This book of Larry Thacker stories follows his previous collection, Working It Off in Labor County. Obviously, Thacker loves working people and loves telling stories of their lives. “Larry Thacker's Labor Days, Labor Nights gives us inventive yarns that veer from the charming to the profound and pinball between madcap hijinks and haunting sadness. At every turn, they confound expectation in a way quite likely to delight.” --Robert Gipe. Labor Days, Labor Nights is a big-hearted carnival jammed with all the belly laughs and heart-twisting poignancy we've come to expect from Larry Thacker. It's all here, folks: roller-derby angels, pygmy goats, shrunken heads, lightning-rod preachers, catfish wranglers, grieving altar-builders.” - Marie Manilla. The author, Larry Thacker, grew up in Middlesboro, Kentucky, and, after a stint ion the Army, graduated from Lincoln Memorial University across the state line in Tennessee. After a stint in the Army, he worked at LMU as an administrator for fifteen years. In the last few years, he has earned an MFA and moved to Johnson City, Tennessee, where he works in antiques and teaches part-time at Northeast State Community College.
Huron, Ohio: Bottom Dog Press, 2021. 205 pages. Trade paperback.