CATE DICHARRY discusses her debut novel THE FINE ART OF FUCKING UP, together with J. RYAN STRADAL

The Fine Art of Fucking Up (Unnamed Press)

 Your archenemy taunts you with clandestine bacon frying. Your boss feverishly cyberstalks an aging romance novel cover model. Your husband unexpectedly takes in a wayward foreign national. Your best friend reveals a secret relationship with your longstanding workplace crush.  

Welcome to the life of Nina Lanning, lone and floundering administrator of a prestigious Midwestern art school.  When once-a-century flooding threatens to destroy the art building, and the priceless Jackson Pollock trapped inside, Nina and her ragtag band of faculty members undertake to rescue the early work of the splatter master. Propelled by disasters both natural and personal, Nina must confront her colleagues, her husband, and most importantly, herself. Cate Dicharry’sdebut novel is a painfully hysterical examination of what is truly worth saving, and mastering the art of letting go.

Praise for The Fine Art of Fucking Up

"Cate Dicharry's comic timing is unimpeachable and though her characters are idiosyncratic and quirky, they are deeply dimensional and exceptionally real. A richly complicated and rewarding novel."-- Jill Alexander Essbaum, author of Hausfrau

"Cate Dicharry has an unwaveringly merciless eye for the bogus aspects of art school. But you don't need a BA in Painting or Performance Studies to enjoy the screwball comedy of The Fine Art of Fucking Up. An affectionate yet unsparing view of how easy it is to lose one's way."-- Sara Levine, author of Treasure Island!!!

"How thoroughly The Fine Art of Fucking Up sucked me in, and how, like good books tend to do, this novel operated by some kind of clairvoyant book magic: This is exactly the book you need to read right now; this is your life, but enough not your life to see it clearly. Good job. Keep reading." -- Kailyn McCord in Quaint Magazine

Cate Dicharry has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Low  Residency Program at the University of California, Riverside. Cate lives in Iowa City with her husband and two small sons. The Fine Art of Fucking Up is her first novel.

J. Ryan Stradal is the author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest (Viking, July 2015). Born and raised in Minnesota, he now lives in Los Angeles, where he is Acquisitions Editor at Unnamed Press and the Fiction Editor at The Nervous Breakdown.