Beth Raymer
Beth Raymer grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida, and received an MFA in non-fiction writing from Columbia University. Her first book, Lay the Favorite: a Memoir of Gambling (Spiegel and Grau) was published in 2010. The film adaptation of Lay the Favorite, starring Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn, and Rebecca Hall, will be released in 2012.
During her residency at the Jack Kerouac Project, Beth will be working on a novel.
An Excerpt from Sweetheart Deals
Sunday, August 28th, 2011The plastic Virgin Mary stood on the side of the road, praying in her faded blue cloak. Her hairline was cracked from when my sister Lorraine kicked her on a dare; her palms stained from when I colored them with red magic-marker stigmata. Above her, barbed wire stapled into two by fours held together the welcome sign: Adena. The Town Too Tough To Die.
Excavators strip-mined the surrounding hillsides. Bulldozers pushed aside broken timber. Rigs drilled holes through boulders, which miners filled with nitrogen fertilizer and then detonated. Acid and silt leaked into the creeks. Sometimes people’s front yards caught on fire. Coal combusting flammable gasses, gasoline rainbows stretching into the sky.
A light coat of ash settled over Adena’s 585 people, …
