BOOKS
the complicated calculus (and cows) of carl paulsen
The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen is Gary’s debut novel, published by Fitzroy Books/Regal House in 2022 as the winner of the Acheven Book Prize for Young Adult Fiction. It was also named one of the best Young Adult books of 2022 by National Public Radio and won the Minnesota Book Award for Young Adult Literature, the Silver Award in the Foreword Reviews INDIES Book of the Year Awards for Young Adult Fiction, and the Whippoorwill Book Award for Rural Young Adult Literature.
Set on a small and struggling family dairy operation in southern Minnesota, The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen follows 15-year-old Carl as he confronts his crush on Andy Olnan, a handsome and confident but secretive “city boy” recently transplanted to farm life from Minneapolis, who may or may not share the same feelings. At the same time, Carl and his father clash over the future of their farm, a legacy of Carl’s late mother: how do they honor her dream for the family while also ensuring financial security? Carl discovers his own resilience in the face of grief, adult-sized decisions, and unrequited love, and along the way learns to cope with both the challenges and rewards of being different.
About the novel, the writer Alison McGhee said: “With insight and grace, Gary Eldon Peter explores the big questions: Who am I? Who will I be? And who will I let truly know me? This novel's gentleness is underlain with the absolute determination of a quiet teenager's quest for self-identity.”
The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen is available through Regal House Publishing, Amazon (paperback, audiobook, and Kindle), Indiebound, bookshop.org, and Barnes & Noble, or from your local independent bookseller or local public library.
Oranges
Oranges is Gary Eldon Peter's debut collection of short stories, published by New Rivers Press in 2018.
Oranges traverses in linked short stories the life of Michael, a gay man from the Midwest who must find his own confusing path to adulthood after personal loss. Michael is confronted with a number of challenges, including coming to terms with his sexuality in the age of AIDS, facing his family’s difficulties accepting him, dealing with the death of his mother and the aging of his father, and starting over after losing a partner. Novelistic in scope, Oranges is about the never-ending search for connection, validation, intimacy, and, above all, love.
“Oranges is a book of quiet, enormous strength, a collection of slow-gathering moments that add up to the story of Michael Dolin, a gay man whose life and loves are shaped by the AIDS crisis, Midwestern social strictures, and expectations for men,” said Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry. “There is so much here, such compassion, such nerve and bite—this is a beautiful book, full of sorrow, surprise, and delight.”
Oranges won the New Rivers Press Many Voices Project competition in Prose and the Midwest Book Award, was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and received the Gold Medal for GLBTQ+ fiction in the Independent Publisher Book Awards.
Oranges is available through Amazon (paperback and Kindle), ebay.com, or from your local independent bookseller or local public library.