BOOK LAUNCH: I Made This Just For You
Description
Join us at Imprints Booksellers for the launch of Chris Ames' short story collection, 'I Made This Just For You'.
The evening will be hosted by Jane Howard; Arts and Culture Editor at The Conversation.
About the book:
Written under the spell of writers like Catherine Lacey, Miranda July and Ling Ma, the characters in 'I Made This Just for You' are perfect avatars of modern life. They work in tech, take designer drugs, assemble Ikea furniture, pursue beauty matching, and rehabilitate their reputations – all while grappling with a perilous sense of unease, held hostage by economic focuses beyond their control. In the titular story, a new father simulates intimacy online in order to pay for his son’s operation. In 'Charlie & Charlie & Charlie', a genderless couple engages in a series of plastic surgeries to look more alike. ‘The Gesture’ follows man whose face has become a meme as he starts a creative agency for ‘repetition artists', while in ‘Good Light’ a woman lights up a joint and begins cleaning her apartment, only to dislodge a tangle of hair that proves more important that it initially appears. Other stories explore toxic masculinity, climate panic, the false promise of technology, and the fragile intensity of childhood.
A savage, sideways collection, I Made This Just for You marks the arrival of a profound new millennial voice and asks: How do we measure the distance between two people? How can we thrive within our own ceaseless routines? And how are we still drawn together, in spite of our messy, broken ways of knowing?
'I Made This Just for You' is published by Ultimo.
About Chris:
Chris Ames is a writer from California who lives in Melbourne with his wife and two children. His work has appeared in Electric Literature, HEAT, New Australian Fiction, No Tokens, The Saturday Paper, Wildness, X-R-A-Y, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of a Hot Desk Fellowship at the Wheeler Centre and the winner of the 2024 Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Award from the City of Melbourne, and the Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award.
Lineup
Chris Ames
Chris Ames is a writer from California who lives in Melbourne with his wife and two children. His work has appeared in Electric Literature, HEAT, New Australian Fiction, No Tokens, The Saturday Paper, Wildness, X-R-A-Y, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of a Hot Desk Fellowship at the Wheeler Centre and the winner of the 2024 Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Award from the City of Melbourne, and the Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award.
Jane Howard
Jane Howard is a Walkey award winning arts journalist and the arts and culture editor at The Conversation.
FAQs
- What time should I get there?
Doors will open at 6:00pm for a 6:30pm start.
- Will there be seating?
Typically these are standing events - however if you need to have access to a chair for the evening for any reason at all please let us know and we will endeavour to find a solution for you!
- Is the venue wheelchair friendly?
No and yes - the entry is technically accessible, but inside the shop there are a few steps, and bathroom access is only available via steps unfortunately.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
