Greetings Strickland-ites! My name is Seth Fried, and I am a writer of literary short stories. That’s pretty much all I have to say about myself, but, if you’d like to learn more, I urge you to check out my blog-thing for more details.

On to the matter at hand:

Brandi Strickland has just created a jaw-dropping piece inspired by Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre, a short story of mine that appeared in a magazine called One Story late last year. The story is about a town that continues to return to an annual picnic, despite the fact that the event is plagued by absurd, over-the-top disasters. Brandi’s energetic, darkly comic interpretation is at once a perfect reflection of the story and of her own unbelievable talent as an artist.

The work is going to be featured at One Story’s Literary Debutante Ball, and later auctioned off online. A brief aside about One Story’s ball/benefit: It’s going to be tons of fun. Lots of amazing people are going to be in attendance, including John Hodgman, Michael Cunningham, Jim & Karen Shepard, Colson Whitehead, and clinging feverishly to their coattails will be yours truly. The event is going to be a pretty big deal, and has already been covered by the LA Times. As if all that weren’t cool enough, it is also going to be a great opportunity to watch people have their minds blown by Brandi’s work. So I hope to see you all there.

It should also be mentioned that Brandi is donating this piece so that the proceeds from the auction can help support One Story, which is a non-profit organization. I can’t stress enough what an honor it has been to get to work with her, and how completely generous she has been about this whole project. I have admired Brandi’s work for as long as I can remember, and I hope you enjoy gawking at this new piece as much as I do.