The Graphic Canon: Illustrating the World’s Great Literature

May 21, 2013

On Tuesday, May 21st at 7:15pm, join The Graphic Canon contributors Zak Smith, Sharon Rudahl, Milton Knight, and Frank M. Hansen in a discussion moderated by editor Russ Kick at the Los Angeles Central Library. 

The classic canon of Western civilization meets the artists and illustrators who have remade reading in the last years of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century in Russ Kick’s magisterial, three-volume, full-color Graphic Canon. In the first anthology of its kind in comics history, Russ Kick presents some of the artists and illustrators, both known and unknown, who have begun to redefine literature for a new century. Among these artists are Zak Smith (Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon), Sharon Rudahl (Three Tang poems: Wang Han, Cui Hu, and Li Bai), Milton Knight (“Poker!” by Zora Neale Hurston), and Frank M. Hansen (”If-” by Rudyard Kipling).

Join these amazing artists alongside Russ Kick in a panel discussion and presentation about art, literature, and what happened when these two worlds collide.

More Information »

Tags: ALOUD, Frank M Hansen, graphic canon, graphic novel, literature, los angeles, Milton Knight, russ kick, Sharon Rudahl, Zak Smith

Luis Negrón at City Lights

May 22, 2013

Luis Negrón Book Tour

Join Puerto Rican author Luis Negrón at City Lights Bookstore on Wednesday, May 22nd as he reads and discusses his debut collection Mundo Cruel.

In the collection that Publisher’s Weekly calls “Slender but never slight, and often extremely funny,” Negrón offers insight to gay life in the intimate world of a small community in Puerto Rico. Rich with humor, satire, and expert story-telling, this collection is expertly translated by the award-winning Suzanne Jill Levine.

Luis Negrón will be available for question and answer as well as book signings. To find out more about the event, visit the City Lights Bookstore event page.

More Information »

Tags: city lights bookstore, fiction, luis negron, puerto rico, san francisco, short stories, translation

Luis Negrón at Elliott Bay Book Company

May 23, 2013

Luis Negrón Book Tour

Puerto Rican author Luis Negrón will be speaking about his debut collection of short stories, Mundo Cruel, already a sensation in Latin America and available in English for the first time, at Elliott Bay Book Company on Thursday, May 28th.

Mundo Cruel, Luis Negrón’s debut book, elegantly presents to its readers a world both tragic and outrageous. Masterfully satirical with a discrete solemnity at its core, Mundo Cruel‘s most remarkable element is its language. Several of its stories feature unnamed protagonists brought to life by their speech—colloquial, self-incriminating, and idiosyncratic—revealing Negrón’s mesmerizing talent for conjuring the spoken word in all its subtlety.

Luis will be available for question and answer, as well as book signings. To find out more about the event, visit the Elliott Bay event page.

More Information »

Tags: fiction, luis negron, mundo cruel, puerto rico, short story, translation

Ralph Nader at Politics & Prose

May 30, 2013

Ralph Nader Book Tour

Ralph Nader will be launching his new book of columns, Told You So, at Politics & Prose Bookstore on Thursday, May 30th.

The column is the most natural literary form for a citizen’s advocate, and Ralph Nader may be its most robust and forceful practitioner. Told You So: The Big Book of Weekly Columns presents a panoramic portrait of the problems confronting our society and provides examples of the many actions an organized citizenry could and should take to create a more just and environmentally sustainable world. Drawing on decades of experience, Nader’s columns document the consequences of concentrated corporate power; threats to our food, water and air; the corrosive effect of commercialism on our children; the dismantling of worker rights; and the attacks on our civil rights and civil liberties.

More Information »

Tags: columns, current events, News, nonfiction, politics, politics and prose, ralph nader, told you so, washington dc

What Makes a Baby New York Book Launch

June 1, 2013

On Saturday, June 1st, Cory Silverberg will be at Bank Street Books to celebrate the launch of his new book, What Makes a Baby.

Most books about where babies come from leave many of us out. They tell a nice story (mommy + daddy + intercourse = you!) but the truth is that more and more of us are acknowledging the help we get to bring children into our lives. That help might be a doctor, fertility clinic, adoption or foster agency; it might be a turkey baster and a friend; it might be a sperm donor or a surrogate. What Makes a Baby helps parents tell children a story about where they came from that isn’t just true for them, but true for everyone.

Join Cory for a kid-friendly afternoon filled with reading, coloring (pulled straight from the pages of What Makes a Baby), food, drink, and discussions about where babies—all babies—come from.

More Information »

Tags: book launch, children, cory silverberg, fiona smyth, lgbt, reproduction, Triangle Square, what makes a baby?

