MAGERS & QUINN BOOKSELLERS is at 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis • 612.822.4611 • www.magersandquinn.com
- January 7 — Alex Lemon discusses his new book Happy: A Memoir at 7:30 p.m.
His freshman year at Macalester College, Alex Lemon was supposed to be the star catcher on the baseball team. He was the boy getting every girl, the hard-partying kid who everyone called Happy, often without even knowing his real name. In the spring of 1997, he had his first stroke. For two years Lemon coped with his deteriorating health by sinking deeper into alcohol and drug abuse. His charming and carefree exterior masked his self-destructive and sometimes cruel behavior as he endured two more brain bleeds and a crippling depression. After undergoing brain surgery, he is nursed back to health by his free-spirited artist mother, who once again teaches him to stand on his own.Happy is a hypnotic self-portrait of a young man confronting the wreckage of his own body; it is also the deeply moving story of a mother’s redemptive and healing powers. Alex Lemon is a poet and author of the collections Mosquito, Halleluiah Blackout, and Fancy Beasts (forthcoming from Milkweed Editions, March 2010). - January 9 — Emergent Poets III: featuring Julie Carr, Christine Hume and Andrew Zawacki read their work at 7 p.m., sponsored by Rain Taxi magazine. Three award-winning poets will visit the Twin Cities. Andrew Zawacki is the author of three poetry books — most recently Petals of Zero Petals of One (Talisman House) — and of several chapbooks. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, and numerous other journals and anthologies. He is co-editor of the literary magazine Verse. He teaches at the University of Georgia. Christine Hume is the author of three books of poetry — most recently Shot (Counterpath Press) — and a chapbook, Lullaby: Speculations on the First Active Sense (Ugly Duckling Presse). Her work has been included in The Best American Poetry (Scribner), and she writes reviews and critical essays for a number of journals, including Rain Taxi. She currently coordinates the interdisciplinary Creative Writing Program at Eastern Michigan University. Julie Carr is the author of three books of poetry — most recently 100 Notes on Violence (Ahsahta Press) — and her National Poetry Series selection Sarah–of Fragments and Lines will be published later next year by Coffee House Press. Her work has been included in The Best American Poetry (Scribner), and numerous other journals and anthologies. She is co-publisher of the small press Counterpath and teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
- January 19 — Ellen Sandbeck reads from Green Barbarians: Live Bravely on Your Home Planet at 7:30 p.m. These days, we worry about everything: pandemic flu, global warming, contaminated toys, the purity of our foods and other products. The abundance of contradictory information out there can make you crazy. In Green Barbarians (available now), Ellen Sandbeck delivers necessary knowledge and sounds a clarion call to arms, urging us to step forward and make informed decisions in order to live happier, safer, and more environmentally responsible lives. The author has said, “I decided that it would be really fun to research ancient and modern ways to do things in order to avoid buying into the propaganda of Big Business/pharmo/industrial/agrochemical complex. It was really fun, but it was also infuriating, scary and exhausting.” Ellen Sandbeck is an organic landscaper, worm wrangler, writer, and graphic artist who lives with (and experiments on) her husband and an assortment of younger creatures — which includes two mostly grown children, a couple of dogs, a small flock of laying hens, and many thousands of composting worms — in Duluth, MN. She is the author of Green Housekeeping, Slug Bread & Beheaded Thistles and Eat More Dirt. You can learn more about her and her work at www.lavermesworms.com. This event is co-sponsored by Twin Cities Green (2405 Hennepin Ave S, Minneapolis, 612.374.4581) where you’ll find a diverse collection of items — recycled, reclaimed, natural, organic, sustainable — for your home and life, all deeply researched to provide you with the best guilt-free green products at the most affordable prices. Visit www.twincitiesgreen.com.
