About this item
This funny and wise new memoir from Harrison Scott Key, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, will inspire laughter and hope for anyone who's ever been possessed by a dream of what they want to be when they grow up.Little-known author Mark Twain once said that the two most important days in your life are the day you were born, and the day you find out why. He's talking about dreams here, the destiny that calls every living soul to some kind of greatness. What Mr. Twain doesn't say is: A dream is also a monster that wants to eat you. Nobody tells you this part of the American Dream - until now. In this new memoir, Congratulations Who Are You Again, readers join Harrison Scott Key on his outrageous journey to becoming a great American writer.
About the Author
Harrison Scott Key is the author of the memoir The World's Largest Man (HarperCollins) , a true story about what it's like to be related to insane people from Mississippi, including the surprise revelation, on the last page, that he is also insane and the book is a hallucination. Or is it? (SPOILER ALERT: It isn't! Or is it? Harrison is checking with his fact-checker to confirm what "truth" is and isn't.) Harrison's nonfiction has appeared in The Best American Travel Writing, Oxford American, Outside Magazine, Reader's Digest, Image, and Creative Nonfiction, as well as a number of magazines that don't pay you anything at all, not even a little. His work has been adapted for the stage and performed by Chicago's Neo-Futurists in their show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind and Stories on Stage in Denver, Colorado, one of which paid him and one of which didn't, but it was cool, because, like, they are probably poor anyway, and helping the poor is a priority for Harrison, should he come under scrutiny. Harrison has also performed comedy at venues around the U.S., if you include three or four different cities to be "around the U.S.," which may be a stretch. As well, his plays and monologues have been performed at theaters across the South and in New York. The one in New York was "Off-off Broadway" and was barely fifteen minutes long and at the time, Harrison was too poor even to go see it, but he heard it was great and appreciated the reviewer saying it was funny, even though she also said hurtful things about him personally. Harrison has read his humor and essays and spoken to audiences at the Savannah Book Festival, Ole Miss, Clemson University, Auburn University, and elsewhere, including at least one religious organization who were perfectly courteous up until the end. He holds an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction and a Ph. D. in playwriting and teaches writing at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia, where he lives with his wife and three children. Harrison served as chair of the SCAD liberal arts department from 2011 to 2014, and he currently teaches courses focused on literary humor, satire, and rhetoric.
