Mid-Recession, Fredrick Soukup graduated college with two things: a fiction obsession and an alp of student-loan debt. So, while writing, he worked anywhere he could: as a meat slicer at a delicatessen in Fargo, a personal care advocate at a group home in Saint Paul, and a call center representative for an insurance company in Minneapolis. He found his most formative employment as a guard at the Juvenile Detention Center in Saint Paul. Working with disadvantaged black youth in the city he ultimately called home educated him about the privileges of being a white man in America. This education is the force behind his debut novel, Bliss—a love story that explores how socioeconomic and racial differences affect relationships. When a college grad forgoes the opportunities afforded by his upper-middle-class environment and moves to inner-city Chicago, he falls in love with a woman uncompromisingly devoted to her community. He soon finds himself caught between two lives: one he does not want and one he can not have.
Soukup received a philosophy degree from St. John’s University (Minnesota) in 2010. Excerpts from his works have been published in Fluent Magazine and Sou’wester. He lives in Saint Paul with his brilliant wife, Ashley.
Regal House Publishing is delighted to bring you Fredrick Soukup’s novel, Bliss, in 2020.
