{"id":3077,"date":"2026-04-22T18:47:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/?p=3077"},"modified":"2026-04-22T18:47:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:47:53","slug":"steven-rowley-the-guncle-back-in-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/?p=3077","title":{"rendered":"Steven Rowley: The Guncle Back in Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"945\" height=\"738\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TheGuncleAbroadStevenRowley.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3078 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TheGuncleAbroadStevenRowley.webp 945w, https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TheGuncleAbroadStevenRowley-300x234.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TheGuncleAbroadStevenRowley-768x600.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 945px) 100vw, 945px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>Novelist Steven Rowley has written five books including <em>Lily and the Octopus<\/em>, <em>The Editor<\/em>, <em>The Guncle<\/em>, and its sequel <em>The Guncle Abroad<\/em>. His work has been published in 20 languages, and he received the 2023 Thurber Prize for American Humor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After all that, Rowley is back as a finalist for the 2026 Thurber Prize! We talked about how he learned he was a finalist for each prize, each time calling his agent. However, this time he feels an added pressure due to the book being a follow-up to his previous award winner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rowley sees his craft as a deliberate balance of heart and humor. He explores grief and resilience using comedy, carefully cutting or adding jokes to keep scenes from becoming too jokey or too dark. We also discussed the undervaluation of comedy and how hard it is to write. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thurberhouse.org\/thurber-prize-award-show\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Get your tickets to see Steven Rowley and the other finalists at the May 7, 2026 Thurber House awards!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Craft-2026-4-22-StevenRowley.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_7901\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3077-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Craft-2026-4-22-StevenRowley.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Craft-2026-4-22-StevenRowley.mp3\">https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Craft-2026-4-22-StevenRowley.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Craft-2026-4-22-StevenRowley.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/?powerpress_pinw=3077-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Craft-2026-4-22-StevenRowley.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"Craft-2026-4-22-StevenRowley.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Novelist Steven Rowley has written five books including Lily and the Octopus, The Editor, The Guncle, and its sequel The Guncle Abroad. His work has been published in 20 languages, and he received the 2023 Thurber Prize for American Humor. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/?p=3077\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-craft-productions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3080,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077\/revisions\/3080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}