A Black man’s life, told in scenes — through every time he’s been called nigger. A Black son who visits his estranged white father in Los Angeles just as the ’92 riots begin. A Black Republican, coping with a skin disease that has turned him white, is forced to reconsider his life. A young Black man, fetishized by a married white woman he’s just met, is offered a strange and tempting proposal. The nine tales in Chris Stuck’s Give My Love to the Savages (Amistad) illuminate the multifaceted Black experience, exploring the thorny intersections of race, identity, and Black life through an extraordinary cast of characters. From the absurd to the starkly realistic, these stories take aim at the ironies and contradictions of the American…
Comments closedTag: fiction
Matthew Clark Davison’s Doubting Thomas (Amble Press) chronicles a challenging and disruptive year in the life of a young, gay teacher in the waning years of Obama’s America. Thomas McGurrin is a fourth-grade teacher and openly gay man at a private primary school serving Portland, Oregon’s wealthy progressive elite when he is falsely accused of inappropriately touching a male student. The accusation comes just as Thomas is thrust back into the center of his unusual family by his younger brother’s battle with cancer. Although cleared of the accusation, Thomas is forced to resign from a job he loves during a potentially life-changing family drama. Davison’s novel explores the discrepancy between the progressive ideals and persistent negative stereotypes among the privileged regarding social status, race, and…
Comments closedOur first YA for Adults book is Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. The group will be limited to 10 people, so sign up early!
Comments closedIt began with a comet… At first, people gazed in wonder at the radiant tear in the sky. A year later, the celestial marvel became a planetary crisis when Earth spun through the comet’s debris field and the sky rained fire. The town of Northfall, Minnesota, will never be the same. Meteors cratered hardwood forests and annihilated homes, and among the wreckage a new metal was discovered. This “omnimetal” has properties that make it world-changing as an energy source… and a weapon. John Frontier — the troubled scion of an iron-ore dynasty in Northfall — returns for his sister’s wedding to find his family embroiled in a cutthroat war to control mineral rights and mining operations. His father rightly suspects foreign leaders and competing corporations…
Comments closedTHE MASK is the first in an ongoing series of lectures/salons investigating the components of craft, embodiment, and perception. During each event, we’ll take a different lens to the question “how do these interrelated undertakings interact with a holistic creative practice?” Masks aren’t just tools of performance—they can also be an important ritual artifact. When we introduce an obstructing layer between ourselves and the world, we further our own power to move beyond a limiting view of the self. We’ll explore the topic deeply over the course of an hour and a half through a combination of lecture, discussion, and generative writing. [Register for the Event Via the Website]
Comments closedWe will meet on Thursday May 27th at 6:30pm and discuss High Moor by Graeme Reynolds. About the book: When John Simpson hears of a bizarre animal attack in his old home town of High Moor, it stirs memories of a long forgotten horror. John knows the truth. A werewolf stalks the town once more, and on the night of the next full moon, the killing will begin again. He should know. He survived a werewolf attack in 1986, during the worst year of his life. It’s 1986 and the town is gripped in terror after the mutilated corpse of a young boy is found in the woods. When Sergeant Steven Wilkinson begins an investigation, with the help of a specialist hunter, he soon realises…
Comments closedThe “mad woman in the attic” is a common trope in gothic literature, but who is she? And how did she end up there? Integral to the gothic genre are stories of madness and haunting, which often serve as metaphors for social violence, race, gender and class warfare, and the abject. Stereotypically, the female protagonist in gothic literature plays the role of victim, but what about when she participates in her own monstrosity? In this seminar, we will explore some lesser known gothic novels with female protagonists who became “monstrous”, and explore the intersections between horror, mental illness, psychoanalysis, sexual repression, and gender identity in these female authored 20th century gothic works. Texts: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Wide Sargasso…
Comments closedAlex McElroy, The Atmospherians, in Conversation with Chelsea Bieker, Genevieve Hudson, and Kimberly King Parsons We are pleased to welcome former Portland (now Brooklyn) resident Alex McElroy reading from their debut novel The Atmospherians, in conversation with Chelsea Bieker, Genevieve Hudson, and Kimberly King Parsons. The Atmospherians follows two best friends—Sasha and Dyson—who start a cult to reform problematic men. Sasha Marcus was once the epitome of contemporary success: an internet sensation, social media darling, and creator of a popular women’s wellness brand. But a confrontation with an online troll has taken a horrifying turn, and now she’s at rock bottom, fortressed in her apartment while men’s rights protestors rage outside. All that once glittered now condemns. Sasha’s oldest childhood friend, Dyson—a failed actor with…
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