Tony Wolk

Brace yourself for a collision between 1865 and 1955. Joan Matcham has just discovered that she’s pregnant by a man who died ninety years earlier: Abraham Lincoln. His brief sojourn to the Illinois of 1955 ended, he is returned to his own time and place, leaving Joan to deal with the consequences of their night together. Even as friendship, impending motherhood, and a new love revive Joan, she is haunted by recurring visions of the last week of Lincoln’s life.

This alternative history tale brings Lincoln’s emotions and thoughts to the modern reader, from 1865, through 1955, all the way to us in the present. With references to Shakespeare, Arabian Nights and others, Tony Wolk’s Good Friday is truly an intimate and compelling story that defies classification and appeals to readers across genres.

Good Friday —the sequel to Abraham Lincoln, A Novel Life — is the second of Wolk’s novels published by Ooligan Press, the teaching press at Portland State University. A remarkable work, Good Friday is sure to leave readers eagerly anticipating the final installment of Wolk’s Lincoln trilogy.

For more information: ooligan.goodfriday@pdx.edu

ISBN: 978-1-932010-19-0
5 ½” x 8 ½”, softcover
288 pages
10 b&w illustrations
$14.95

About the Author

Tony Wolk

Tony Wolk brings to light a different side of Lincoln in his time–twisting series Lincoln Out of Time. Wolk draws upon fourteen years of research to give a historically accurate feel to this highly imaginative tale about Abraham Lincoln.

Wolk graduated from Northwestern University, first with a Bachelors in Journalism in 1957 and then with a Masters in English Literature two years later. After a brief stint teaching English at a college of mortuary science, he moved to Nebraska to enter a PhD program. After receiving his PhD from the University of Nebraska in 1965, he moved to Portland, Oregon, and began teaching at Portland State University. His interest in writing grew, but it was not until he co–taught a science fiction writing course with Ursula K. Le Guin that he realized he was meant to be a writer.

An accomplished author, Wolk had written many articles, reviews, and short stories before he first began to write novels. He published his first article in 1969 and has written steadily since. He began using writing response groups in his classes in 1980, and all of his books have been written or developed in these sessions, including Abraham Lincoln, A Novel Life and his latest, Good Friday.

An avid cyclist, Wolk has been riding the same bicycle to Portland State since 1969. Riding over 55,000 miles, he has had many interesting moments along the way—including talking a girl out of jumping off the Broadway Bridge. His love of cycling is tied to his feeling of being connected to the area, and he brings this sense of connection to his stories, articles, and novels.

Praise

If I could magically grant Abraham Lincoln the gift of a day—an extra day outside the arc of his life, a day apart from the cataclysm of war, a day of comfort and surprise and hope—I can imagine none better than the day Tony Wolk has given him in Abraham Lincoln, A Novel Life, and no better companion to spend that day with than dear Joan Matcham. This is a magical, hopeful, rigorously real novel, a novel to take to your heart.
— Molly Glass, author of The Jump-Off Creek

Many wonderful things have been written about Abraham Lincoln, but never anything like this poignant, pixilated tale of the past turning to the future and the future to the past.
— Ursula Le Guin, author of Gifts