Readings & Talks | Panel & Workshops | Storytelling Circle | Morning Mixer | schedule
2009 Twin Cities Book Festival Authors
As always, we’re proud to introduce Twin Cities readers to innovative, interesting,
and varied authors and their books. This year’s lineup includes:
Award-winning novelists who inspire, challenge, and entertain:
photo by Jimmy Cohrssen
NICHOLSON BAKER
Baker is the author of a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels The Mezzanine and Vox. He has loudly campaigned against the destruction of printed matter in the digital age, and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for his book on the topic, Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper. His new novel, The Anthologist, is narrated by a little-known poet; in this and throughout his work, Baker is a champion of things otherwise unsung, like elevators and the word “lumber.” (1:30 pm)
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ROBERT OLEN BUTLER
Robert Olen Butler is the author of sixteen novels and short story collections, a book on the creative process, and several plays and screenplays. His work has been honored with a Pulitzer Prize, among many other accolades. He has, at various points, worked as a translator, counter-intelligence officer, editor, and professor. His newest novel, Hell, allows the ever-inventive Butler to cast many surprising historical and contemporary characters down into the underworld. (11:30 am)
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photo by Linda Nylind
LORRIE MOORE
Lorrie Moore is the author of three short story collections and three novels, the recipient of fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim, Lannan, and Rockefeller Foundations, and the winner of the Rae Award for the Short Story and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize. A Gate at the Stairs, her newest novel and her first book since 1998’s acclaimed Birds of America, is an ambitious and visceral examination of racism, war, young love, and employment as a part-time nanny. Co-sponsored by the Hamline University Creative Writing Program. (2:30 pm)
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Acclaimed writers on the art and beauty of the everyday:
photo by Toshi Otsuki
DIANE ACKERMAN
Diane Ackerman is a poet, essayist, naturalist, and the author of two dozen works of nonfiction and poetry. She is the recipient of the Orion Book Award, the John Burroughs Nature Award, the Lavan Poetry Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. (Fun fact: the molecule dianeackerone, a sex pheromone in crocodilians, is named after her.) Her most recent work of literary naturalism, Dawn Light, explores what life is up to when the sun comes up. (10:30 am)
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photo by Brigitte Lacombe
RUTH REICHL—POSTPONED
Ruth Reichl, Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine, was scheduled to be interviewed onstage by Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl at this year's Book Festival, however this week's surprise shutdown of Gourmet necessitates that she postpone her visit to the Twin Cities. We will work diligently to reschedule this event.
photo by Erinn Hartmann
DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY
Wildlife artist David Allen Sibley started birding at the age of seven. He is now the author and illustrator of more than a dozen acclaimed books and field guides on American avian life, including the fastest selling bird book of all time, The Sibley Guide to Birds. Lightning is bound to strike twice with the soon-to-be-released Sibley Guide to Trees. Mr. Sibley will give a visual presentation on how he researches and illustrates these amazing books. (12:30 pm)
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Celebrated poets from different countries:
photo by Jerry Bauer
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI
Acclaimed poet, novelist, and essayist Adam Zagajewski is one of Poland’s most famous literary figures, and his talent has influenced many English-speaking poets as well. In addition to such acclaimed poetry volumes such as Without End, Mysticism for Beginners, and Canvas, he has also published the memoir Another Beauty and two prose collections. His newest volume of verse, Eternal Enemies, came out earlier this year. Co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota Creative Writing Program and its Edelstein-Keller Endowment. (12:30 pm)
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CHRISTIAN BÖK
The sound poet Christian Bök can read very fast. He can willingly enslave himself to the tyranny of a single vowel. He can build books out of toys. He can create and translate alien languages, having worked as a xenolinguist for Gene Roddenberry and Peter Benchley. And his Eunoia—the single bestselling Canadian poetry book of all time—won the Griffin Poetry Prize and is newly released here in the states. Listen carefully... Co-sponsored by Target Free Thursday Nights at the Walker Art Center. (2:30 pm)
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And pop culture creators and connoisseurs:
GABRIELLE BELL
Gabrielle Bell was born in England, raised in California, and currently resides in Brooklyn. Not ten years ago she was self-publishing her own mini-comics; since the turn of the century she has published the acclaimed autobiographical work Lucky, placed her work twice in the Best American Comics series, and appeared in the prestigious Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction. Her newest collection, Cecil and Jordan in New York, includes a story that Bell and noted film director Michel Gondry adapted for Gondry’s latest film, Tokyo! Co-sponsored by the Comic Art Program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. (3:30 pm)
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ETHAN GILSDORF
Ethan Gilsdorf's book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks is a travel-memoir quest that explains and celebrates fantasy and gaming subcultures, whether inspired by fictions like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, or by role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and World of Warcraft. Gilsdorf will introduce some of the characters he encountered in his journeys across this world and other worlds; he will then invite audience members to share their "geekiest moment" onstage. PS: the audience is also encouraged to attend in costume—prizes will be awarded! (1:30 pm)
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PLUS: Meetings of the Minds on Writing and Publishing:
Panel Discussion: The Future of Poetry (10:30 am)
Join us as esteemed poet-critic Stephen Burt leads five fellow explorers on an investigation into where contemporary poetry is heading. Along the way this all-star group of poets, publishers, critics and activists will discuss poetry’s audiences, its cliques and claques, its models and its precedents, and some of its best examples. Panelists are sure to disagree!
