Please join First Light Books in welcoming Alison Lyn Miller back to Texas to celebrate her first book, ROUGH HOUSE.

The event will begin with an author reception from 6–6:30 p.m., followed by a conversation. Tickets include a copy of ROUGH HOUSE and a reserved seat. Unreserved seats are available on a first come, first served basis. Free RSVPs are also encouraged.

About the book

Professional wrestling is both a cultural phenomenon and a multibillion-dollar industry that has launched some of the biggest names in entertainment. But what does it take for a wrestler to break through? In ROUGH HOUSE, journalist Alison Lyn Miller introduces Hunter James, an aspiring star born into a family of wrestlers in Georgia. Hunter lifts, runs, and pounds protein, sculpting himself into a human action figure with the goal of being signed by a major promotion and finishing what his father started. Miller’s immersive, unforgettable account shows us what happens when Hunter enters the bruising world of indie wrestling—where gymnasiums become arenas, trampolines serve as training grounds, and young men fight for glory.

Rich with drama, humor, and heart, ROUGH HOUSE is a ringside seat to a coming-of-age story that reveals the escapism, self-actualization, performance, and violence inherent in one of America’s most dismissed pastimes. Whether you’re a die-hard fan or new to the spectacle, this true story will leave you cheering for more.

About the authors

Alison Lyn Miller grew up in Hartwell, Georgia, and worked as a magazine editor in New York City and Dallas before moving to Athens, Georgia, in 2017. In 2020, she started reporting and writing about independent professional wrestlers around the state and published pieces in Sports Illustrated and Gravy. Her first book, ROUGH HOUSE, set in Georgia’s small-town professional wrestling scene, explores themes of escapism, self-actualization, performance, and violence, and reveals the depth of an often-dismissed American pastime. She has written for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post, and Garden & Gun, among others, and has been awarded residencies at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Science and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is 2021 graduate of the Narrative Nonfiction MFA program at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication.

She will be joined in conversation by J.K. Nickell, the story director for Texas Monthly, where he shepherds the ambitious narratives for which the magazine is renowned. Several of his projects have been honored by the National Magazine Awards, optioned for television and film, and anthologized in various book collections. He has also edited and co-produced several of Texas Monthly’s critically acclaimed, chart-topping podcasts and is an executive producer of Landman. His own writing has won the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award and been honored by The Best American Sports Writing and the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards.