An Afternoon with Willie Davis and Lisa Jensen

bout the Books:

Honeysuckle Season: Unfolding over a single day, Honeysuckle Season tells the story of a circus van travelling through Hazard, Kentucky careens off the road, smashing into a line of parked cars, killing a local basketball star. In Honeysuckle Season, twelve different narrators offer their take on that event and its aftermath, each story complimenting, deepening, and undermining the stories that came before.

All is Well: Emma Madsen is on the run. She is on the run and off the map. For seventeen years, she has almost squeezed herself onto the straight and narrow path charted by the Mormon Church and her own devout parents. But she's tired of rules, boxes, and rigid lines-the things her black-and-white-thinking father, Graham, seems to value most. Emma craves freedom. Graham craves control. When he puts his foot down on yet another detail of her life, Emma decides she's done complying. She speeds for the swiftest offramp, a sin so egregious that surely no one will try to coax her back to the fold. To her dismay, a positive pregnancy test quickly follows.

Emma can think of only one adult who might be willing and able to offer help: her estranged, free-spirited, never-Mormon grandmother. Belly fluttering with uncertainty, Emma heads for the high desert of southern Utah to find her. This exodus sends out sparks, igniting Emma's family and lighting fires no one imagined.

All Is Well follows Emma on her quest to carve out a life of her own, and it trips along behind her family and friends in their attempts to either rescue or thwart her. It is a celebration of imperfect love and a romping exploration of the ways we lose and find ourselves-all set against red rocks, craggy peaks, and the peculiar landscape of Mormon culture.

About the Authors:

Willie Davis's writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Kenyon Review, Salon, SorySouth, and The Berkeley Fiction Review amongst other places. He is the winner of The Willesden Herald Review (judged by Zadie Smith) and the Katherine Ann Porter Prize (judged by Amy Hempel). He teaches English, Journalism, and Creative Writing at Kentucky State University. He is the author of the novel NIGHTWOLF and the short story collection I CAN OUTDANCE JESUS.

Lisa Jensen is a novelist, poet, forest therapy guide, and single mom of three. Her debut novel, "All Is Well," was published in 2025. She writes most of her poems while roaming the woods and fields of the farm where she lives just outside of Nicholasville, KY.

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Host or Publisher Susan Norton