Dying

How Best to Avoid Dying Media Kit

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How Best to Avoid Dying See Part of the Book Here!

“If Franz Kafka had lived in central Texas and seen too many midnight movies, he would have been Owen Egerton. This is a divinely weird collection.” — Neal Pollack

Lazarus Dying: the man Jesus raised from the dead is alive and living in New York City. The Fecalist: an author whose best selling work is his latest poop. Christmas: she loves you, you love her, she has a gun in your mouth.

Welcome to the award-winning short fiction of Owen Egerton. Egerton, a rising star in Austin’s growing literary scene, has a gift for vibrant prose and unforgettable characters. Whether exploring the strange world of faith or exposing the absurdities of contemporary bohemia, Egerton’s fiction is dark, funny, and packed with the unexpected. The stories collected in How Best to Avoid Dying thematically complement each other, and as a whole, serve as a poignant, often hilarious, meditation on death. It will appeal to the same smart, urban crowd who loves Neal Pollack now or the Bret Easton Ellis of 20 years ago.

Owen Egerton has lived in Austin since 1991. For the most part, Owen has made his living making people laugh. For years he was the artistic director of Austin’s National Comedy Theatre and Comedysportz troupe. In 2000 he co-founded the Sinus Show at the Alamo Drafthouse, the most popular comedy show in Austin history. Most recently he directed and performed in Plays Well with Others at Zach Scott Theatre.

His first novel, Marshall Hollenzer is Driving, had the film rights optioned by Austin director/producer Jeffery Travis and Burning Myth Productions. Owen has also penned scripts for film, television and stage. He is also a commentator for NPR affiliated stations.

More Praise for How Best to Avoid Dying

Egerton’s story collection is the literary equivalent of chocolate covered oysters or salt ice cream, an unusual combination you’d never dream of but which is unsettlingly delicious. His stories are layered with wit, pathos, zaniness, and theological ruminations, a tiered cake with icing rosettes and vines a la George Saunders and David Foster Wallace. –Alexander Parsons, Leaving Disney Land, In the Shadows of the Sun

Egerton is a writer with a deft touch, who’s unafraid to spend a few nights in the wetter caves of human transgression and return with tales to make you laugh, cry, or wonder what drugs he may be on. –The Austin Chronicle

Owen Egerton excels at the wildly difficult task of creating sad, silly, and strange characters without ever condescending to them or using them as simple tools of comedy. –Stacey Swann, Chief Editor of American Short Fiction

Imagine the artist Escher collaborating on a story with Nathaneal West and you’re getting
close to the world of Owen Egerton. –Paul Williams, Songwriter

How could I forget Egerton? Her work, like her personality, though dark and often muted,
is alarmingly sexy, containing much solid rumination on the orientations of time, space, and even God. A mesmerizing read, this novel is, like Ms. Egerton herself, unforgettable. Read, dear reader! –Dagoberto Gilb, The Magic of Blood, Woodcuts of Women, Gritos

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