Barnsdall Gallery Theatre: Calahan Skogman presents Blue Graffiti w/ Leigh Bardugo

Join us for an evening celebrating Blue Graffiti, the debut novel by actor and poet Calahan Skogman, in conversation with Shadow and Bone author Leigh Bardugo!

“An emotional and utterly romantic—in the truest sense of the word—debut." —Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Funny Story

Living in the home he inherited from his mother and abandoned by his father, painter and construction worker Cash has never known anything beyond the fields of Johnston, WI—never particularly wanted to, either. Why would he when his friends are there, his work is there, his history is there? He loves Johnston. But when an emerald-eyed stranger named Rose blows into town one summer evening in his favorite local bar, everything changes. It's love at first sight. For Cash, anyway. 

What follows is an intimate reflection on the love, faith, and tragedy that courses through the blood of America’s backbone. Cash and his closest friends find themselves vital threads in the fabric of their community, the memory of those forgotten, and partners in a new enterprise. A bluesey ode to the Beat generation for the modern era, Blue Graffiti is writer Calahan Skogman's poetic debut brimming with an essential freedom, romance, and longing for a bygone era.

Calahan Skogman is a writer, poet, and actor born in Davenport, Iowa, raised in Wisconsin. He earned his MFA at the University of Southern California’s School of Dramatic Arts and is best known for his leading role as Matthias Helvar in Netflix’s Emmy-nominated show Shadow and Bone (based on the best-selling series by Leigh Bardugo). Blue Graffiti is his debut novel.


Leigh Bardugo is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House and the creator of the Grishaverse (now a Netflix original series) which spans the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, the King of Scars duology—and much more.  Her short fiction has appeared in multiple anthologies including The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives in Los Angeles and is an associate fellow of Pauli Murray College at Yale University.