December 2008 Events

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Events

< December 2008 >

Events listed in white are at the bookshop; events listed in yellow are elsewhere.

Unless noted otherwise all events are free & open to the public.

(Click on a picture or a title to check our inventory or to purchase.)

Wednesday, December 3rd at 4:00 P.M. (Book launch party)

Join us in celebrating the publication of a new book by Stanley Rabinowitz, Ballet’s Magic Kingdom: Selected Writings on Dance in Russia, 1911-1925 by Akim Volynsky. Volynsky was a Russian literary critic, journalist, & art historian who became Saint Petersburg’s liveliest & most prolific ballet critic in the early part of the twentieth century. This book, the first English edition of his provocative & influential writings, provides a striking look at life inside the world of Russian ballet at a crucial era in its history. Rabinowitz is Henry Steele Commager Professor & professor of Russian, Amherst College, & director of the Amherst Center for Russian Culture.

Thursday, December 4th at 8:00 P.M. (Reading)

Leni Zumas & Pamela Thompson will read in Memorial Hall at the University of Massachusetts as part of the M.F.A. Program's Visiting Writers Series. Zumas is author of a collection of fiction, Farewell Navigator, which Joy Williams said was “fearless & swift, sassy & sensational.” Her fiction has appeared in Open City, Quarterly West, & New Orleans Review. She is a winner of the AWP Intro Journals Award for Short Fiction. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts–Amherst MFA program, she teaches writing at Hunter College & plays drums in the Brooklyn post-punk band S-S-S-Spectres. Andrea Barret, writing of Thompson's novel, Every Past Thing said that she had “not been so moved by a novel in years; it seems to me truly stunning.” Thompson received her M.F.A. in writing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she studied with John Edgar Wideman & received the faculty's annual prize. For the last decade, she has been the editorial director at Interlink Books/Olive Branch Press in Northampton. Her novel, Consolation, was a finalist in the William Faulkner Novel-in-Progress competition.

Friday, December 5th 5:00—6:30 P.M.(Pre-holiday book signing extravaganza!)

Meet local authors Chris Bachelder, Christopher Benfey, Constance Congdon, John Crowley, Corinne Demas, Todd Felton, Amity Gaige, Norton Juster, Donald Kroodsma, Paul Mariani, Barry Moser, Sabina Murray, Lisa Papademtriou, Stefan Petrucha, Ilan Stavans, David Toomey, Dede Wilson—& have them autograph their books for holiday gifts! All books by participating authors will be discounted 10%!

Bachelder, who teaches fiction in the M.F.A. Program at the University of Massachusetts, is author of numerous short stories & two novels—Bear v. Shark & U.S.! A Novel.

Benfey teaches at Mt. Holyoke College & is author of many books, including The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, & the Opening of Old Japan, & recently, A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, & Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, & Martin Johnson Heade .

Congdon, a playwright who currently teaches at Amherst College, is author of number of plays, including Tales of the Lost Formicans. She recently translated, with Virigina Scott, Molière’s Tartuffe.

Crowley, is author of many novels, including Little, Big & Endless Things, the last novel in the Ægypt tetrology.

Demas, who teaches Mt. Holyoke College, is author of novels, short stories, & many books for children, including, Yuck! Stuck in the Muck & Always in Trouble

Felton is author of a series of illustrated travel books, including A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England & Walking Boston: 36 Tours Through Beantown's Cobblestone Streets, Historic Districts, Ivory Towers & New Waterfront.

Gaige, who teaches at Mt. Holyoke College, is author of two novels, O My Darling, & The Folded World.

Juster, perhaps most famous for his The Phantom Tollbooth, has just published a new children's book, Sourpuss & Sweetie Pie.

Kroodsma teaches at the University of Massachusetts. He is author of numerous books on birds, including The Singing Life of Birds: The Art & Science of Listening to Birdsong & The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Eastern & Central North America.

Mariani has published volumes of poetry, most recently,Deaths & Transfigurations, as well as biographies of modern poets, including William Carlos Williams, Robert Lowell, & most recently, Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Moser, a renowned artist, most famous as a printmaker & illustrator of numerous works of literature, including The Holy Bible, &, most recently, Jack London’s Dog.

Murray, who teaches at the University of Massachusetts, writes screenplays, short stories & has two novels, viz. The Carnivore’s Inquiry, & Forgery; .

