Sunday, January 24th at 3:00 p.m., Omaha-native Rachel Mans McKenny will discuss her new novel, The Butterfly Effect, in conversation with Minnesota author, J. Ryan Stradal (Kitchens of the Great Midwest, The Lager Queen of Minnesota).

In The Butterfly Effect, we follow Greta Oto, an "anti-"social butterfly who leaves behind her isolated research gig to return home after her twin brother suffers an aneurysm. Coming home means confronting all that she left behind, including her lousy soon-to-be sister-in-law, her estranged mother, and her ex-boyfriend Brandon and his new partner. Greta's comically critical point of view interrogates midwestern norms and gendered stereotypes in a story that explores the legacy of familial dysfunction.

Rachel Mans McKenny is a Creighton graduate, Midwestern writer and humorist, recently published in The New York Times, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Scary Mommy, McSweeney's, and other outlets.

J. Ryan Stradal is the author of New York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great Midwest and national bestseller The Lager Queen of Minnesota. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Granta, The Rumpus, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other places.

Rachel Mans McKenny in Conversation with J. Ryan Stradal