Fire Season by Leyna Krow

The propulsive story of three scheming opportunists—a banker, a conman, and a woman with an extraordinary gift—whose lives collide in the wake of a devastating fire in the American West

Join us to celebrate the release of Leyna Krow's new book Fire Season!

Leyna Krow will be joined by a myriad of fellow authors:
Laura Read
Kat Smith
Ben Cartwright
Tim Greenup
Maya Jewell Zeller
Ellen Welcker
Aileen Keown Vaux

Tuesday, July 12th @ 7pm at The Hive
(2904 E Sprague Ave) 

MASKS ARE ENCOURAGED

This is a ticketed event
 A ticket is included with the pre-order of the book and can be purchased online, in-store, or over the phone (509)-838-0206

*Every Fire Season book purchase will include 1 ticket for the event*

STUDENTS can get in FREE with a valid STUDENT ID. Please come to Auntie's Bookstore to show your ID and pick up your ticket.
If we have any tickets remaining the evening of the event, students may show their student ID at the door to get a free ticket. However, tickets are limited so if you really want to attend please go to Auntie's Bookstore beforehand.

About the book 

For the citizens of Spokane Falls, the fire of 1889 that destroyed their frontier boomtown was no disaster; it was an opportunity. Barton Heydale, manager of the only bank in Spokane Falls, is on the verge of ending his short, unpopular life. But when his city goes up in flames, he sees an ember of hope shimmering on the horizon, headed right for him. As citizens flock to the bank to cash out insurance policies and take out loans, he realizes he can command the power he craves—and it’s not by following the rules. Here is his reason to live.

When Quake Auchenbaucher, a career con man hired to investigate the cause of the fire, arrives in Spokane Falls, he employs his usual shady tactics. But this time, with Washington Territory vying for statehood, the sudden attention to due process jeopardizes Quake’s methods of manipulation.

And then there’s Roslyn Beck, whose uncanny ability to see the future has long driven her to drink, and with whom both Barton and Quake have fallen madly and dangerously in love. She is known as a “certain kind of woman,” in possession of unique talents and influence, if only she can find the right ways to wield them. As their paths collide, diverge, and collide again, Barton, Quake, and Roslyn come to terms with their own needs for power, greed, and control, leading one to total ruin, one to heartbreak, and one, ultimately, to redemption.

With masterful precision, devious originality, and dark whimsy, Fire Season freshly imagines the greed and misogyny of the American West to tell a rollicking, bewitching story about finding purpose in the face of injustice.

About the author

Leyna Krow is the author of the short story collection I’m Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking, which was a Believer Book Award finalist. She lives in Spokane, Washington, with her husband and two children.

About the friends

Laura Read is the author of But She Is Also Jane, forthcoming from University of Massachusetts Press in 2023, Dresses from the Old Country (BOA, 2018), Instructions for My Mother’s Funeral (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012), and The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You (Floating Bridge Press, 2011). She served as poet laureate for Spokane, Washington from 2015-17 and teaches at Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University.

Kathryn Smith is the author of the poetry collections Self-Portrait with Cephalopod and Book of Exodus, as well as the chapbook Chosen Companions of the Goblin. The recipient of a Spokane Arts Grant Award and an Allied Arts Foundation award, her poems and visual poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in Gettysburg Review, Copper Nickel, Ninth Letter, DIAGRAM, Willow Springs, Fugue, Brink, and elsewhere. She lives in Spokane. 

Ben Cartwright is the author of two books of poetry--After Our Departure (Sage Hill Press) and The Meanest Things Pick Clean (Floating Bridge Press). His fiction has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Crab Creek Review, and Lilac City Fairy Tales.

Tim Greenup is a poet and musician. His poetry collection, Without Warning, was published by Scablands Books and his poems have been featured in LEVELER, Pontoon Poetry, Sixth Finch, Midwestern Gothic, and elsewhere. He has also released a few albums of synthesizer music, most recently The Glob, which you can find online. 

Maya Jewell Zeller is the author of the interdisciplinary collaboration (with visual artist Carrie DeBacker) Alchemy For Cells & Other Beasts (Entre Rios Books, 2017), the chapbook Yesterday, the Bees (Floating Bridge Press, 2015), and the poetry collection Rust Fish (Lost Horse Press, 2011); her prose appears in such places as Brevity, Gettysburg Review, Bellingham Review, and Booth Journal. Recipient of a Promise Award from the Sustainable Arts Foundation as well as a Residency in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Maya has presented her work internationally at the University of Oxford and in Madrid at the Unamuno Author Festival. Maya considers it a great honor to work with students in two programs, both as Associate Professor of English for Central Washington University, and as Affiliate Poetry Faculty for Western Colorado University's low-res MFA; she is also grateful to serve as Poetry Editor for Scablands Books, a boutique press in the Inland Northwest, specializing in strange, smart, innovative writing. Beyond poetry, Maya's other WIP is a memoir, “Raised by Ferns," which is currently seeking a publisher. 

Ellen Welcker is the author of Ram Hands (Scablands Books), The Botanical Garden (Astrophil Press) and four chapbooks, most recently, “The Pink Tablet” (Fact-Simile Editions).  She lives in the Midwest and is online at ellenwelcker.com.

Aileen Keown Vaux is a queer poet, essayist, and career consultant whose chapbook Consolation Prize was published by Scablands Books. Their poems can be found in Faultline Journal, Roanoke Review, NorthwestReview, and Portland Review; they also write and publish interviews with writers at The Rumpus. They live and work in Spokane, WA.