Upcoming Alexandra Teague Poetry Readings

Alexandra Teague, author of Mortal Geography (2010), will be featured at two upcoming readings!

The Beacon Hill Reading Series

Thursday, October 25^th

The Hagan Foundation Center at SCC

6:30pm

EWU’s Visiting Writers Series

Friday, October 26^th

Riverpoint Campus, Phase 1 Auditorium

7:00pm

 

Alexandra Teague is a former Stegner Fellow and NEA Fellow whose poetry has appeared in Best New Poets 2008 and Best American Poetry 2009, as well as many notable journals, including The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review, and Prairie Schooner.

Her debut collection, Mortal Geography, won both the 2009 Lexi Rudnitsky Prize and the 2010 California Book Award. Drawing from sources as diverse as travelogue, ESL, and Dungeons and Dragons, Mortal Geography keeps readers on their toes with its balancing act of chaos and structure. Poems about the madness of public transportation appear in sonnet form while poems about love take on unexpected forms, as in this mindbender, "Two Drafts Written After a Fight":

I.

Do I love you: yes or no?
The question: Is love a figure of speech?

I do - sometimes. Everyone wonders about our love; still,
there can be no doubt I have been true (almost always).

Happily remembering the start of our romance; it seemed
so promising ...

And is love continual happiness or not?
Is not what matters?

I cannot tell you who I want to spend my life with.
Enough about our love.


II.

Do I love you? Yes or no - the question is, love,
a figure of speech. I do.

(Sometimes everyone wonders.)
About our love, still, there can be no doubt.

I have been true, almost always happily
remembering the start of our romance;

it seemed so promising, and is. Love,
continual happiness or not is not what matters.

I cannot tell you, who I want to spend my life with,
enough about our love.



What else is there to say? This is not a poet to miss.

Spokane is Reading with Chris Cleave

This Friday, October 12th, will be the 11th Annual Spokane is Reading. If you've never been before, Spokane is Reading is a series of events organized by the Spokane Public Library, the Spokane Country Library District, and Auntie's Bookstore. Every year, they bring an influential author to Spokane to discuss one of his or her books with the community.

This year's visiting author is Chris Cleave, who will discuss his international bestseller Little Bee at two free presentations:

The Garland Theater - 1pm
924 W Garland Ave

The Lincoln Center, Monroe Ballroom - 7pm

Not familiar with the novel? The publisher has this to say...

"We don't want to tell you too much about this book. It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this: It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book doesn't. And it's what happens afterward that is most important. Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds."

Chris Cleave is the author of Incendiary (2005), which inspired the film of the same name. His most recent novel is Gold (2012).

For more information about Chris Cleave, visit his website: chriscleave.com

For more about Spokane is Reading, visit: spokaneisreading.org/2012

See Sherman Alexie This Friday!

If you haven’t yet, head over to Auntie’s Bookstore and get your tickets for this Friday’s Sherman Alexie reading! He’ll be introducing his new collection, Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories, at North Central High School.

 Booklist says, "He is mischievously and mordantly funny, scathingly forthright, deeply and universally compassionate, and wholly magnetizing. This is a must-have collection."

When: Friday, October 5. 7:00 p.m. Doors open at 6:45.
Where: North Central High School, 1600 N. Howard St., Spokane, WA.

Tickets available through Auntie’s.

"Cannibalistic Undertones" and Other Not-So-Common Threats

Get out your Sherman Alexie novels and Maurice Sendak illustrations. It's time to celebrate Banned Books Week.

Banned Books Week started in 1982, the same year that the Supreme Court ruled that “local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.” This landmark decision made banning books much more difficult, but it didn’t stop people from trying. 

In 2011, there were a reported 326 book challenges, or attempts to "remove or restrict materials based upon the objections of a person or group." Even The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, has faced a challenge or two. When an individual or group complains about a book to a local library, the library decides whether or not to remove the material, and since libraries are dedicated to the right to read, challenges rarely result in actual bans; but over the years, the attempts have only gotten more…interesting.

A Light in the Attic: You might remember this Shel Silverstein collection for its fun rhymes and odd illustrations, but do you remember the parts about anarchy and barbarism?  In 1985, it was challenged because it "encourages children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them." Then in 1986 it was challenged again because it "glorified Satan, suicide and cannibalism, and also encouraged children to be disobedient."

 The Diary of Anne Frank: Not only did this text shed light on one of the most horrific and significant moments in human history, it did so in such a way that young readers could gain a better understanding of their own humanity. Unfortunately, it was also “a real downer,” which is why it was challenged in 1985 by the Alabama State Textbook Committee.

Where’s Waldo?: Did anyone ever figure out where he was? Surely a few people did. Others--actually hordes of others--gave up the hunt for the man in the striped hat when they noticed the pea-sized topless woman lying face down on a beach towel. And where did they go? Straight to their local libraries, making this one of the most challenged books of the 90s.  

If you've got a favorite book that's been banned or challenged somewhere, you should join in the Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out. Check it out, here.

Sources: bannedbooksweek.org, ala.org, and howstuffworks.com