August 17, 2009
By BookNerd at 3:08 pm
In anticipation of the last Nabokov novel (or, stack of 138 index cards roughly equalling a novel), The Original of Laura, due out in November, I’ve been reading one Nabokov novel a month. (Previously in BookNerd: Pnin , Lolita , and Invitation to a Beheading .) I had a hell of a time coming to [...] read more →
August 12, 2009
By BookNerd at 10:56 am
Opium Magazine started the Literary Death Match in New York as an antidote to the dreary old literary reading. Since then it’s travelled to Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Boston, London, Beijing—and now Seattle. Tomorrow night, Opium editor Todd Zuniga will host Seattle’s first Literary Death Match at the Rendezvous’ Jewelbox Theater. The format: Four writers [...] read more →
By BookNerd at 9:02 am
Crystal Barbre has won the latest Vital 5 Arbitrary Art Grants award. Last Friday, writers "applied" for a $500 grant by contributing to a collaborative novel about a ping pong ball. The winner was decided by the ping pong balls . Read all the entries here . The next Arbitrary Art Grant is coming up [...] read more →
August 10, 2009
By BookNerd at 10:11 am
Poet Frank O’Hara was also an influential art critic (and a curator at the Museum of Modern Art). An integral part of the New York art world in the 1950s and ’60s, O’Hara hung out with painters; Elaine de Kooning, John Buttons, and Alex Katz painted him; Jasper Johns illustrated one of his books; and [...] read more →
August 7, 2009
By BookNerd at 10:26 am
Monologist Mike Daisey ‘s process is simple, really. He sits down on a stage in front of an audience and talks, Spalding Gray-style. No script, just talking. He weaves personal stories with historical facts and philosophical inquiry, transfixing audiences and critics alike. Of course, it’s not that simple. Before taking his shows to New York, [...] read more →
August 6, 2009
By BookNerd at 3:09 pm
Matt Briggs posted an interview today with poet and Temple Bookstore founder Charlie Potts over at Reading Local Seattle. Potts talks about a reading series he started in 1967 called “The Theodore Roethke Gladness Wakes” at the Zig Zag Gallery and Pot Shop in the Pike Place Market, and about a class he co-taught called [...] read more →
August 5, 2009
By BookNerd at 3:56 pm
Tonight, poetry people will want to head over to the Subtext Reading Series to hear the transcendent meanderings of painter/poet/translator Norma Cole. She was in France for the ’68 general strike, hung out with Robert Duncan and the like in the ’80s, and has been writing, teaching, and making art in San Francisco ever since. [...] read more →
August 2, 2009
By BookNerd at 3:04 pm
Ryan Boudinot has been called the "Dr. Frankenstein of short fiction" and "a new and dangerous cross between Vonnegut and Barthelme." He was recently chosen as a Writer-in-Residence for Richard Hugo House, and his first novel, Misconception , comes out next month. A good sport, Boudinot responded speedily to this inaugural BookNerd Vanity Fair Questionnaire. [...] read more →
July 31, 2009
By BookNerd at 3:11 pm
The best readings this weekend are happening at the Arab Festival at Seattle Center. Rabih Alameddine At 4 p.m. on Saturday, featured novelist Rabih Alameddine reads from The Hakawati , the story of Osama al-Kharrat’s return to Beirut where he visits his dying father. It’s received numerous glowing reviews , including a starred review from [...] read more →
July 27, 2009
By BookNerd at 11:37 am
If you’ve walked through Pioneer Square on First Avenue, you’ve probably walked by Wessel and Lieberman. (I have many times, being a particular fan of their bargain bookshelves out front.) They’ve been selling rare, antiquarian, and artists’ books there since 1992, but they also sell new books–hand-sewn chapbooks (in the “fine prints” section across from [...] read more →
July 24, 2009
By BookNerd at 10:50 am
Friday: Howard Dean is at Town Hall tonight reading from his Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform. (7pm, free) Dean Saturday: No readings Saturday. Everyone really is going to the block party. Read Anand’s, AKA MusicNerd’s picks here. Sunday: Gallery 1412′s Readings has experimental poet/smarties Jeanne Heuving (Transducer, former fellow at Yale), Holly Melgard (PhD candidate [...] read more →
July 20, 2009
By BookNerd at 4:20 pm
Tomorrow at noon, local mystery superstar J.A. Jance is signing copies of her new book Fire and Ice at Seattle Mystery Book Shop. read more →
