A South Coast Today Best Fiction Pick from 2015 "With this plainspoken, highly readable coming-of-age story, McManus adds another winning hand to a growing body of work on the hearts and souls lost to the game of poker." --Kirkus Reviews, Starred "What John R. Powers did for Catholic boys on the South Side of Chicago in his classic memoir Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? (1975), McManus does for their counterparts in suburban Chicago ... This is well-trod ground, of course, but McManus enlivens the familiar material with zesty prose that goes beyond the jokes to capture that ever-melancholy transition from innocence to experience." --Booklist "In writing about poker Jim McManus has managed to write about everything, and it's glorious." --David Sedaris "McManus has captured a Chicago Catholic kid's universe with an accuracy that made me laugh. A royal flush. Bravo!" --Sandra Cisneros "Reading The Education of a Poker Player, I realized I had completely forgotten what it had been like to be a boy. McManus remembers it exactly. There are many things to admire--the delights of the Kennedy era Catholic household, the movement of a mind through time--but what stuck with me most was how McManus nails it dead: being a kid isn't anything like being an adult. Instead it is something stranger, something wilder, and something we shouldn't forget. Consumed with desire for girls, a place in the clergy, and a secret obsession with a certain gambling game that is played with 52 cards, McManus's narrator will help you reclaim something you may have lost. Pick up this book." --Jesse Ball "The Education of a Poker Player is a thoroughly refreshing read, and you know that with McManus you're going to get an engaging journey. McManus has been there and done it, and he certainly speaks with the voice of experience." --Sam Marsden, Jackpot.co.uk "When McManus writes about the social dynamics of teenage boys he is hilarious and dazzling. This poignancy continues throughout the book's second half as Vince becomes more emotionally complex. McManus' writing is often brilliant -- especially on baseball, poker, Catholic arcana, the juvenile humor of young men, and impressionable interactions between the young and authority." --Alex Lemon, Dallas Morning News "This entertaining coming-of-age tale treads lightly on issues of guilt, opting instead to allow witty cultural references and a likable voice to carry the narrative...the most memorable scenes here don't involve much poker at all; the fun comes from discovering with Vince that sin (and life, thus far) can't always be measured in Hail Marys and Our Fathers." --Publishers Weekly "Overall The Education of a Poker Player isn't going to make you a better card player...What it will give you is a little better appreciation of the game, perhaps a remembrance of how you got your start, and bring a smile to your face as you relive those memories." --Earl Burton, Poker News Daily "[T]he framework here...reminded me James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, as it follows one boy, Vincent Killeen, from ages 9 to 17 growing up in the Catholic Church. Like Artist, you get the sense Vincent is McManus's alter ego -- "altar" ego? -- and, like Artist, the voice matures as the narrator ages." --Lauren Daley, South Coast Today "McManus is a great novelist and poet. His stories are deeply humorous and stunningly insightful, finely crafted, and filled with phrases to be savored." --Aaron Brown, Wilmott Magazine "When McManus writes about the social dynamics of teenage boys he is hilarious and dazzling. This poignancy continues throughout the book's second half as Vince becomes more emotionally complex. McManus' writing is often brilliant -- especially on baseball, poker, Catholic arcana, the juvenile humor of young men and impressionable interactions between the young and authority." -Alex Lemons, Dallas Morning News

Galleys available: national mailing to key review/media outlets 4-5 months prior to publication. Will also participate in the CBSD galley box for this title, to get copies into the hands of sales reps, independent bookstores, and wholesale buyers across North America. National print campaign: 100 finished books will be mailed to key review outlets, specifically targeting the publicity-trail for his previous book, Positively Fifth Street: Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, The New York Times Book Review, Men's Journal, Time, The New Yorker, Poets & Writers Magazine, The Rumpus, Huffington Post Poetry, The San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, David Sedaris, A. Alvarez, etc. McManus also has 100+ email contacts with the poker press, and is well connected to Chicago Tribune Books, NYTBR, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Time (Lev Grossman), Harper’s, Wall-Street Journal, Bloomberg View, The Believer, and Grantland. National advertising in Poets & Writers magazine, American Poets magazine, the Academy of American Poets newsletter, Rain Taxi, and Redactions. Fall announcements will be submitted to Publishers Weekly. Extensive promotion through BOA's website and blog; Facebook (6,200+ followers), Twitter (4,500 followers), Instagram (700 followers), and Pinterest accounts; print and e-postcards; print and e-materials; and print and e-catalogs. Electronic postcards to announce book publication will be sent to academic contacts, bookstore contacts, and literary bloggers. Electronic newsletter feature will be emailed to BOA's database of 3,000+ contacts. Author will attend the AWP Conference 2016 in Los Angeles, where he will have an author signing. BOA Editions will also be the Presenting Sponsor for AWP 2016, to celebrate its 40th anniversary, which will bring new attention to BOA and its new books. Ebook will be available at the same time as print publication to maximize sales. Ebook ISBN will be included on all press materials, author and publisher websites, and whenever print ISBN is listed. Publisher and author will be promoting both e and p through social media. McManus' previous book, Positively Fifth Street is rumored to be made into a movie by Christine Vachon's Killer Films with Greene Street Productions. John Ridley wrote the screenplay and is expected to direct the film. Extensive promotion at key times during the year, specifically during the World Series of Poker (May-June), and the anniversary of JFK's assassination (November 22). Author will pursue participation on panels for the Irish American experience, lapsed Catholicism, altar boys, Baby Boomers in the Fifties and Sixties, and poker tournaments to further promote the book. Promotion through the author's email contacts and social media accounts. Bursky has a substantive online presence, with a Facebook profile with about 2,100+ contacts, and a Twitter account with about 1,250 followers (handle: @jimbosweetness).