Join us on March 20th at 7PM to celebrate the release of Callie Collins' debut novel, WALK SOFLY ON THIS HEART OF MINE. Against the vibrant, bluesy backdrop of 1970s Austin, Texas, this  book follows the collision between hicks and hipsters that ultimately results in tragedy.

Tickets for this event include a copy of WALK SOFTLY ON THIS HEART OF MINE and a reserved seat. Free RSVPs are also available, and all unreserved seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, with additional standing room space available to all.

About the book

Austin, Texas is a town in the throes of social upheaval and the Rush Creek Saloon, five miles on its outskirts, is a bar without a crowd. Until a strange new house band transforms it from moribund honky-tonk to thriving blues bar. But are the throngs of people and the rowdy music worth the chaos that comes with them?

Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine is told through three perspectives, each of whom is in some ways responsible for the rebirth of Rush Creek and for the violence that follows in the afterbirth. Doug Moser, a country-and-blues guitarist from San Antonio, is seizing his long-awaited chance at fame but cannot turn away from the easy booze and drugs that come with the life. Deanna Teague owns Rush Creek. Her marriage is rocky and so is her sense of herself, but she sees a crack of light if she can just hold it all together. And Steven Francis is a boy who loves too fiercely. He grapples with his sexuality, his God, and his place in a town where he badly wants to belong.

About the author

CALLIE COLLINS is a queer writer and editor from Texas. She has an MFA from the University of Michigan, where she was also a 2018-2019 Zell Postgraduate Fellow. She held a Fiction Fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts from 2019-2020. She lives in Austin.

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