Mark Yakich will celebrate the launch of his novel A Meaning for Wife as part of Room 220’s Live Prose at the Antenna Gallery reading series at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 27, along with Ig Publishing press-mate Laura Ellen Scott, author of Death Wishing. Mark Yakich is a poet and an associate professor of … Mark Yakich and Laura Ellen Scott read at Antenna Gallery Oct. 27
Acclaimed short story writer, screenwriter, and novelist Sherman Alexie will read, answer questions, and sign books on Monday, October 24, at 6 p.m. in the Kendall Cram Room of the Lavin-Bernick Center at Tulane University. More info here. Alexie is the author of 20 books, including The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, which … Sherman Alexie reads at Tulane October 24
Author and filmmaker Helen Krieger wrote a book of short stories about “malcontents trying to find love, money and meaning” in post-flood New Orleans (if I remember correctly, the first time I saw press material for the book it said “trying to find love, money and weed,” but my mind might just be playing games … In case you didn’t live in downtown N.O. in the past six years, a new movie will show you what it was like
Short story aficionado Amy Hempel will judge the 2012 Tennessee Williams Literary Festival Fiction Contest (entries due Nov. 15!) and will appear as a participant in the festival, which takes place March 21 – 25. I had the pleasure of interviewing Hempel last year about her editorship of the 2010 New Stories from the South … From the archives: An interview with Amy Hempel, on the occasion of her judging the 2012 Tennessee Williams Literary Festival Fiction Contest
I wrote off Lynda Frese’s book of paintings, Pacha Mama: Earth Realm, as hippie bullshit the second I scanned the press release and saw mentions of healers, prayers, and phrases like “living harmoniously with the earth.” Frese was trying to schedule an artist’s talk at the Antenna Gallery on Friday, October 7, at 6 p.m. … Lynda Frese and the earth’s dark heart
I’m sure many of you are currently engrossed in Ken Burns’ sweeping account of prohibition America (my friend said she was watching Part I of it last night in New York, but I don’t have a television so I really have no clue what’s on locally). But, as lovers of Louisiana literature, you’ll undoubtedly be … Walker Percy documentary premiers tonight on PBS
First off, thanks to everyone who came out to Thursday’s reading. Second, if there’s anyone out there who knows how to use a camera and would like to take pictures of Room 220 events, please drop a line to nathan [at] press-street.com, because I apparently have no idea how to make a picture. You’ll get … A success by any measure besides documentary photography: Michael Martone’s reading at the Antenna Gallery
The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP), in conjunction with Room 220 and the Community Book Center, presents an open roundtable discussion with a group of accomplished authors from around the globe on Friday, September 30, at 5 p.m. at the Community Book Center (2523 Bayou Rd.).
The Iowa IWP has brought international writers to study as part of the university’s prestigious writing program since 1967. One of the IWP’s stated goals is to “introduce talented individuals to American life,” and to do so the program takes the writers out of the cornfields on week-long excursions to cities like San Francisco and New Orleans. The writers will be in town Tues. – Sat., Sept. 27 – Oct. 1, touring the city, taking in some live music, and dropping into classes at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, the Bard Early College program, and Loyola University New Orleans. They’ll also be in attendance at Michael Martone’s reading at the Antenna Gallery on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m., as well as the Community Book Center event.
The discussion at the Community Book Center on Friday will be an informal event, and will provide members of the New Orleans writerly and readerly communities an opportunity to converse with this diverse group of professional international authors about issues both individual and universal, that affect New Orleans or the writers’ home countries, or both and everyone in between. The event is free, and will likely prove the international literary event of the season.
Participating writers’ biographies:
By Christopher Hellwig Christopher Hellwig is author of a forthcoming collection of biographies of fictional gunslingers, a former student of Michael Martone’s, and will read with his mentor (along with former classmate and Martone protégé Michael J. Lee) this Thursday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. at the Antenna Gallery. Event details here. #1: Hypoxia Per Martone’s … The Martone Guide to Good Writing
Wilbert Rideau, author and former editor of The Angolite prison magazine, has been awarded the 2011 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction for his memoir In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance. Room 220 had the pleasure of interviewing Rideau this summer. The Dayton prize was launched in 2006 to focus … Wilbert Rideau wins the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
