Events & Press
Events
Past Events
The W2W Book Tour included nearly 40 readings and events. Many thanks to all the bookstores and libraries and to everyone who came out along the way.
2011
April 16 - Springwater Grange, Estcada, OR
May 4 - Blackbird Wine Shop, Portland, OR
May 20 - WORD, Brooklyn, NY
May 22 - KGB Bar, New York, NY
May 24 - Book Expo (signing), New York, NY
June 16 - Third Street Books, McMinnville, OR
June 21 - Elliott Bay Bookstore, Seattle, WA
June 22 - Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, WA
June 23 - Village Books, Bellingham, WA
June 30 - Powell's Books, Portland, OR
July 10 - Tin House Writer's Conference, Portland, OR
July 12 - Tin House Writer's Conference, Portland, OR
July 13 - McLean & Eakin, Petoskey, MI
July 14 - Horizon Books, Traverse City, MI
July 15 - The Book Store (signing), Frankfort, MI
July 15 - Brilliant Books, Suttons Bay, MI (Canceled)
July 19 - Schuler Books, Okemos, MI
July 20 - Jackson District Library, Jackson, MI
July 21 - Nicola's Books, Ann Arbor, MI
July 22 - Forever Books, St. Joseph, MI
July 26 - Everybody Reads, Lansing, MI
July 26 - Michigan News Agency, Kalamazoo, MI
Sept. 10 - Canyon Way Bookstore, Newport, OR
Sept. 15 - Annie Bloom's Books, Portland, OR
Oct. 9 - Wordstock Festival, Portland, OR
Oct. 25 - Magers and Quinn, Minneapolis, MN
Nov. 3 - St. Helens Book Shop, St. Helens, OR
Nov. 12 - Cannon Beach Library, Cannon Beach, OR
Nov. 18 - Wy'east Book Shoppe, Welches, OR
2012
April 3 - Animal Farm Reading Series, New York City
April 17 - Lake Oswego Library, Lake Oswego, OR
April 20 - HomeWord Bound 2012 Fundraiser, Tualatin, OR
April 28 - Michigan book awards ceremony, Lansing, MI
April 30 - Shiawassee Library, Owosso, MI
June 6 - Warren Civic Center Library, Warren (Detroit), MI
June 7 - TCH Reynold's Twp. Library, Howard City, MI
June 11 - Curtis Library, Curtis, MI
June 12 - Bayliss Library, Sault Ste. Marie, MI
July 10 - Squaw Valley Writers Workshop, Olympic Valley, CA
Press
Publishers Weekly, Pick of the Week
Sparling's debut is well crafted and thrilling, tying together an obvious love for both Michigan and railroads with an expert sense of timing and plot. The world he has created is both overwhelming and exhilarating, thanks in no small part to a large ensemble of memorable characters and a relentless pace...it's done so well that hopping off this runaway train would never cross a reader's mind.
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Kirkus
A dizzying, speed-laced debut novel from Portland-based writer Sparling...
Technically, it’s a crime novel—there’s violence and sex and things on fire. But it’s obvious that the author is more interested in what’s bouncing around in his hero’s fractured head and spilling it out onto the page than he is in tidy endings...
A strange, formidable novel about crossed signals and damage done, with plenty of peek-between-your-fingers moments for good measure.
Playboy
In this impressive debut, Scott Sparling lends contemporary grunge to the genre as he embraces its trademark obsessions with sex, cash and dead ends. His all-too-human cast of contemporary boxcar drifters, glue sniffers and thugs is drawn in an impressionistic style that makes for stunning emotional depth.
— Playboy, June 2011
The Oregonian
Smart, thrilling and darkly funny...a muscular cross between Jim Thompson and Cormac McCarthy.
— "A thrilling high-wire act of noir, dark humor," June 25, 2011
Booklist
Sparling creates compelling, many-faceted characters and a nuanced portrait of a beautiful and tragic place. His writing is self-assured, suffused with a streetwise insouciance, always edgy, and frequently lyrical, particularly on the pleasures of riding the rails to find some kind of peace or escape.
— Booklist
Quotes:
“Scott Sparling writes like a man on fire, and Wire to Wire is the wickedly brilliant crime novel forged in the white-hot heat of his talent. It's an electrifying debut by a writer who knows the wrong side of town like the back of his hand. People, if there is a God, this book will win prizes.”
—Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff and The Devil All the Time
“In the tradition of the great noir novels, Wire to Wire is really something. Like being in a stolen car with no brakes in a world of train hopping, sex, violence, and drugs. It's all edge from start to finish."
- Willy Vlautin, author of Lean on Pete