DAVID JAMES DUNCAN'S NEW NOVEL SUN HOUSE
MISSOULA, MT - June 7, 2023 – In what promises to be an extraordinary evening of story, song and conversation, Montana Public Radio will celebrate the publication of award-winning author and Missoula resident David James Duncan's powerful new novel, Sun House, Friday, August 11 at 7pm at The Wilma. MPR's Lauren Kern (host of “The Write Question”) and Justin Angle (“A New Angle”) will preside over the festivities. Special musical guest is American singer-songwriter Jeffrey Foucault.
By all measures, the rollout of Sun House is a major publishing event with reviews and interviews already slotted in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.
Sixteen years in the making, Sun House is an epic comedy about love, spirit, and the quest for transcendence in an anything-but-transcendent America. In it, Duncan continues exploring the American search for meaning and love that he began in his acclaimed novels The River Why and The Brothers K. Set amid the gorgeous landscapes of the American West, the stunning new novel illuminates the contemporary world through the prisms of Eastern wisdom, cast-off ecstatic religious ideals, and the unpredictable, expansive yearnings of the human heart.
The MPR gala will be presented in two segments, the first being an interview with Duncan conducted by Korn and Angle and taped for later airing. In the second part of the program, Duncan's long-time friend, singer-songwriter Jeffrey Foucault, will join him on stage where Duncan will read passages from Sun House that Foucault will “illustrate” with music he'll improvise for the occasion.
“David’s writing has helped so many of us make sense of this world’s beautiful and confounding complexity,” says Angle. “We are all so excited to dig into Sun House and re-immerse ourselves in David’s singular sensibility.”
Korn adds, “We all pine for the opportunity to be in conversation with our favorite authors; I just happen to be in the enviable position of being able to disguise my fangirl enthusiasm for David's lyrical (and often humorous) study of humanity as part of my job description.”
Local bookseller Fact & Fiction will be selling pre-autographed copies of Sun House in The Wilma lobby.
Sun House will be released nationwide on August 8 through Little, Brown & Company.
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About David James Duncan:
David James Duncan is the author of the classic novels The River Why and The Brothers K, the story collection River Teeth, the nonfiction collection and National Book Award finalist, My Story as Told by Water, the best-selling collection of “churchless sermons," God Laughs & Plays, and, this August 8th, the novel legendary editor Michael Pietsch “will immodestly call David’s magnum opus” and writer William deBuys calls “one of the greatest imaginative achievements I’ve encountered in a lifetime of reading," Sun House.
David’s work has won three Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards, two Pushcart Prizes, a Lannan Fellowship, the Western States Book Award, inclusion in Best American Sports Writing, Best American Catholic Writing, two volumes of Best American Essays, five volumes of Best American Spiritual Writing, an honorary doctorate from University of Portland, the American Library Association's 2004 Award for the Preservation of Intellectual Freedom (with co-author Wendell Berry), and other honors. David lives on a charming little trout stream in Missoula, Montana, in accord with his late friend Jim Harrison’s advice to finish his life disguised as a creek. davidjamesduncan.com
About Jeffrey Foucault:
In two decades on the road Jeffrey Foucault has become one of the most distinctive voices in American music, refining a sound instantly recognizable for its simplicity and emotional power, a decidedly Midwestern amalgam of blues, country, rock’n’roll, and folk. He’s built a brick-and-mortar international touring career on multiple studio albums, countless miles, and general critical acclaim, being lauded for “Stark, literate songs that are as wide open as the landscape of his native Midwest” (The New Yorker), and described as “Quietly brilliant” (The Irish Times), while catching the ear of everyone from Van Dyke Parks to Greil Marcus, to Don Henley, who regularly covers Foucault in his live set. jeffreyfoucault.com
About Montana Public Radio:
With Handpicked Music and News You Can Trust, Montana Public Radio is a public service of the University of Montana and broadcasts on 89.1 Missoula (KUFM), 91.5 Missoula (K218AI), 91.9 Hamilton (KUFN), 89.5 Polson (KPJH), 90.1 Kalispell, Whitefish, North Valley (KUKL), 90.5 Libby (KUFL), 91.7 Kalispell (K219BN), 101.3 Swan Lake (K267BJ), 91.3 Butte (KAPC), 91.7 Helena (KUHM), 90.9 and 91.7 Dillon (KDWG and KUMW), 88.1 Thompson Falls (KTFZ), 89.7 Eureka (KEUK), and 89.9 Great Falls (KGPR). Learn more at mtpr.org
Contact information:
For David James Duncan:
Erin Morris Huttlinger / Morris Public Relations / 615.419.9988 / erin@morrispr.biz
For Montana Public Radio:
Lauren Korn laurroko@gmail.com 406.243.4518 and Justin Angle justin@angleman.net 206.650.5522