Double Fist: A Book for Both Hands

June 4, 2013

Double Fist: A Reading with Chavisa Woods & Jeanne Thornton

Chavisa Woods, author of Albino Album, will be joined by Jeanne Thornton, author of The Dream of Doctor Bantam, on Wednesday, June 5th at Bluestockings for a night of readings and conversation.

In The Dream of Doctor Bantam, Jeanne Thornton tells an unlikely love story of  rough, chain-smoking Texan Julie Thatch and her lover, Patrice. When Julie’s hero and sister dieds after being hit by a car, she finds her self gravitating to Patrice- someone strangely similar to her sister, and someone who is also a member of the Scientology-esque Institute of Temporal Illusion.

The Albino Album is a novel as songs that tells the epic story of a girl who rides the line between abandon and lunacy on a speeding albino horse.

More Information »

Tags: albino album, bluestockings, chavisa woods, fiction, jeanne thornton, reading, the dream of doctor bantam

Adapting the Novel: the Graphic Canon

June 4, 2013

Adapting the Novel: the Graphic Canon 

Join Graphic Canon contributor Robert Berry at the exhibition Ulysses Seen: An International Bloomsday at the Irish Arts Center Wednesday, June 4th to celebrate the launch of The Graphic Canon Volume 3 with fellow contributors Annie Mok, Lauren Weinstein, Peter Kuper, and Brendan Leach.

Karen Green, curator of the Columbia University Library collection of graphic novels, will be moderation a discussion about adapting literature into a visual form. The Graphic Canon Volume 3 is a nonstop barrage of comics, full-page illustrations, photography, and cutting-edge design bringing to life the literature of the twentieth century. You never know what you’ll find: a Sherlock Holmes mystery, an H. G. Wells story, an illustrated guide to the Beat writers, a one-act play from Zora Neale Hurston (drawn by Milton Knight), a disturbing meditation on Naked Lunch, Rilke’s soul-stirring Letters to a Young Poet, a WWI soldier’s suppressed poem of war’s savagery, Anaïs Nin’s diaries, the visions of Black Elk, the heroin classic The Man With the Golden Arm (published four years before William Burroughs’s Junky ), and the postmodernism of Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, Kathy Acker, Raymond Carver, and Donald Barthelme.

More Information »

Tags: graphic canon, graphic novel, Irish arts center, karen green, new york, robert berry, russ kick, ulsses seen: an international bloomsday

Ralph Nader at Barnes & Noble Union Square

June 5, 2013

Ralph Nader Book Tour

Join Ralph Nader at the Barnes & Noble Union Square Store as he reads and discusses his new book of columns, Told You So. 

For the past forty-five years Ralph Nader has challenged corporations, government agencies, and institutions to be more accountable to the public. In 1965, Unsafe at Any Speed changed the face of the automobile industry and made Ralph Nader a household name. As a result of his efforts, cars have more safety features. His lobbying and writing on the food industry insured that the food we buy is required to pass strict guidelines before reaching the consumer. His new collection Told You So covers topics from big corporations, environmental pollution, commercialism, civil rights, and more.

To learn more about the event, visit the Barnes & Noble event page.

More Information »

Tags: civil rights, columns, nonfiction, politics, ralph nader, told you so

Ralph Nader at 92nd Street Y

June 6, 2013

Ralph Nader Book Tour

Ralph Nader will be at 92nd Street Y on Thursday, June 6th to read and discuss the columns from his new book Told You So.

Ralph Nader is one of America’s most controversial—and uncompromising—public figures. He is a man on a mission who believes that taking on the powers that be involves more than just talking about it—it also means taking action. This collection of columns spanning not only time but topic brings to the forefront issues facing out society— from war, corporate power, commercialism, workers’ rights, and more.

Ralph Nader will be available for question and answer and well as book signings. To learn more about the event, visit the 92nd St Y event page.

More Information »

Tags: 92nd st y, column, new york, politics, ralph nader, told you so

What Makes a Baby Toronto Book Launch

June 9, 2013

Join author Cory Silverberg and illustrator Fiona Smyth on Sunday, June 9th at the Academy of the Impossible for the Toronto book launch of their new picture book What Makes a Baby.

Geared to readers from pre-school to 8 years old, it teaches curious kids about conception, gestation, and birth in a way that works regardless of whether or not the kid in question was adopted, conceived using reproductive technologies, at home or in a clinic, through surrogacy, or the old fashioned way, and regardless of how many people were involved, their orientation, gender and other identity, or family composition. Just as important, the story doesn’t gender people or body parts, so most parents and families will find that it leaves room for them to educate their child without having to erase their own experience.

More Information »

Tags: children's books, cory silverberg, fiona smyth, lgbt, parenting, reproduction, Triangle Square