News related to Megan Kruse

Author of Call Me Home

AN INTERVIEW WITH MEGAN KRUSE IN ENTROPY

20 Oct 2016|

“WRITING THE WORLD WE WANT TO LIVE IN”: AN INTERVIEW WITH MEGAN KRUSE written by Shannon Perri


This past spring I came across Megan Kruse’s novel, Call Me Home (published last year by Hawthorne Books). I read its description online and thought it might be something I’d like, something to give me inspiration for my own writing attempts about family and place. It turns out, I was quite right, though I couldn’t have predicted the degree to which this book would come to affect me....Forward

Megan Kruse discusses her novel, Call Me Home, at the 2016 AWP Conference & Book Fair with Rich Fahle

07 Apr 2016|

Megan Kruse and Rich Fahle talk about the generosity of Elizabeth Gilbert, queer identity, the Pacific Northwest, family dynamics, writing fiction, and so much more. Watch the full episode at OPB.

“6 book trends for 2016: Look into the future,” by Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times

08 Jan 2016|

Independent presses bring the vanguard

When the National Book Awards’ young writers prize, 5 under 35, was announced, it was clear where the best young fiction came from in 2015: the margins. For the first time in its 10-year history, three of the five honorees were published by independent presses: the Dorothy Project, Ig Publishing, and Hawthorne Books. With smaller print runs and often an intimate relationship with readers, these smaller houses are able to take bigger risks than their...Forward

Congratulations, Megan Kruse, 2016 PNBA Book Award Winner for Call Me Home!

08 Jan 2016|

“In this beautifully written, haunting family drama, Kruse explores themes of abuse, fear, love, longing and home. An absolutely gripping read from an amazing debut author also recognized as a 2015 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree.” To see the entire list go to Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association.

A Year In Queer Reading: Garth Greenwell’s Favorite LGBT Books of 2015

28 Dec 2015|

“I was amazed by Megan Kruse’s stunning, heartbreaking Call Me Home, which I bought after hearing her read as one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 honorees in November. In telling the story of a family that is blown apart and finds its way to a life together again, Kruse meditates movingly on injury, forgiveness, and ferocious love. It’s a gorgeous book.”

To see Garth Greenwell’s entire list, go to Towleroad.

Best of 2015: 100 recommended books, San Francisco Chronicle

15 Dec 2015|

Congratulations Megan Kruse! San Francisco Chronicle’s Best of 2015: 100 recommended books. Call Me Home, by Megan Kruse (Hawthorne Books; 280 pages; $18.95). Kruse’s first novel startles in its capacity for complexity, showing not only the tempestuous nature of family love, but also the near-impossible task of breaking free of it.

We are thrilled to announce that Megan Kruse’s Call Me Home has won the 2015 Rainbow Award for Gay Contemporary Fiction!

08 Dec 2015|

Congratulations Megan!

This year’s Rainbow Awards raised over 17K for LGBT charities. From Megan Kruse: “Thank you to Elisa Rainbow for all of the hard work & the great news, and congratulations to all of the nominees & winners. Here’s to you all—and to the thriving future of queer lit.”

Megan Kruse on a roll! Congratulations on making the PNBA’s 2016 Book Awards Shortlist!

19 Nov 2015|

PNBA offers our sincere congratulations to the authors of these shortlist books, and we encourage our member stores to give these books the extra attention they so deserve.

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) is a nonprofit association of independent bookstores from five Northwest states—Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. The Association produces educational and promotional events and materials for its members and offers literacy, free speech and author...Forward

Megan Kruse, author of Call Me Home, at the National Book Foundation 5 Under 35‬ Awards Ceremony hosted by Levar Burton at powerHouse Books

17 Nov 2015|

Megan Kruse and Levar Burton

The 5 Under 35 program, now in its tenth year, honors five young fiction writers selected by past National Book Award Winners and Finalists, or previous 5 Under 35 Honorees. Since 2006, the program has introduced the next generation of writers, including Téa Obreht, Karen Russell, and Justin Torres. Supported by a generous donation from Amazon Literary Partnerships, the Foundation offers the 5 Under 35 authors a cash award of $1,000 each. Additionally, each...Forward

Call Me Home by Megan Kruse included in 14 Must-Read Novels by Lesbian and Bisexual Women Published This Year

11 Nov 2015|

Call Me Home follows a family whose experiences in rural Texas and Idaho are dictated by something as simple and complex as love. Told from three different perspectives (a mother, a gay son, and his sister), the lesbian author’s tale of guilt, reasoning, and reckoning is equally heart-wrenching and engrossing.

What a list! Also includes: Lidia Yuknavitch, Jeanette Winterson, Miranda July and other greats! To see entire article, go to After Ellen.

