Charles Washington, a college grad brimming with energy and idealism and promise, is swept up in the Compassion Boom. At the height of the financial meltdown, he spurns the prescribed job market to take a job with a not-for-profit, sacrificing salary for the selfless mission of his first post-college employer. Charles is out to save the world - the world of fraternities! Charles is an Educational Consultant with the Nu Kappa Epsilon National Fraternity Headquarters. He's making no money, but he's on a noble he will crisscross the country to clean up the corroded culture of fraternity life, driving from college to college, fraternity house to fraternity house, conducting leadership development workshops and serving as a 24/7 role model for his NKE brothers. Charles will whisk away the alcoholism and drug abuse, and put an end to the hazing. He will help transform 21st-century fraternity life into a leadership experience just as enriching as the Boy Scouts. The only Charles isn't nearly the clean-cut role model he wants to believe he is, and he's about to learn that he is ill-prepared for the true demands of leadership. Very quickly, he finds himself caught in a whirlwind of alcohol, parties, hazing, and sex, a series of events and decisions which will test his new values and threaten his entire future. American Fraternity Man is an intimate portrait of a young man struggling to become the right kind of professional, while coming to terms with the harsh financial and political realities behind the ambitious mission statements and corporate philosophies. Set within a broad panoramic of the national fraternity world, American Fraternity Man offers a humanizing look at the individuals who live and breathe Greek Life, while also giving an unrivaled glimpse at the power, potential, and absurdity of the National Fraternity/Sorority business. Through both text and illustrations, Nathan Holic offers the very human story of one young man's longing for morality and purpose in a world he simply has not been prepared to understand.
Author
Nathan Holic lives and writes in Orlando, Florida, where he teaches writing courses at the University of Central Florida, and drives from 7-Eleven to 7-Eleven in search of the perfect fountain-poured Diet Coke. He is the author of the novel American Fraternity Man (Beating Windward Press) and the novella The Things I Don't See (Main Street Rag), and he is the editor of the annual anthology 15 Views of Orlando (Burrow Press), a literary portrait of the city featuring short fiction from fifteen Orlando authors. He also serves as the Graphic Narrative Editor at The Florida Review. Holic's short fiction has appeared in a number of print journals, magazines, and anthologies, including Iron Horse, The Portland Review, The Apalachee Review,and the young adult collection Daddy Cool (Artistically Declined Press); his work also appears online at Hobart, Necessary Fiction, Barrelhouse, and a number of other web sites. His comics and graphic narratives include the serialized adaptation of Alex Kudera's novel "Fight For Your Long Day (available monthly at Atticus Review), and "Clutter," a story structured as a home décor catalogue (available at Nailed Magazine). Other comics, which have appeared in Welter, Sweet: A Literary Confection, Palooka, and the anthology The Way We Sleep (Curbside Splendor Press), have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
