Writers’ Workshop graduate Evan James will read from his new novel Cheer Up Mr. Widdicombe, a comedy of manners about an eccentric family and the absurd happenings that befall them during one frenzied summer at their home in the Pacific Northwest. “What a joy to be with the Widdicombes! As funny and charming as a summer party you never want to end.”— Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less

Evan James’s personal essays and fiction have appeared in The New York Times and Oxford American, among others. He has received fellowships from Yaddo, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Carson McCullers Center, The Elizabeth Kostova Foundation, and the Lambda Literary Writers’ Retreat, where he was a 2017 Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellow. Born in Seattle, he now lives in New York.