[photo credit: Pasadena Public Library.]
“Join us in conversation with bestselling author and humorist Michael Perry, whose collection of genre-spanning works encapsulates the experiences — and the magic — of rural town communities and the everyday people who reside in them,” organizers write in promotional materials.
The free virtual program, “Humor, Heart, and Reflective Rural Stories with Michael Perry,” is scheduled for Wednesday, March 4, 2026, at 11 a.m. PST. Advance registration is required to receive the online link. The event will be recorded and made available for later viewing.
Perry is a lifelong resident of the rural Midwest, a volunteer firefighter and first responder, a corporate speaker and an amateur snowplow driver. His “reflective roughneck” takes on life in Middle America “have left hundreds of thousands of readers and live audiences laughing, nodding, and sometimes misty.”
His memoir “Population: 485” features “a farmer’s wife armed with a pistol and a Bible” and a fire department anchored by “a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney and two ex-wives.” Against “a backdrop of fires and tangled wrecks, bar fights and smelt feeds,” Perry tells “a frequently comic tale leavened with moments of heartbreaking delicacy and searing tragedy.” His fiction debut, “Jesus Cow,” is “a hilarious yet sincere exploration of faith and the foibles of modern life.” Perry lives in rural Wisconsin and can be found at www.sneezingcow.com.
“Humor, Heart, and Reflective Rural Stories with Michael Perry” will run on Wednesday, March 4, at 11 a.m. Virtual event — online via registration link. Pasadena Public Library, (626) 744-4210; https://libraryc.org/pasadenalibrary/115690.
