Multi-genre writer Nick Flynn will wrap up the Elk River Arts & Lectures Fall 2022 Lecture Series with a discussion of his most recent book, This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire (2020).
Nick Flynn is a writer, playwright and poet. He has published twelve books, most recently This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire (2020), a hybrid memoir; and Stay: Threads, Collaborations, and Conversations (2020), which documents twenty-five years of his collaborations with artists, filmmakers and composers. He is also the author of five collections of poetry, including I Will Destroy You (2019). He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress, and is on the creative writing faculty at the University of Houston. His acclaimed memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (2004), was made into a film starring Robert DeNiro, and has been translated into fifteen languages.
When Nick Flynn was a child, his mother set fire to their home. With the spare lyricism and dark irony of his classic, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, Flynn excavates the wobbly terrain of his early life. Now a parent himself, he discovers that he too may be burning his house down. He returns with his young daughter to the landscape of his youth, reflecting on how his “feral childhood” has him still in its reins. This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire confronts Flynn’s struggle and his failings with fierce candor. His marriage in crisis, Flynn seeks answers from his therapist, who tells him: “You have the ethics of a drowning man.” Alternating literary analysis and philosophy with intimate memoir and the bedtime stories he tells his daughter, Flynn probes his deepest ethical dilemmas.
Kirkus called This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire, published by W. W. Norton, “A remarkable and daring work” and Publishers Weekly described it as “outstanding.”
Andre Dubus III wrote, “This Is The Night Our House Will Catch Fire is one of those rare books that you will press into the hands of those you love, those whom you never want to lose. It is a stunning achievement.”
Flynn’s visit is made possible by the generous support of Humanities Montana and the Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation, as well as individual donors. During his visit, Flynn will meet with students at Park High School. The free public event will include a book signing and reception.
