David Payne Reads Latest at KWG Program

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Aug. 19, 2015 - PRLog -- New York Times Notable author David Payne will read from his newly released memoir, "Barefoot to Avalon" (Atlantic 2015), at the Thursday, Sept. 3 program of the Knoxville Writers' Guild.

The event, which will be open to the public, will begin at 7 p.m. at the Laurel Theater, at the corner of Laurel Avenue and 16th Streets (in Fort Sanders). A $2 donation is requested at the door. The building is handicapped accessible. Additional parking is available at Redeemer Church of Knoxville, 1642 Highland Ave.

"Barefoot to Avalon" is the candid story of Payne's relationship with his brother, who died unexpectedly 15 years ago.

"In 1973, when I was a freshman at (University of North Carolina), my first-ever creative writing professor gave our class an assignment I’ve been giving students ever since: Write a letter that says the thing you most need to say and could never say to the person you most need to say and could never say it to," Payne said.

"Eight years in the writing, 'Barefoot to Avalon' is my letter to my younger brother, George A. Payne, who was bipolar and died in a traffic accident in 2000 while helping me move house. In convoy, driving ahead of him in a 26-foot U-Haul truck, I watched in the sideview mirror as my brother jackknifed the trailer he was hauling with my SUV and overturned."

In addition to "Barefoot to Avalon," Payne, called "the most gifted American novelist of his generation" by "The Dallas Morning News," is the author of five novels. His first novel, "Confessions of a Taoist on Wall Street," published in 1984, received the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award, became a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and was translated into several European languages. He is a founding faculty member in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Queens University of Charlotte.

For more information, visit www.davidpaynebooks.com. Copies of "Barefoot to Avalon" will be available for purchase at the program. For more information about KWG and its events, visit www.KnoxvilleWritersGuild.org.