“Megan Kruse’s Library: A Fortress of Books,” featured in The Quivering Pen, by David Abrams

05 Nov 2015|

Since my novel Call Me Home came out, I’ll admit things have gotten a bit out of hand. I toured in bookstores, first of all, and then I’ve been meeting a lot of incredible writers, whose books I want to collect and read. Most of all, though, I’ve eased up on myself—for a while, I would try to keep myself contained to novels, to literary fiction that would help me in my writing. Now, though, I’ve given myself this gift of lavishness, of reading things I’d never considered before....Forward

Congratulations to Megan Kruse who is included in the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35!

30 Sep 2015|

Here Are The 2015 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honorees
A BuzzFeed Books exclusive announcement of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Honorees of 2015… as baseball cards.

To see the entire post, go to BuzzFeed.

The Rumpus Interview with Megan Kruse, by Carter Sickels

21 Aug 2015|

A few months after meeting Megan Kruse for the first time at AWP in Seattle, I was on an airplane, 30,000 feet in the air, with her manuscript pages stacked on my tray table. Riveted, I didn’t stop reading until we landed. Call Me Home, Megan Kruse’s stunning debut novel, tells the story of three family members broken by violence and searching to find a home in the landscapes that surround them and within each other. It’s a haunting, beautiful novel about loneliness, love, and survival....Forward

Megan Kruse on violence, craft, and the meaning of home with Chérie Newman on The Write Question for Montana Public Radio

01 May 2015|

Megan Kruse talks about and reads from her debut novel, Call Me Home. To listen to the podcast go to Montana Public Radio.

Late Night Library Interview of Megan Kruse, author of Call Me Home, by Emily Choate

20 Apr 2015|

EMILY CHOATE: Jackson’s story feels like the emotional center of the book in many ways, detailing his perilous coming of age as a gay man in the rural Northwest. How did Jackson’s character first begin to evolve?


MEGAN KRUSE: Jackson was the beginning of this book, for me, and he is in many ways a reflection of myself. I wanted to tell a queer story, but one that I recognized—one that took place outside of the urban areas where most queer narratives take place. To grow up queer in a...Forward

The Driving Force of Desire: Memories of a trip to Greece and the power of unattained dreams, by Megan Kruse for Psychology Today

27 Mar 2015|

A man named Yiannakis collected me from beneath the windmill three hours late and drove me through sheets of rain to a boarded-up hotel. The bottom two floors were flooded with stagnant, fetid water. With a careful scaling motion you could splash your way up the stairs to a room—my room—on the top floor. I sat down at the little hotel table; from the window I could see the neighboring property, a tiny goat farm. Ten or twelve goats hid from the rain beneath a pile of scrap wood, hooves stuck in...Forward

Call Me Home, by Megan Kruse By Rachel Hurn for the San Francisco Chronicle

26 Mar 2015|

Megan Kruse’s first novel startles in its capacity for complexity, showing not only the tempestuous nature of family love, but also the near-impossible task of breaking free of it. No matter how many times Amy tries to leave — “pack your things” is the cue her children learn to listen for — it seems the one thing her husband is able to do is keep them there. He is a force, and each time they flee, he finds them, pulling them back to their rural Washington home: “the same feeling of...Forward

4 Small Press Books to Read in March BY SUSIE RODARME

19 Mar 2015|

I love Hawthorne Books, and Call Me Home looks to be a great addition to their catalog. The stormy sky on the cover of Call Me Home foretells the relations between the family members within. A young woman, Amy, leaves home at nineteen to start a life with a man who turns out to be a mistake; by the time she finally tries to rectify the situation, she has two kids and can’t seem to outrun her husband. Meanwhile, her son wants to explore a life outside of the one he has at home—a life made more...Forward

Megan Kruse: KBOO Between the Covers

11 Mar 2015|

KBOO’s Between the Covers host Leigh Anne Kranz interviews Megan Kruse about her debut novel Call Me Home. Tune in live on Thursday, March 12th from 11-11:30am online at kboo.fm or on the radio at 90.7FM Portland, 91.9FM Hood River or 104.3FM Corvallis. The podcast will be posted a few hours after the interview airs at kboo.fm/megankrusecallmehome.

Megan Kruse: Street Roots

11 Mar 2015|

There is no way to quantify how much it’s worth to be from somewhere; you have to look at the experiences. The same with thinking about those novels that I wrote before … I used to think they were so terrible. But then being able to embrace from whence you came and realize that you can’t definitively name those things as good and bad and you can’t ever leave behind the places that you are from or the things that have shaped you into who you are.

To read the entire interview, go to ...Forward

Megan Kruse: Shelf Awareness

10 Mar 2015|

In her debut novel, Call Me Home, Megan Kruse undertakes sprawling topics including guilt, sex, domestic violence and the complicated love of siblings, parents, children and lovers. These ambitious themes and clearly wrought characters are gorgeously rendered in feeling prose…Call Me Home offers lovely descriptions of natural settings in Washington, Idaho and Texas, but central are the powerful themes and ugly realities of domestic violence, Jackson’s challenges as a gay teen, and the shared...Forward

Megan Kruse: Lambda Literary Review

10 Mar 2015|

Call Me Home, packs quiet power. Told in three voices of a shattered family, the book moves back and forth in time to trace the story of the Hollands—thirteen-year-old Lydia, her older brother Jackson, and their mom, Amy, who has long been the victim of her abusive husband, Gary…Kruse’s skillful language and unusual story construction make for an intriguing meditation on safety, survival, love, and the bonds of blood.