Stephen Burt’s most recent book, Close Calls with Nonsense: Reading New Poetry (Graywolf Press) confirms his status as “one of the leading poet-critics of his own emerging generation” (Publishers Weekly) He also writes about rock music, comics, and science fiction on occasion, and is the author of the poetry volumes Parallel Play and Popular Music and the critical studies The Forms of Youth and Randall Jarrell and His Age. He teaches in the English Department at Harvard University.
Ed Bok Lee is the author of Real Karaoke People (New Rivers Press), which was a national poetry bestseller and won a PEN/Beyond Margins Award, an Asian American Literary Award, and an Urban Griots Best Book Award. He also writes plays, essays, and fiction, and has performed his poetry at over 300 venues worldwide and on MTV. He holds an MFA from Brown University and is an Assistant Professor of creative writing at Metropolitan State University.
Joyelle McSweeney is co-founder and co-editor of Action Books, a poetry and translation press. Her first book of poetry, The Red Bird, took home the Fence Modern Poets Series Prize in 2001; her most recent collection is The Commandrine and Other Poems (Fence Books). She also translates Virgil, and has written the lyrical science fiction novels Nylund, the Sarcographer and Flet. She teaches in the English Department at the University of Notre Dame.
Alexs Pate teaches African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota, and is the author of the soon-to-be-released book In the Heart of the Beat: the Poetry of Rap (Scarecrow Books). His fiction has won several awards, including Best First Novel for Losing Absalom from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and he was crowned an “Achiever Who Will Lead the Next Generation” in literature by USA Today.
Elizabeth Robinson has twice received the Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative Contemporary Poetry. Her most recent book of poetry is The Orphan & Its Relations (Fence Books); others of her eight published volumes include Pure Descent, winner of the National Poetry Series, and Apprehend, winner of the Fence Modern Poets Series. She co-edits EtherDome Press, which publishes chapbooks by emerging women poets, and is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop.
Matvei Yankelevich is the founding editor of Ugly Duckling Presse and the author of the experimental book-length poem The Present Work. He teaches Russian Literature at Hunter College in New York, and is the translator of Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms (Overlook Press) and co-translator of OBERIU: An Anthology of Russian Absurdism (Northwestern University Press).
Publishing Workshop: From Idea to Manuscript to Book
(3:30 pm)
Join us as local authors from various genres describe how they started with an idea and successfully steered it to publication. The presenting authors are all members of the Twin Cities chapter of the National Writers Union, which is sponsoring the workshop.
Jane Gilgun, a professor of Social Work at the University of Minnesota, will describe her successes in self-publishing and marketing numerous books and calendars online.
Kathryn Kysar, winner of numerous awards for her poetry, will share tales of editing her recent anthology of essays, Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers.
Jacqueline Mosio will discuss collaborating with the skydiving granny who’s the subject of their new book, Getting a Jump on Life—including how they survived a digital disaster.
Paul Zerby, a member of the TC-NWU steering committee, will moderate the workshop. Zerby’s new novel, The Grass, was selected as a finalist for the Bellwether Prize, which supports literature that makes a positive impact on social change.
