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Amherst Books
8 Main Street  Amherst, MA 01002  ·   413.256.1547  ·  800.503.5865  ·  books@amherstbooks.com
Events

< October 2005 >

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

All events are free & open to the public.

(Click on a picture to purchase.)
DirtyTricks
Rita Bleiman, Northampton City Councilwoman, will read from her rollicking new novel, Dirty Tricks.   Read more!
GeorgeSaunders
George Saunders will read in Memorial Hall at the University of Massachusetts.   Hailed by Thomas Pynchon as "graceful, dark, authentic, & funny," Saunders is author of several books, including two collections of stories—the New York Times Notable Book, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline & Pastoralia—as well as The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, & most recently, the book-long fable, The Brief & Frightening Reign of Phil.
JimMotavalli
As part of the Amherst Renewable Energy Fair (for more information, click here), Jim Motavalli will discuss fuel-efficient transporation at the Jones Library at 1:00 P.M.   Afterwards, Motavalli will sign copies of his books at Amherst Books.  Motavalli is editor of E Magazine, a national environmental bi-monthly, as well as author of many books, including Breaking Gridlock: Moving Toward Transportation that Works, Forward Drive: The Race to Build "Clean" Cars for the Future, Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Climate Change, & most recently, Green Living.  
WhatNarcissism ElegyonToyPiano
“Jubilat/Jones Reading Series”   The Fifth Anniversary Jubilat Party will be held in the Trustees Room at the Jones Library, with poets Tony Hoagland & Dean Young.   Hoagland's collections of poetry include What Narcissism Means to Me, Donkey Gospel, which received the James Laughlin Award, & Sweet Ruin chosen by Donald Justice for the 1992 Brittingham Prize in Poetry.
AmericanWhatever
Photographer & poet Tim Davis will read from his most recent collection of poetry, American Whatever.   Davis is a professor of photography at Bard College.   With multiple solo shows in the U.S., he has had solo exhibitions in Brussels, Geneva, London, & Milan.   Miles Champion wrote of his poetry, "Tim Davis's idea factory is open 24-7, tossing out paint chips in whatever colour you want, as long as it's frosted cocktail cherry.   Like Andy Kaufman slapping Ron Silliman in one of Joe Brainard's "Nancy" cartoons.   Is hair tonic really 40% proof?   Only your bartender knows for sure."
McClatchy
J. D. McClatchy will read.   McClatchy is the author of five books of poetry: Hazmat, which was nominated for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize; Ten Commandments, The Rest of the Way, Stars Principal, & Scenes from Another Life.   He has also published two collections of essays, edited more than twenty books, including The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry; continues to edit the acclaimed "Voice of the Poet" series for Random House AudioBooks; & has written many texts for musical settings, including eight opera libretti, for such composers as William Schuman, Ned Rorem, Lorin Maazel, Lowell Liebermann, & Elliot Goldenthal, performed in opera houses around the world.   Co-sponsored by Amherst College.
Emilyreading
“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.   This evening's performers are Sean Casey, Chris Deweese, Carson Cistulli & Justin Jamail.
1491
Charles Mann will talk about his most recent book, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, in the Pruyne Lecture Hall (Fayerweather 115) on the Amherst College campus.   Mann offers a radical rethinking of the history of the Americas before Columbus.   Jan Dizard said of the book that it "requires us to rethink virtually every assumption we have had about the Western Hemisphere before the arrival of Europeans."   Co-sponsored by the Amherst College Creative Writing Center & the Amherst College Sociology Department.   (Read more!)
SkepticTraveler
Amherst College professor Susan Snively will read from her new collection of poetry, Skeptic Traveler at the Alumni House, Amherst College.   Writing of the new volume, Annie Boutelle, says “Skeptic Traveler urges us to be much more than alert tourists: her poems model engagement with the natural world, with family & grief, & finally with where & how we live.   In sharp, sensual, ironic, witty poems (which offer many surprises, including surges into the passionate, or the sinister, or the political), Snively sets us on a voyage buoyed by dexterity & a strong iambic tide.   She offers us such unexpected delights as ‘shad roe, kielbasa, whole baby octopus,’ & she persuades us to follow those ‘who have found permission / to open the gates in the twining sentences / and lie down among fragrant perennials.’”   Read more!
MercyonTrial
Amherst College professor, Austin Sarat, will sign copies of his new book, Mercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop an Execution.   Read more!   Sarat is author of many books, including When the State Kills: Capital Punishment & the American Condition & co-editor, most recently of Dissent in Dangerous Times, The Limits of Law, & The Worlds Cause Lawyers Make: Structure & Agency in Legal Practice.
EricSawyer
Party & CD release concert to celebrate the pressing of a new cd by Eric Sawyer, professor of music at Amherst College.   Featured performers tonight will include: Elizabeth Chang, violin; Francine Trester, violin: & Rafael Popper-Keizer, cello; & other surprises.   Sawyer, who has held fellowships from the MacDowell Colony & Harvard, was founding director of the critically-acclaimed contemporary ensemble Longitude.   Recent performances include works on programs by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Brentano String Quartet, Seraphim Singers, Ensemble Phoenix, Radius Ensemble, Laurel Trio, Now & Then Chamber Players, Aurelius Ensemble, Opera Longy, Ives Quartet, Arden Quartet, Lighthouse Chamber Players, Earplay, & Empyrean.   He is completing an opera with poet John Shoptaw entitled Our American Cousin.   Composed from 1999 to 2002, the music on this CD reflects Sawyer's belief in the expressive power of harmony; as he writes “While new sonorities, textures & physical rhythms that have infused much recent music are all marvelous additions to the musical lexicon, it is the domain of harmony that can most provide a context of emotional resonance.”

Last updated 16 October, 2008

Last updated 16 October, 2008Site Map