About
Urbantasm is a magical teen noir serial novel inspired by the author’s experiences growing up in and around Flint, Michigan.
Thirteen-year-old John Bridge’s plans include hooking up with an eighth-grade girl and becoming one of the most popular kids at Radcliffe Junior High, but when he steals a pair of strange blue sunglasses from a homeless person, it drops him into the middle of a gang war overwhelming the once-great Rust Belt town of Akawe.
John doesn’t understand why the sunglasses are such a big deal, but everything, it seems, is on the table. Perhaps he accidentally offended the Chalks, a white supremacist gang trying to expand across the city. Maybe the feud involves his friend Selby, whose father died under mysterious circumstances. It could even have something to do with O-Sugar, a homegrown drug with the seeming ability to distort space. On the night before school began, a group of teenagers took O-Sugar and leapt to their deaths from an abandoned hospital.
John struggles to untangle these mysteries while adjusting to his new school, even as his parents confront looming unemployment and as his city fractures and burns.
To read more about how and why Urbantasm was written, click here .
News
Events
FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF PAST EVENTS AND TOUR DATES, PLEASE VISIT URBANTASM.COM/TOUR
Flint, Michigan
Steal This Stage
Saturday, September 17, 2-4 pm
Buckham Gallery
121 W. 2nd St.
Featuring Catherine Batsios, Connor Coyne, Tim Lane, and Kelsey Ronan.
Steal This Stage Flier.
Open to the Public. No charge.
The Urbantasm book tour (2018-2022) has officially concluded.
However, Urbantasm readings and other events will continue by invitation.
Please contact author Connor Coyne about a reading, book signing, or other event.
Media
FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL MEDIA, PLEASE VISIT URBANTASM.COM/MEDIA
Text and other media can be found under #urbantasm via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere.
Latest media:
ARCHIVE: Photos from the Urbantasm book tour to Chicago in December 2018. (June 27, 2022)
INTERVIEW: Tom Sumner interviews Connor Coyne about Urbantasm, Book Four: The Spring Storm for the Tom Sumner Program (May 10, 2022)
INTERVIEW: A recording of the digital launch of Urbantasm, Book Four: The Spring Storm, moderated by Jan Worth-Nelson. (May 5, 2022)
PRESS-RELEASE FOR DOWNLOAD: Award-Winning Flint Novel Concludes this May with “A Spring Storm.” (PDF) (April 28, 2022)
INTERVIEW: Radio Free Flint publishes an Interview with Connor Coyne via Spotify, Audible, and Apple Podcasts. A short video clip is also available on YouTube. (April 12, 2022)
MAP: Updated for Urbantasm, Book Four: The Spring Storm. (April 4, 2022)
MUSIC: Here’s a playlist of some wonderful music that informed and inspired Urbantasm, Book Four: The Spring Storm. (February 16, 2022)
On YouTube.
Review by acclaimed Flint-based DJ Michael Absher.
Praise
FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL PRAISE, PLEASE VISIT URBANTASM.COM/PRAISE
Urbantasm, Book One: The Dying City is Young New-Adult Winner for the 2019 Indie Book Awards, Young Adult Winner for the 2019 Kindle Book Awards, Young Adult Finalist for the 2019 Wishing Shelf Book Awards, Young Adult Finalist for the American Fiction Awards, and was included on the New School’s 2019 Alumni Summer Reading List.
Urbantasm, Book Two: The Empty Room is Young Adult Winner for the 2020 Kindle Book Awards.
“A magical epic.”
— Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, New York Times bestselling author of What the Eyes Don’t See
“Urbantasm: The Dying City is a novel of wonder and horror.”
— William Shunn, author of The Accidental Terrorist
“A book that values risk.”
— S.C. Megale, author of This Is Not a Love Scene
“Urbantasm imbues a neglected part of America with an azure luminescence.”
— Jeffery Renard Allen, author of Song of the Shank
“A compelling blend of noire and Rust Belt magical realism.”
— Gordon Young, author of Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City
Author
Connor Coyne (he/him) is a writer living and working in Flint, Michigan.
He’s published several novels and a short story collection, and his work has been featured in Vox.com, Belt Magazine, and elsewhere. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Flint’s College Cultural Neighborhood (aka the East Village), less than a mile from the house where he grew up. Learn more about Connor’s writing at ConnorCoyne.com.
To interview Connor or receive a review copy of Urbantasm: The Dying City, please email him at connor@connorcoyne.com.
To meet the Urbantasm production team, click here.