AND IN OUR STORYTELLING CIRCLE
We are pleased to feature acclaimed children's authors from near and far, sure to please both the truly young and the young at heart. This year’s lineup includes:
Emilie Buchwald (a.k.a Daisy Bix)
Honored in 2002 with a McKnight Distinguished Artist Fellowship, Emilie Buchwald is the publisher of Gryphon Press, cofounder of Milkweed Editions, and the editor of nearly two hundred books. She is also an acclaimed children’s book author, and will launch the fun in this year’s Storytelling Circle with a reading of Buddy Unchained, a moving story about a patient pup who is adopted into a good home after being badly treated. Buddy Unchained was named Best Children’s Picture Book of the Year in 2007 by the Humane Society, and won an ASPCA Henry Bergh Award as Best Children's Picture Book of the Year. (Ages 3-7) (10:30 am)
John Coy
An athlete as well as an author, John Coy often weaves together sports and literature for children and young adults. His books have been honored with awards and acclaim from the American Library Association, Reading Rainbow, Horn Book Fanfare, Nickelodeon, and the American Horticultural Society. Two Old Potatoes and Me is an emotionally rich picture book about a father and daughter team who start up a backyard garden from two scary-looking and inedible potatoes. Top of the Order is a middle-grade novel of baseball, friends, family, and all the ways they can overlap and complicate each other; according to Booklist, it “underscores the importance of teamwork, bonding, and being open to change both on and off the field.” (Ages 4-12) (12:30 pm)
Julie Crabtree
California writer Julie Crabtree’s work will appeal to children within reach of becoming young adults. “I focus on coming of age themes,” she says. “I think the years when kids are caught in between childhood and adolescence, about 10-13, are pivotal and strange and difficult and wonderful... I remember one afternoon in fifth grade, my mother took me shopping for my first bra. I was feeling so mature and sophisticated. Yet on the same trip, I talked her into buying me an inflatable Barbie pool. I remember feeling embarrassed about the childishness of the toy, but I really wanted it too...it’s that feeling I try to capture…a bra in one hand and a Barbie pool in the other.” Her newly published first book, Discovering Pig Magic, won the 2008 Milkweed Prize for Children’s Literature and was dubbed a “Debut to Watch” by Publisher’s Weekly. (Ages 8 and up) (3:00 pm)
Matthea Harvey
Join us as The Little General and the Giant Snowflake marches into the Storytelling Circle! A playful and charming allegory, this illustrated tale by award-winning poet Matthea Harvey chronicles the maneuvers of two opposing armies, the Realists and the Dreamers, as well as the magically subversive powers of enormous snowflakes. It’s “like a dream I remember having as a happy child,” blurbs famed children’s author Peter Sís. Both the truly young and the young at heart are welcome to attend! Matthea Harvey is a poet and teacher whose books of poetry include Modern Life (winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award in 2007). The Little General and the Giant Snowflake is her first book for young readers. (All ages) (1:30 pm)
Alison McGhee
Alison McGhee writes books for readers of every imaginable age. She is a Pulitzer Prize nominee and winner of numerous awards, including an ALA Best Books for Children Award, the Parents’ Choice Award, and the Minnesota Book Award. She is also an associate professor of creative writing at Metropolitan State University, and a founding member of Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Her latest books are Always, an adorable epic of a picture book in which a small dog keeps a small house safe from spiders, rats, meteors and the sea itself; and Only A Witch Can Fly, which tells a soaring tale in sestina form, beautifully illustrated. These lyrical books will delight both eyes and ears. (Ages 3-7) (11:30 am)
Phyllis Root
Phyllis Root’s dozens of children’s books have won several honors, including the Minnesota Picture Book Award and the Boston Globe Horn Book Award; her book What Baby Wants was chosen as a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. In addition to this seemingly endless supply of vivid stories, richly illustrated, Phyllis teaches in the MFA Writing for Children program at Hamline University. Her latest book is Toot Toot Zoom!, a funny, fast, and noisy tale about finding friends where you least expect them. (Ages 3-7) (2:30 pm)
READ WITH A DOG!
Dogs can't read, but they make great listeners! Join the Minnesota Valley Humane Society’s Animal Ambassadors for some fun reading sessions, where children can practice their reading skills in a relaxed environment with these amiable animals. We'll supply the books, and each child who attends can even take home a free book! Minnesota Valley's dog and human teams are made up of MVHS volunteers and staff who share their well-trained pets with people of all ages at public events. (All ages) (11:00 am, 12:00 pm, 1:00 pm, & 2:00 pm)
Book Arts Fun
This year at the Festival, make a customized button with the Minnesota Center for Book Arts! Come dig through old books, comics, and scrap papers and find images and words to bring back to life in your button. Then, watch MCBA's button-making machine turn your bookish art into a glossy, hip little button that you can wear. Children and adults are welcome! (10:00 am to 3:30 pm)
CLICK HERE for a complete schedule of Storytelling Events
Click here to download a flyer for the Children's Storytelling Circle!
MORNING MIXER: 10:00–10:30am
Each year, Minnesota writers publish great books with out-of-state presses who aren't able to exhibit at the Festival. We're celebrating some of these new releases with a “morning mixer”—a chance for readers to meet and greet the authors! Books will be available for purchase and the authors will be happy to sign them. Authors appearing will include:
Zander Cannon, illustrator of T-Minus: The Race to the Moon
and The Stuff of Life
Marisha Chamberlain, author of The Rose Variations
Heid E. Erdrich, author of National Monuments
Catherine Friend, author of The Compassionate Carnivore
Ruthann Godellei, co-author of Road Show: Art Cars
and the Museum of the Streets
Marya Hornbacher, author of Madness: A Bipolar Life
David Housewright, author of Jelly's Gold
Julie Kramer, author of Missing Mark
Kate Ledger, author of Remedies
John Minczeski, author of Letter to Serafin
Julie Schaper and Steven Horwitz, editors of Amplified: Fiction from Leading
Alt-Country, Indie Rock, Blues and Folk Musicians
Joining these terrific writers will be plenty of locally published authors as well. Drop by, say hello, and get the Festival off to a great start!