Join me for the inaugural edition of Minnesota’s largest literary festival, produced by The Loft Literary Center (and directed by the great Steph Opitz).

My panel is “Laugh So You Don’t Cry: Social Satire as a Survival Mechanism,” at the Western Bank Stage. I’ll be joined by the brilliant Mark Doten.

The official description:

We live in a time that sometimes seems fraught with political strife, environmental crises, and terrorism on all fronts. What can ordinary people do to survive? Stay stricken in disbelief or... imagine the worst possible outcome and laugh about it! Ryan Chapman (Riots I Have Known) balances a laugh-out-loud prison riot with the seriousness of mass incarceration in his debut novel. Mark Doten (Trump Sky Alpha) imagines a modern-day reality of a nuclear war, a destroyed planet, and a cult leader addicted to social media. These two writers will discuss how social satire puts levity into their subjects.