To read the entire review, go to Lambda Literary.

Megan Kruse: The TNB Self-Interview

05 Mar 2015|

One of the biggest criticisms about your work is that it is gruelingly, at times overwhelmingly, dark. Why so sad?

When I first told people that Call Me Home was slated to be published, friends and acquaintances kept asking me, “Is it funny?”

“No,” I would say. “Not even a little bit. Not even for a second.”

This makes me laugh, but it’s true. I think I can be decently funny in person, on a good day, and I respect (and am fairly jealous of) anyone who can be funny on the page,...Forward

Guest Blogger Megan Kruse, “Being John: On Sorrow, Writing, and Transmigration,” for Powell’s Books

04 Mar 2015|

I don’t remember how I stopped believing that I was John Lennon. Only that the conviction slipped away… Maybe it’s a stretch, to try to fasten an adolescent delusion to the bigger question of why writing sustains us. I imagine that everyone finds their own ways to face loss and bear up a broken heart. Still, I know that is what writing has given to me — new chances. The ability to rewrite, escape, and begin to understand.

To read the entire blog, go to Powell’s Books.

Excerpt of Call Me Home, by Megan Kruse for The Nervous Breakdown

04 Mar 2015|

Jackson

Silver, Idaho 2010

The belated Easter party was to be held that Saturday night at A-frame A, the most complete of the new houses. Just a few beers, and then the Longhorn, according to the much-circulated plan.  Who had an Easter party? Jackson didn’t care. He was going to see Don. He hadn’t seen him since Honey brought him to the East side on Tuesday; each day that Don’s truck didn’t appear, Jackson tried to pretend he wasn’t disappointed. Now he shaved in the pocket mirror,...Forward

“In Defense of the Flibbertigibbet: The Quest,” by Megan Kruse for Writer’s Digest

04 Mar 2015|

I was eighteen when I met my friend Katie at a summer camp in Washington. I must have been doing some work then, but even now it seems that my main occupation was trying to romance the other counselors, to grow friends and loves like wildflowers around me. The day we met, I was swimming in the muddy lake while Katie read on the dock.

I surfaced beside her. “Who do you love?” I asked her.

“Pardon?” she asked.

“Who do you love?” I repeated. “Like in your life? Do you believe in...Forward

“Megan Kruse’s Call Me Home: Family confronts a violent past,” by Wingate Packard for The Seattle Times

27 Feb 2015|

What is home, and where is your life supposed to be, if where you are is a place of pain and fear? These are questions that arise in “Call Me Home” (Hawthorne Books, 280 pp., $18.95), Seattle author Megan Kruse’s impressively forceful debut novel.

It is no small feat for Kruse to handle memory and reflection in each of her characters’ lives in different ways.
Kruse’s prose is vivid, precise and promising.

The violence in the subtly efficient language with which Kruse captures the...Forward

Megan Kruse guest on Carl in the Morning’s Get Lit on XRAY FM

26 Feb 2015|

Megan Kruse talks about her debut novel, Call Me Home with Carl Wolfson in his studio this morning for the Get Lit segment on XRAYFM.

You can listen to this show and download others at Carl in the Morning.

Booklist review of Megan Kruse’s Call Me Home

24 Feb 2015|

“This debut novel tells the story of an abusive marriage and its aftermath from the points of view of the wife, Amy, and her two teenage children, Lydia and Jackson. After Jackson, who is gay, betrays his mother and sister for reasons that are never made clear, he leaves for Portland, where he first prostitutes himself and then lands a construction job in Idaho, where he begins a doomed relationship with his handsome boss, who is married…the art Kruse brings to her endeavor will carry the...Forward

An Interview with Megan Kruse by Jenny Forrester for Literary Kitchen

17 Feb 2015|

Jenny ForresterWhat do you think you learned about your own philosophy of love when you were writing Call Me Home? Did the act of writing this story clarify your notions of human love?

Megan KruseI have always resisted dichotomies of good/bad, right/wrong, and I think that this novel was a chance for me to look closely at that. Sometimes the things that give us the most power and joy in our lives seem shameful, or the morally “right” answer is not the answer that makes the most sense to...Forward

5 Under 35 Winner: National Book Foundation
2015 Rainbow Award: Gay Contemporary Fiction
Best Books of 2015: San Francisco Chronicle
A Year In Queer Reading: Garth Greenwell’s Favorite LGBT Books of 2015
2016 Book Award Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association

“A powerful debut novel told with ferocity and grace.” STARRED REVIEW, Publishers Weekly
“Megan Kruse’s first novel startles in its capacity for complexity, showing not only the tempestuous nature of family love, but also the...Forward