Joshua James Amberson, author of How to Forget Almost Everything (Korza Books)

Book cover that features collages of clipped black-and-white photographs.Joshua James Amberson is the author of the debut novel, How to Forget Almost Everything, which releases on November 11th, 2022 from Korza Books. Joshua is also the author of “Contact: A Catalog”, which appeared in our Stranged Writing anthology, and “The Noblest of the Senses: A Catalog”, which appeared in our Baring the Device column.

About the novel:

When 15-year-old Elly Fox figures out his mom is losing her memory, everything in his life changes. Failing to snap her out of denial, he goes on a quest, hoping to find the cause of her memory loss before it’s too late. Along the way he falls under the influence of a charismatic memory guru and risks losing his best friend, all while navigating his gender identity, his suddenly shifting moral compass, and his sophomore year of high school.

Set in Portland, Oregon during the late-2000s financial crisis, How to Forget Almost Everything is an introspective coming-of-age story and an off-kilter adventure populated by bus transfer slips, small-town diners, a secret concrete block, and a former child chess prodigy.

About the author:

Joshua James Amberson writes essays, zines, very short stories, articles about arts and culture, and novels he hides in drawers. His work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Portland Mercury, The Seattle Times, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, HAD, and Tin House, among others. He’s the author of the chapbooks Everyday Mythologies, Slow Motion Heroics, and Writing Exercises (And Various Approaches to Life on Earth), the zine series Basic Paper Airplane, as well as the forthcoming essay collection Staring Contest: Essays About Eyes. He lives with a lovely human, an aging Italian greyhound, and an elderly tortoiseshell cat in Portland, Oregon.