Coert Voorhees

Think local author Coert Voorhees’s young adult novels are just for kids? Well he doesn’t think so, and to prove it, this reading will be at a bar. “My target audience will not be joining us for the reading,” says the author of The Brothers Torres, laughing. Voorhees assures us he’s in no way persuading teens to take up drinking, but rather appealing to adults who might enjoy his novel just as much as their younger counterparts. He points out that though the book is marketed to teens, it doesn’t mean it’s only for them. “The great thing about being older is that you’ve been younger,” he says. “I feel like there’s a larger audience because everyone can relate.”

The Brothers Torres is about the relationship between Frankie Towers and his older brother Steve. Frankie worships his older brother, but as they grow older, things inevitably start to change. “You know when you have that moment when you first realize your idol isn’t really worth being your idol,” he says. “That sense of disappointment when you realize that the world that you’ve constructed perhaps does not exist.”

Before you ask, no, The Brothers Torres isn’t based on Voorhees’s life experiences. First, he has a younger sister, not an older brother. Second, Voorhees assures us her hero worship for him is still intact. Also reading will be local poet Andrew Kozma, from his book City of Regret. 8:30 p.m. Poison Girl, 1641 Westheimer. For information, call 713-527-9929 or visit www.myspace.com/poisongirlbar. Free.
Thu., April 24, 8:30 p.m., 2008