Now Taking Pre-Orders for “New” Michael Perry Collection

In the 1990s, when he was a magazine freelancer hustling books off a card table at craft fairs, the mall, and out of his car trunk, Michael Perry self-published two books: Why They Killed Big Boy and Other Stories and Big Rigs Elvis, & the Grand Dragon Wayne. In 2005, after the success of Perry’s book Population 485, Harper Perennial published Off Main Street, a collection of Perry’s essays, magazine articles, and short fiction. Big Boy’s Big Rig: The Leftovers contains the 11 essays from Why They Killed Big Boy and Big Rigs, Elvis & the Grand Dragon Wayne that weren’t included in Off Main Street.

“As you might infer from the subtitle, you’d have to be a completist to even consider purchasing this little book,” says Perry, “so with an eye toward history, added value, and taking shots at myself two decades after the fact, I’ve gone through the old pieces and added commentary.” Among the highlights, Perry cites “Steve Gunderson and the Game of Politics,” (“Amazing to read him in 1995, pretty much dead-on predicting where we’ve landed today”) “Anatomy of an Interview,” (“I tried with all my heart and tools to put a unique spin on a profile of an artist I admired and wound up falling on my face and angering him to boot”) and “A Pilgrim’s Progress,” a profile of country music performer and historian Marty Stuart.

NOW TAKING PAPERBACK PRE-ORDERS RIGHT HERE TO SHIP APPROX MAY 5, SOONER IF POSSIBLE.

eBook version available on Kindle here and other e-readers here.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Why They Killed Big Boy Original Preface

Shooting the Split

Fighting Fire…In Belize

The Moon Brings Not Pleasure

Steve Gunderson and the Game of Politics

A Day with Dave

Big Rigs, Elvis & the Grand Dragon Wayne Original Preface

Put the Wet Stuff on the Red Stuff

Anatomy of an Interview

Insoluble Toxins

A Pilgrim’s Progress

Length: 89 pages

NOW TAKING PRE-ORDERS RIGHT HERE TO SHIP APPROX MAY 5, SOONER IF POSSIBLE.

eBook version available on Kindle here and other e-readers here.