Papademetriou has written over thirty books for children—her most recent books include, Accidentally Famous & Drop

Petrucha, who is author of many novels for teens. Among them are Teen, Inc., & recently, The Rule of Won

Stavans, who teaches at Amherst College, is author & editor of many books, including most recently, Mr. Spic Goes to Washington & Resurrecting Hebrew

Toomey, who teaches writing at the University of Massachusetts, is author of Stormchasers: The Hurricane Hunters & Their Fateful Flight into Hurricane Janet & The New Time Travelers: A Journey to the Frontiers of Physics

Wilson is author of many dessert cookbooks, including A Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies, & the recently published The Birthday Cake Book: 75 Recipes for Candle-Worthy Creations

Friday, December 5th at 8:00 P.M.(Reading)

“Live Lit” Students in the M.F.A. Program at the University of Massachusetts will read from their recent work. Evenings usually include a mix of poetry & fiction. Tonight’s readers TBA.

Saturday, December 6th at 11:00 A.M.(Reading)

For kids & grown-ups! Corinne Demas will read her new book for children ages 4 to 8. Always in Trouble is about Emma's dog Toby & how he misbehaves until she takes him back to obedience school to become a “specially trained dog.” As an added bonus, she will read from her delightful tale about Willamouse & Annamouse & Santamouse—Two Christmas Mice. Demas is author of many books for children as well as two adult novels, two collections of stories, & a memoir. She teaches at Mt. Holyoke College & is a Fiction Editor for the The Massachusetts Review.

Wednesday, December 10th at 5:30 P.M.(Book launch party)

Join Edwin Gentzler, Julie Hayes & Maria Tymoczko in celebrating the publication of their new books on translation! Gentzler's new book, Translation & Identity in the Americas shows that translation is one of the primary means by which a culture is constructed: translation in the Americas is less something that happens between separate & distinct cultures and more something that is capable of establishing those very cultures. Using a variety of texts and addressing minority and oppressed groups within cultures, Gentzler highlights by example the cultural role translation policies play in a discriminatory process: the consequences of which can be social marginalization, loss of identity & psychological trauma. Hayes' Translation, Subjectivity & Culture in France & England, 1600-1800 examines the evolution of neoclassical translation theory from its origins among the first generation of French Academicians to its subsequent importation to England by royalist exiles, its development under the influence of such translator-critics as John Dryden & Anne Dacier, & its evolution in response to the philosophical and political ideas of the Enlightenment. And Maria Tymoczko's new book, Enlarging Translation, Empowering Translators calls for radical inclusionary approaches to translation, including a greater internationalization of the field. The book investigates the implications of the expanding but open definition of translation, as well as the empowerment & agency of the translator. Tymoczko is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts. Gentzler is Professor of Comparative Literature & Director of the Translation Center at the University of Massachusetts, & Hayes is Professor of French & Chair of Languages, Literatures, & Cultures at the University of Massachusetts.

Thursday, December 25th at 3:00 P.M. (3rd Annual Robert Walser Memorial Reading)

The Swiss writer Robert Walser died 50 years ago on this day. Walser (1878-1956) left school at fourteen & led a wandering, precarious existence while producing poems, essays, stories, & novels. In 1933 he entered an insane asylum—he remained there for the rest of his life—& quit writing. “I am not here to write,” he said, “ but to be mad.” He went for a walk on the 25th of December of 1956 & was found, dead of a heart attack, in a field of snow near the asylum. Books in translation include, Robber, Jakob Von Gunten, & Selected Stories. For more information, see the Wikipedia article.

Besides basilopita (Greek New Year's bread), there will be wine, seltzer, sweet & spiced things to be enjoyed while

—Lewis Freedman reads from The Robber
—Nathaniel Otting reads ”Do You Know Meier?“
—Emily Toder & Nat Herold read from Toder's translation of the opening scene (set in a bookstore!) of Els Germans Tanner, the Catalan translation of Geschwister Tanner, Walser's first novel, coming this Spring, as The Tanners (New Directions), in Susan Bernofsky's new translation...
—encores involving anyone else who wants to read Walser (a selection of unpublished & published work will be on hand) &, if a quorum is present, a sampling from the Robert Walser Society of Western Massachusetts, whose Minutes will be published in January. For more about the society & the Reading of the Minutes on January 25th, please visit walserco.wordpress.com.

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