-seller lists, and a star at Bantam Dell. She'll read Wednesday night from her sixth novel, The Shortest Distance Between Two Women, which centers on Emma Gilford, a 43-year-old single woman devoted to her mother and their small South Carolina hometown. Like most good novels, the trouble begins on page 1, when Gilford comes home to a message from the one man in her past she truly loved. Like the vegetable of her name, Radish sticks to storytelling's roots: good characters who feel like real people.

Both readings are free and begin at 8 p.m.
Wed., Sept. 2, 8 p.m., 2009