{"id":138226,"date":"2024-04-04T12:12:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T17:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=138226"},"modified":"2024-04-04T12:12:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T17:12:32","slug":"local-author-max-hipp-in-conversation-with-lee-durkee-for-what-doesnt-kill-you-opens-your-heart-tuesday-april-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/local-author-max-hipp-in-conversation-with-lee-durkee-for-what-doesnt-kill-you-opens-your-heart-tuesday-april-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Author Max Hipp in conversation with Lee Durkee for “What Doesn’t Kill You Opens Your Heart” Tuesday, April 9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Join us in welcoming teacher, writer, and musician Max Hipp for his debut collection of stories What Doesn’t Kill You Opens Your Heart<\/em><\/strong>, Tuesday, April 9 at 5:30 pm at Off Square Books<\/strong>. Author and friend Lee Durkee<\/strong> will be in conversation with Hipp for this event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Book<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The characters in Max Hipp\u2019s debut story collection howl with loneliness. They’ve reached the ends of their coping mechanisms and bank accounts and are making terrible life choices and trying to recover in the wake of them. We’ve got folks who can\u2019t let go of the past, folks obsessed with sex and music, lovers stuck in dismal relationships, and clueless romantics who probably need their asses whipped. Heartbreak piles up like car crashes in the fog, and everybody just has to carry on like everything\u2019s fine. These stories keep hitting the funny\/sad notes, and with his scalpel-tip sentences, Hipp marches readers through the wringer, with great compassion for the lost and searching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Max Hipp is a teacher, writer, and musician from Oxford, Mississippi<\/strong>. His work has appeared in, among others, Southern Humanities Review<\/em>, Cheap Pop, SmokeLong Quarterly<\/em>, and Black Warrior Review<\/em>. He teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Mississippi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Praise for What Doesn’t Kill You Opens Your Heart<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

“Max Hipp is the last lost soldier of untenured working-class southern lit. Unapologetically grotesque, delightfully craven, derangedly horny, and unforgivably honest, What Doesn\u2019t Kill You<\/em>\u2026earns a spot on the shelf beside Dickey, Stanford, Portis, and Brown.” \u2014Lee Durkee<\/strong>, author of The Last Taxi Driver <\/em>and Stalking Shakespeare: A Memoir of Madness, Murder, and My Search for the Poet Beneath the Paint<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the story ‘Cliff Burton Rules,’ ‘Loretta wants Marlon, Marlon wants himself, Pam wants me, and I want world domination,’ but for most of the narrators in Hipp\u2019s debut collection, their aspirations are much more modest. Hounded by lost jobs, left-behind women and children, and tragedies they can and can\u2019t name, they wear the scars on their bodies and in their hearts. A phenomenal collection about real people told with great sharpness and sorrow.” \u2014Mary Miller<\/strong>, author of Biloxi<\/em>, Always Happy Hour<\/em>, and The Last Days of California<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“After reading What Doesn\u2019t Kill You Opens Your Heart<\/em>, I can honestly say that of the many authors in Oxford, Mississippi, native Max Hipp is one of the very best, and that\u2019s saying something. Although his writing is wholly his own, Hipp\u2019s simple but extraordinary stories bring to mind those of our gone but iconic writers Barry Hannah and Larry Brown\u2014Barry\u2019s hilarious humor, brilliant jinking with language and twisted action, and Larry\u2019s deeply perceived sense of a place, its characters and their hearts. This is a book that for me inspired one of the greatest possible responses to reading it: I can\u2019t wait to read what the hell this guy comes up with next.” \u2014Lisa Howorth<\/strong>, author of Flying Shoes<\/em> and Summerlings<\/em>, and co-owner of Square Books<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“With wonder and awe! That\u2019s how I read these terrific stories by Max Hipp.” \u2014Tom Franklin<\/strong>, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter<\/em>, Smonk<\/em>, and Hell at the Breech<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Max Hipp\u2019s What Doesn\u2019t Kill You\u2026 presents an array of heartbroken characters rendered with humor and a rough, understated lyricism. These stories embrace absurdity and emanate compassion for troubled, misguided, self-destructive people. This book is surprising, full of heart, and utterly entertaining.” \u2014Melissa Ginsburg<\/strong>, author of Dear Weather Ghost<\/em>, Sunset City<\/em>, The House Uptown<\/em>, and Doll Apollo<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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