Reading with Jason Allen at the Ulrich Museum

Wichita State University is hosting a reading for the newest member of WSU’s Creative Writing Faculty, Jason Allen! Jason’s first novel, The East End, published by Harper Collins, is currently under development for a streaming series and has been called “an intense, heart-pounding experience from the first page, with brilliant, complex characters.” Told through multiple points of view, The East End explores the extreme socio-economic divide in the Hamptons, where Jason grew up as part of the seldom-mentioned working class, and where he and his mother both toiled for the rich and famous at lavish summer getaways. From page one of The East End, readers are invited behind the curtains of billionaire, oceanfront mansions and into the backwoods shadows of the working class people of Eastern Long Island, as characters, rich and poor alike, struggle with issues of addiction, sexual identity, secrecy and obsession. Watermark will be selling copies of Jason's book both in-store and at the event. This event will take place at the Ulrich Museum of Art on WSU's campus. You can also find this event on Facebook HERE. 

About The East End 

A tragic accident threatens to unravel two families in this gripping novel of suspense and culture clash set in the Hamptons.

Corey Halpern, a local high schooler with a troubled home life, is desperate to leave the Hamptons and start anew somewhere else. His last summer before college, he settles for the escapism he finds in sneaking into neighboring mansions.

One night just before Memorial Day weekend, he breaks into the wrong home at the wrong time: the Sheffield estate, where he and his mother, Gina, work. Under the cover of darkness, Leo Sheffield, patriarch and billionaire CEO, arrives unexpectedly with a companion. After a shocking poolside accident, everything depends on Leo burying the truth before his family and friends arrive for the holiday weekend. Unfortunately for him, Corey saw what happened, as did other eyes in the shadows.

Secrecy, obsession and desperation dictate each character's path in this spectacular debut. In a race against time, each critical moment holds life in the balance as Corey, Gina and Leo approach a common breaking point. With an ending as explosive as the Memorial Day fireworks on the island, The East End welcomes a bright new voice in fiction.

Thursday, September 15, 2022 - 5:30pm
Event address: 
1845 Fairmount St
Wichita, KS 67260