From analytic essays of Emily Dickenson to Kiss, Brandon R. Schrand has written about everything. Associate Professor of English Joe Wilkins introduced the memoirist whom he met while attending school in Idaho.

Some of Schrand’s best known works are “The Enders Hotel: A Memoir” which was his first novel that was published in January of 2008 and “Works Cited: An Alphabetical Odyssey of Mayhem & Misbehavior” which was published in 2013.

His first novel was inspired from his childhood since he grew up in a hotel that his family owned in Idaho. It took Schrand two years to write the first half of “The Enders Hotel” and six months to write the rest.

Schrand discovered that non-fiction was more of his specialty after he felt writer’s block towards creative writing.

“I don’t write caviar, I write salami. But I write the best goddamn salami there is,” Schrand said.

Not only did memoir writing find him but so did college. As a first generation college student Schrand had no academic plans and was in college for seven years before he went to graduate school.

“I never planned to go to college. I wanted to be in a heavy metal band,” Schrand said.

During the book talk on Oct. 9 in the Austin Reading Room Schrand read excerpts from his novels, including the first chapter of “The Enders Hotel” where he did extensive research on the murder that took place in his home and the first chapter.

While Schrand was in town he went to Cornerstone Coffee Roasters with a group of students in order to hang out and converse among them about writing.

Schrand lives in Moscow, Idaho with his wife and two children where he teaches in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at the University of Idaho.