Author, screenwriter and journalist Stephen Markley will discuss his highly-lauded debut novel, Ohio, set in an archetypal small town in northeastern Ohio—a region ravaged by the Great Recession, an opioid crisis, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. NPR called Ohio “intricately constructed, with gorgeous, fiery writing that pulls the reader in and never lets go” and Salon called it “important and ambitious…this year’s Hillbilly Elegy of fiction.” Ohio was named a Best Books of Summer 2018 Selection by Vulture, TIME, New York Post and The Millions.

Markley, who grew up in Mount Vernon, Ohio, now lives in Los Angeles. He received training at the famed Iowa Writers Workshop and is an author, screenwriter, and journalist.