Claude McKay Love isn’t sure what he’s doing in Columbia, Missouri. The protagonist of Gabriel Bump’s gut-punch of a debut novel, Everywhere You Don’t Belong, Claude knows nothing of Missouri. His world revolves around Chicago’s South Side — specifica…
Story Support
You’re a writer in Columbia. You’re still waiting on that six-figure advance, but you’ve been writing, so that makes you a writer, right? Yet no matter your experience level, chances are you’re doing the bulk of this writing at a desk in the corner, a…
Phong Nguyen’s Roundabout
You might not notice at first. But screw up your vision, then peer a little closer at the cover of Phong Nguyen’s new novel, Roundabout. You’ll see it: The letter “e” in his last name is a faint, hazy gray, just a few shades darker than the white font…
Nothing More Dangerous
In 1963, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. finished the final sermons that would become Strength to Love, a literary masterpiece in its own right, but also the first book of sermons by an African-American preacher to be widely distributed to a white…
The Immortal Force
Stephen Paul Sayers became a bestselling author on the dare of a teenager — specifically, the prodding of his own daughter. An associate professor of physical therapy in the School of Health Professions at MU, Sayers didn’t seem a natural candidate fo…
