Virginia Literary Award winner and UMW Assistant Professor of English Jon Pineda will debut his new novel Let’s No One Get Hurt on the Fredericksburg campus Tuesday, March 20. The 6 p.m. event, held at Ridderhof Martin Gallery, is the first leg of a book tour that stretches throughout the commonwealth. Appearances also are scheduled for North Carolina, New York, South Carolina, Wyoming and Amsterdam.
A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl living on the fringe in the Deep South with her father, Pineda’s sixth novel already has garnered praise from such publications as The Millions and PopSugar, which named it a 2018 “most anticipated book.” It received a starred review in Booklist and was included in “Page One/Noteworthy Books” in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers.
“I wanted to write about race and class, especially economic equality,” said Pineda, who teaches creative writing and poetry at UMW. At the book talk, he will discuss, read excerpts and sign copies of the new novel, which also will be available for sale.
Recipient of the 2016 Library of Virginia Literary Award for Poetry, Pineda has received multiple awards for his novels and poetry. His novel Apology won the 2013 Milkweed National Fiction Prize and received a “starred review” from Library Journal. His memoir Sleep In Me was a 2010 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and was named among the Best Books of 2010 by Library Journal and is currently being translated into Chinese. His poetry collections include Little Anodynes, a Palmetto Poetry Series selection; The Translator’s Diary, winner of the 2007 Green Rose Prize in Poetry from New Issues; and Birthmark, winner of the 2003 Crab Orchard Award Series in Poetry Open Competition.
In addition, Pineda is the recipient of a Virginia Commission for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship and has twice served on faculty for the Kundiman Asian American Poets’ Retreat, held at Fordham University. His work has been featured in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Language for a New Century and Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation, and as part of the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day program.
The book talk is sponsored by UMW’s Department of English, Linguistics and Communication, and the Department of Art and Art History.
