Mitch Wieland Author Reading & Book Release Signing

Help us celebrate the release of The Ghosts of Okuma from Idaho's current writer in residence, Mitch Wieland! Hear live readings from some of Idaho's best, enjoy light refreshments, and an author signing to follow.

Featuring:
Joel Wayne
Tomás Baiza
Rebecca Evans
& Mitch Wieland

About Mitch Wieland:
Mitch Wieland is the current Idaho Writer in Residence. Kirkus Reviews calls his new novel, The Ghosts of Okuma, “A strange, beautiful, and unexpected exploration of the fallout of family tragedy” (starred review). The novel was named a Kirkus Best Indie Book and a Kirkus Staff Pick. The Ghosts of Okuma was also a Staff Pick at Independent Book Review.

The Ghosts of Okuma has received advanced praise from Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Doerr, Jake Adelstein (HBO’s Tokyo Vice), Ann Beattie, Charles Baxter, and Andrea Barrett.

Wieland’s first novel, Willy Slater’s Lane, was awarded starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist and was optioned for a film. Named Idaho Book of the Year, his second novel, God's Dogs, was a top finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. His short stories have appeared in The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, The Kenyon Review, Best of the West, The Yale Review, and two dozen other publications. He’s been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the Idaho Commission on the Arts, The Cabin, and the Alexa Rose Foundation.

Wieland is the founding editor of the award-winning Idaho Review—publishing writers such as Joyce Carol Oates and T.C. Boyle—and co-founder and longtime director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Boise State. Now in his thirtieth year at the university, he teaches fiction writing, narrative structure, and publishing classes in the MFA and BFA/BA programs in creative writing.

Watch a book trailer for The Ghosts of Okuma here!

From Mitch's recent write up in Kirkus Reviews:

"Mitch Wieland’s novel The Ghosts of Okuma travels throughout a lively, lit-up Tokyo as Wyatt Roth and his father search for Wyatt’s sister. Wyatt and Erin lost their mother to suicide about a year ago, and the surviving family members have all upended their lives in different ways: Their father doesn’t want to leave the house, Wyatt self-medicates with cannabis, and Erin fled their home in San Diego without leaving a forwarding address. Wyatt’s determined hunt for his older sister pulls him in different directions, taking him from packed commuter trains to underground rock concerts as he traverses Japan’s capital. Our starred review notes, “Filled with rich detail and lovable characters, the novel feels focused even as it takes a surprising turn into the world of activism, forging a link between Japan’s nuclear past and the characters’ more personal longings for answers. Whether depicting the memories of a mother and son in California or staging an eerie conclusion set against a ‘rain-drenched radioactive forest,’ Wieland finds something fascinating and engrossing in every twist of the tale.”
More at www.mitchwieland.com

Tomás Baiza is originally from San José, California, but now finds himself in Boise, Idaho. He is the award-winning author of Delivery: A Pocho's Accidental Guide to College, Love, and Pizza Delivery, A Purpose to Our Savagery, and Mexican Teeth: Stories and Assorted Artifacts of an Errant Chicanidad which came out earlier this year. Tomás's work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best American Short Stories, and the O. Henry Prize. Both Delivery and Mexican Teeth have been accepted into the holdings of the Library of Congress Center for the Book, and Mexican Teeth won the 2026 International Latino Book Award for Culture and Community. Sherman Alexie has called Tomás's writing “painful, scary, hilarious, incredibly vulnerable, and powerful in equal measure.” Tomás has been stalked by wild dogs while hitchhiking in Mexico, was once escorted by security out of the Pebble Beach & Tennis Club, and had the privilege of delivering a dozen pizzas to a Klingon-themed orgy at a sci-fi convention.

Rebecca Evans is a Pushcart Prize-nominated essayist and poet who writes the difficult, the heart-full, the guidebooks for survivors. Her debut memoir in verse, Tangled by Blood (Literary Titan Book Award Winner),bridges motherhood and betrayal, untangling wounds and restorying what it means to be a mother. She’s a memoirist, essayist, and poet, infusing her love of empowerment with craft. She teaches high school teens in the Juvie system through journaling and visual art. Rebecca is also a disabled veteran, weaving disability, military experience and Jewish heritage throughout her work. She co-hosts Radio Boise’s Writer to Writer show. Rebecca has earned two MFAs and co-edited the anthology, When There Are Nine, a tribute to the life and achievements of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Along with her full-length poetry collection, Tangled by Blood, she’s authored a collection-length poem, Safe Handling, and a flash essay collection, AfterBurn (Moon Tide Press, 2026).

Joel Wayne is the public programs manager for The Cabin, a literary arts nonprofit. He produces a weekly bite-size poetry and prose show for NPR called Something I Heard and recently released a limited audio series called Your Aunt Charlie, available wherever you get your podcasts. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Chattahoochee Review, The Independent (UK), The Moth, and Salon, among many other places. He’s the recipient of fellowships in media arts and literature by Arts Idaho, a Silver Creek Writer’s Residency, the Lamar York Prize, and a Pushcart nod.