books by Alison McGhee

Weird Sad and Silent: a novel

Posted on by alisonmcghee

Welcome to the world, Daisy Jackson! My new novel, Weird Sad and Silent, is available everywhere as of today, May 6. The idea for this novel came to me in a rush one day when a girl appeared in my mind and said, “To begin, my name is Daisy Jackson.” That became the first line of the novel. I sat down and began writing and then just kept on writing until Daisy had told me her whole story.

A couple things about Daisy: when stressed, she counts on her fingertips, under the table or behind her back, up to 111 and back down again, so lightly that no one will see. But one day, when she thinks she’s alone, she starts counting out loud, and the bullies notice and start calling her Weird Sad and Silent. After that awful day, Daisy learns how to invisibilize herself.

She’s seen and loved by a few people, though: her neighbor Lulu, who stays with her while her mama Flora works the overnight shift at Glorious Cleaning. The school librarian Marimba, whose library is always a place of refuge. Captain the custodian, who calls everyone by their first and last names and who’s always there to open the door for Daisy so she can slip into school early. Not to mention Rumble Paws, the feral cat who lurks around her apartment building. He’s scrawny and wary, most of one ear is missing, and he too knows how to invisibilize himself.

But one day a new kid shows up at school, Austin Roseau. He notices Daisy right away, no matter how invisibilized she thinks she is. And everything starts to change. This book is for the weird sad silent kids everywhere who, like Daisy and Austin, are actually funny and lovable and full of curiosity. It’s also for all the other kids and no-longer-kids who grew up like most of us did, witnessing bullying and hating it, and who ever since have sought to make the world a kinder, funnier, loving place.

Starred review from Kirkus: “A beautiful story of unvarnished honesty and tender hope—this courageous protagonist will capture every heart.”

Click here to order your own copy.

Minnesotans! Come to my book party! 
I rarely do book events and I would love to see you at the book party for my brand-new novel, Weird Sad and Silent, in the world as of today. Please come to the launch party at Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul on Tuesday, May 27, at 6 pm. I’ll read a little, we’ll talk, we’ll celebrate, and there might even be some tiny gifts for you. Click here for all the details. 

WEIRD SAD AND SILENT (book giveaway!)

Posted on by alisonmcghee

Friends, please meet my girl Daisy Jackson. See that look in her eyes? This girl has some questions, and she’s also got opinions, not that she’s about to share them with you. Daisy is ten years old and highly skilled in the art of invisibilizing, a skill she honed two years ago, when the school bullies nicknamed her Weird Sad and Silent.

Daisy sits in the back of the classroom, she doesn’t raise her hand, and she doesn’t eat lunch in the cafeteria. In fact, Daisy talks mostly to the adults in her life: her mama Flora, her neighbor Lulu, Marimba the school librarian, and Captain the school custodian.

That’s until a new kid, Austin, shows up one day. There’s something about Austin, something Daisy can’t explain, something that makes him feel like…a kindred spirit. Daisy might be your kindred spirit too. WEIRD SAD AND SILENT, on bookshelves everywhere May 6. 

GIVEAWAY: Is there a kindred spirit in your life? Someone who just gets you and always has? Tell me about them in an email or the comments, and I’ll enter you in this week’s drawing for a signed copy of the novel.

WEIRD SAD AND SILENT, on bookshelves everywhere May 6. 

Year-long FICTION Writing Workshop on Zoom

Posted on by alisonmcghee

Dear friends,

I’m happy to be teaching a year-long fiction writing workshop on Zoom, Tuesday evenings beginning June 4, via the wonderful Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. The workshop is open to anyone anywhere in the world with an interest in writing fiction of any kind. If the workshop sounds like a good fit for you, I’d love to see you there.

We’ll be diving into fiction in all its glorious forms throughout the year. What are you drawn to? What are you interested in writing? Short stories, flash fiction, sudden fiction, novels for adults, novels for children, less-definable fiction forms and structures: we are open to all of it. I’ve always loved to experiment in my fiction writing and you should feel free to do the same.

The advantages of a multi-genre fiction workshop are many: reading and thinking deeply about fiction in a genre adjacent but unfamiliar to your own work can expand our creativity and positively influence our own writing. Throughout the year, you may be drawn to and want to experiment with various forms of fiction, and we welcome that as well. If you want to draft an entire book in the course of the year, you’ll be able to. If you want to play around and see where your inner spark takes you, you can do that too. No matter your focus, this will be an exhilarating, intensive, fun year together.

The first of two info sessions is tomorrow, Wednesday, May 1, from 4-5:30 Central time. Here’s the link if you’d like to sign up. OR, feel free just to email me with any questions.

Note that our workshop is strictly limited to twelve and will most likely be smaller. We’ll meet for thirty three-hour meetings and six shorter individual consultations, so you’ll receive lots of individual attention. The workshop is pricey, but the Loft does offer one almost-full scholarship. I’ve been teaching creative writing my entire life —it’s a vocation second only to writing to me—and my only goal as a teacher is to be useful to you and nurture your inherent creative spark. Click here for lots more information, and feel free to email me with any questions.