at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave S, Minneapolis, 612.822.4611, www.magersandquinn.com
October 7, 7:30 p.m. – Karen Casey discusses Let Go Now: Embracing Detachment – So many of us spend so much time enmeshed in other people’s problems, trying to solve or change them, that we don’t really know where we begin and they end. Not reacting to people or situations that provoke us is not an easy skill to develop. Even the idea that someone else can make us feel happy (or beautiful or angry) or we them is an illusion, says Casey in her new book. Karen Casey is a sought-after speaker at recovery and spirituality conferences She conducts Change Your Mind workshops based on her book Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow. She and her husband divide their time between Florida and Minnesota. Visit her online at www.womens-spirituality.com.
October 8, 7:30 p.m. – Three authors of experimental fiction – Adam Golaski, John Cotter and Alan DeNiro – read from their work.
- Adam Golaski’s latest novel, Color Plates, is a museum, alive in the now crystallized brain of a sort-of Mary Cassatt. She’s dead, you know. Four rooms of Mary’s museum are open to the public, and they are named Éduoard Manet, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Mary Cassatt. Each room exhibits little stories – plates – drawn from real paintings by the painters who are the rooms’ namesakes. Adam Golaski is the author of the short story collection Worse Than Myself (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2008) and the editor, with Matthew Klane, of the anthologies A Sing Economy and Oh One Arrow from Flim Forum Press. He is also the editor and publisher of New Genre, an annual journal of literary and experimental horror and science fiction.
- John Cotter’s first novel, Under the Small Lights, was published this June by Miami University Press. Under the Small Lights traces five twentysomethings through two years of fights, hopes and fallout, the different roles they try, and the surprising way their natures betray those roles. Under the Small Lights addresses the doubtful possibility of collective love and the painful experiences which, once having endured them, we wouldn’t be without. John Cotter is a founding editor of the online magazine Open Letters Monthly, an arts & literature review dedicated to thoughtful and unbiased arts writing: new reviews, essays, poems, and blogs. John has published fiction and poetry in Volt, Hanging Loose and other journals.
- Alan DeNiro is the author of a collection of short stories (Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead) and a novel (Total Oblivion, More or Less). Booklist said of Total Oblivion, “There aren’t many writers who take weirdness as seriously as DeNiro does, and fewer still who can extract so much grounded emotion, gut-dropping humor, and rousing adventure from it. A dizzying display of often brilliant, always strange, and definitely unique storytelling.”
October 9, 7:30 p.m. -Â Two Poets: John Tottenham reads from The Inertia Variations, and Brian Beatty reads from his chapbook DUCK!
- When the original edition of The Inertia was published in 2005, it was hailed as “a terrific collection” by the Guardian, “quiescent genius” by Mojo Magazine, and “comedy gold” by 3AM Magazine, and turned poet John Tottenham into something of a minor celebrity in his neighborhood. Now a new edition, packed with fresh material and including a lengthy addenda, is available, twice as long and satisfying as the original. A multimedia interpretation of The Inertia Variations by English musician Matt Johnson (otherwise known as The The) is currently in production and a series of short 16mm films, directed by actor Adam Goldberg, will soon be making the rounds at film festivals.
- Brian Beatty’s writings have appeared in numerous print and online publications, including Conduit, elimae, The Evergreen Review, Exquisite Corpse, Gigantic, Gulf Coast, Hobart, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, METRO, mnartists.org, Opium, Phoebe, The Quarterly, The Rake and Seventeen. He was a grand prize winner of the 2009 miniStories contest, and is a frequent guest of the Rockstar Storytellers and Talking Image Connection reading series. He made his solo performance debut at the 2010 Minnesota Fringe Festival with “The Big Four Oh: 40 Jokes, Poems and Stories” by Brian Beatty.
October 10, 4 p.m. – Ann Mullaney discusses the Renaissance poet Teofilo Folengo – Local scholar Ann Mullaney takes us back to the Italian Renaissance. She will discuss her work translating Teofilo Folengo, an extraordinary writer who lived at the same time as Machiavelli and Michelangelo. Folengo is best known for the epic poem “Baldo,” named for its protagonist. Baldo is a smalltown thug with the heart of a knight. He and his ragtag band of friends drink and gamble, and fight police, pirates, witches, and demons. In 1527, Teofilo Folengo published a fascinating semi-autobiographical book called the Chaos of Triperuno (“Three-in-One”). We meet the protagonist at his conception, and witness his development as he struggles to form a single coherent self from among Folengo’s other established selves: Merlino (bon vivant bard, homosexual, prophet, priest and author of the epic Baldo and polemical letters, etc.); Limerno (feisty heterosexual court troubadour, author of the 1525 Orlandino); and Fulica (theologian, celibate hermit). These personae hold lively discussions on the meaning of life, love, fame, sex, language and much more. Folengo’s work has long been unavailable to readers of English. Ann Mullaney published the first English translation in 2007 as part of the I Tatti Renaissance Library from Harvard University Press. For more information, visit www.teofilofolengo.com.
October 12, 7:30 p.m. – Peter Smith reads from A Porch Sofa Almanac – Peter Smith lives in Hopkins, MN, and is a weekly contributor to Minnesota Public Radio’s Morning Edition with Cathy Wurzer. A Porch Sofa Almanac is the first collection of Smith’s essays for MPR – stories that keep close to the ground and reflect on the common experiences of being a Minnesotan: small-town football, stacks of Hudson’s Bay blankets in an antique store, ice fishing, and even those soggy gloves that emerge from melting snowbanks each spring. Following the calendar year, Smith’s reflections are the perfect season-by-season companion for that chair by the fireplace, a bench by the campfire, a seat on the bus or train – or, of course, a porch sofa. A Porch Sofa Almanac is a hilarious, often wry, and always remarkable portrait of everyday life in the Land of 10,000 Lakes that will resonate with Minnesotans from the state’s biggest cities to its smallest towns.
October 24, 4 p.m. – Laurie Ellis-Young discusses from Friendship: The Art of the Practice – Laurie Ellis-Young leads a mini-workshop on partner yoga. It will be experiential for those who want to join in, but still enjoyable for those who would simply like to watch. Laurie’s simple practices that anyone can do include:
- Eye exercises that can help us learn to focus on the best in ourselves and the best in our friends.
- Simple neck rolls for relaxation and better communication between the brain and the body. The focus would be on the importance of communication with our own selves and with our friends.
- Practices for letting go of irritations and the tendency to become easily irritated.
Friendship: The Art of the Practice by Laurie Ellis-Young & Nancy Chakrin pairs stunning photographs of women, ages 10-100, practicing yoga in beautiful settings around the world with inspiring quotes celebrating friendship. Laurie Ellis-Young has been teaching yoga and breath work for over 30 years. Nancy Chakrin, a talented photographer, artist, and breast cancer survivor, is the person behind the camera lens. Together Laurie and Nancy share a special message of inspiration in their book.
