
2:00 PM – Jt Stewart, Pesha Joyce Gertler, Felicia Gonzalez & Jourdan Keith: Cultural Collisions: Women Writers & Their Craft
SPL Beacon Hill Branch
“JT Stewart, lead artist of La Jefa, writes poetry, fiction, and plays, and teaches writing at Hugo House and The Seattle Public Library. Pesha Joyce Gertler, 2005 Seattle Poet Populist, teaches writing at North Seattle Community College and the UW Women’s Center. Poet Felicia Gonzalez, born and raised in Cuba, is a Jack Straw Writers program alum, and as received awards from Artist Trust, Washington State Arts Commission, 4Culture, and the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. Jourdan Imani Keith, 2006 Seattle Poet Populist and The Seattle Public Library’s first Naturalist-in-Residence, is a playwright, storyteller, and educator.” –EBBC
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2:00 PM – Patricia K. Batta: Why Did You Die in the Park?
Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Tea and conversation with the author.
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4:30 PM – Mishna Wolff: I’m Down
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“In a memoir that is frequently hilarious, occasionally terrifying, and ultimately bittersweet, Wolff forces readers to consider whether racial identity is the result of nature, derived through nurture, or constructed and reconstructed throughout life. The author was born to white parents and raised into early adolescence mostly by her father, a man who worked harder to remake his own and his children’s identities as black than he did at earning a living…Wolff writes fluidly and offers moments of great insight through story rather than through explanation, making it easy for readers to engage with the child’s questions and growing frustrations. An excellent choice for discussion in ethnic identity curricula, but absorbing reading, too.” –Francisca Goldsmith, School Library Journal
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6:00 PM – Todd Shimoda: Oh! A Mystery of Mono No Aware
Panama Hotel
“The event, like another one held on Thursday, June 25, at the Kobo Gallery, also in Seattle, will feature both the author and the artist, as well as display copies of the original artwork used in the book.”
I was sick on Thursday, and thus neglected this column, so didn’t announce Shimoda’s Kobo visit, to my chagrin. Please extend apologies on my behalf, should you have the opportunity, tonight.
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7:30 PM – Beth Taylor: The Plain Language of Love and Loss
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“Beth Taylor’s memoir is one of the most tender and moving books I’ve read in a long time. Written with poise and grace, never falling into self-pity, The Plain Language of Love and Loss, will surely touch the heart of anyone who has found the means to salvage a kind of meaning out of great tragedy. This is a book I will not forget.” – Tim O’Brien
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NOTE: Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park is technically out of the range of this blog, but Candy Tan, co-owner (with Sarah Wendell) of the snarktastic Romance review blog “Smart Bitches, Trashy Books” is in town, and she is ONLY reading and signing at Third Place Books, 6:30 PM, this evening (Woe! Oh, woe!). Candy and Sarah are the authors of Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels, the definitive overview of the romance genre. I have the Smart Bitches to thank for a whole lot of really good (and really terrible) reading material over the past few years. The good has been wonderful; the bad has been hysterical. The Bitches have never led me astray. Check out their blog at http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/.
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