W&B Events November 2009

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November 2009 Events

Visiting Writers Series Presents: Rebecca Solnit

Wednesday, November 4
4 pm
Free and Open to the Public

Rebecca Solnit was born in California in 1961. The essayist and historian worked as a museum researcher and editor and since 1988 has been a freelance writer. In her essays she traces thematic junctions in art and cultural history and establishes detailed parallels with the direct present and contemporary political activism. Her knowledgeable and courageous work has been compared with that of Susan Sontag.

Solnit was awarded the Lannan Literary Award for her work, and has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a columnist for the magazine 'Orion' and publishes regularly in the environmental magazine '' as well as in art journals, museum catalogues and the website 'tomdispatch.com'. The author, who is active in ecological and human rights issues, lives in San Francisco.

Visiting Writers Series Presents: Meg Kearney and Charles Coté

Wednesday, November 4
7 pm
$4 W&B members / $6 general public

Meg Kearney's second collection of poetry, Home by Now, is new from Four-Way Books. Her first book, An Unkindness of Ravens, was published by BOA Editions Ltd. in 2001. The Secret of Me, her novel in verse for teens, was released in hardcover by Persea Books in 2005; the paperback edition, along with a teacher's guide, came out in 2007. Meg's picture book, Trouper the Three-Legged Dog, will be illustrated by E.B. Lewis and is forthcoming from Scholastic in 2012. Meg is Director of the Solstice Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, as well as Director of Pine Manor's Solstice Summer Writers Conference. For eleven years prior to joining Pine Manor, she was Associate Director of the National Book Foundation (sponsor of the National Book Awards) in New York City.

Having had the opportunity to study with some of the best poets and poetry teachers in the country (Stephen Dobyns, Thomas Lux, Gregory Orr, and Thom Ward), Charles Coté brings a wealth of experience to the Writers & Books classroom on poetic craft. Publication credits include: The Cortland Review, Upstreet, Boston Literary Magazine, ByLine, Connecticut River Review, Free Lunch, HazMat Review, and Lake Affect Magazine, and a recent chapbook, Flying for the Window (Finishing Line Press, 2008), elegies about his son's illness and death. He is a clinical social worker in private practice and lives with his wife and two sons in Brighton, NY.

Publication Party: Sonja Livingston’s memoir Ghostbread

Thursday, November 5, 7 p.m
in the Performance Space
$3 W&B members/$4 general public

"Ghostbread takes us on a journey through a childhood scarred by poverty and graced by love. Like an American version of Angela’s Ashes, the book allows us to encounter— and see, taste, and smell— poverty through the eyes of a beleaguered and intelligent child."
--Kathleen Norris, author of Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life

Come celebrate the publication of Sonja Livingston's award-winning memoir of growing up in Rochester and western New York! Ghostbread is the winner of the AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction, and the book is enjoying many positive advance praise.

The event includes a brief reading, followed by a book signing.

Sonja Livingston has earned a NYFA Fellowship, an Iowa Award, and Pushcart Prize nomination for her nonfiction writing. Her work has appeared in several textbooks on writing, as well as many journals, including The Iowa Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, AGNI and others. Sonja holds an M.S. Ed. from SUNY Brockport and an MFA from the University of New Orleans and teaches in UCLA Extension’s Creative Writing Program.

First Fridays

November 6, 7 p.m.
Free and open to the public

Along with other local galleries and performance spaces, W&B will be open on the first Friday evenings of each month hosting a series of readings and performances in our Verb Café and Performance Space.

Rivers Run Book Discussions

Monday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m.
Location: Rivers Run

Poetry Reading: Charles Coté.

Genesee Reading Series

Hosted by: Wanda Schubmehl
Featuring: William Heyen & Karla Linn Merrifield
Tuesday, November 10 7:30 pm
$3W&B members, $6 general public

Now in its 26th year, the Genesee Reading Series presents writers from the greater Genesee Valley region reading in the Verb Cafe. Learn more about our featured authors.

Senior Reading Group

Tuesday, November 10 2:00 pm- 4:00p.m.
Free and open to the public

Share your writing with other seniors in a comfortable, supportive atmosphere at W&B.

David Meltzer and Michael Rothenberg

$4 W&B members / $6 general public
Nov. 11, 7 p.m., in the Performance Space

David Meltzer A leading poet of the Beat Movement, David Meltzer was raised in Brooklyn during the war years and performed on radio & early TV. He was exiled to L.A. at 16 and at 17 enrolled in an ongoing academy with artists Wallace Berman, George Herms, Robert Alexander and Cameron. Meltzer migrated to San Francisco in l957 for higher education with peers and maestros like Jack Spicer, Robert Duncan, Joanne Kyger, Diane DiPrima, Michael McClure, Lew Welch, Philip Whalen and Jack Hirschman. His Beat Thing [La Alameda Press, 2004] won the Josephine Miles PEN Award, 2005. Meltzer was editor and interviewer for San Francisco Beat: Talking With The Poets [City Lights, 2001]. With Steve Dickison, he co-edits Shuffle Boil, a magazine devoted to music in all of its appearances & disappearances. 2005 saw the publication of David's Copy: The Selected Poems of David Meltzer by Viking/Penguin.

Michael Rothenberg is a poet, songwriter, and editor and publisher of Big Bridge magazine online. His poems have been published widely in small press publications including, 88: A Journal of Contemporary American Poetry, Berkeley Poetry Review, Exquisite Corpse, First Intensity, Fish Drum, Fulcrum, Golden Handcuffs Review, Tricycle, and Jacket. His poetry books include Man/Woman, a collaboration with Joanne Kyger, The Paris Journals (Fish Drum Press), Monk Daddy (Blue Press), Unhurried Vision (La Alameda/University of New Mexico Press), and most recently CHOOSE, Selected Poems (Big Bridge Press. He is also author of the novel Punk Rockwell.

The Bertrand Russell Society

Hosted by: Dr. David White
Thursday, November 12, at 7:00 pm
Admission: Free to W&B Members; $3/General Public
Topic: Lewis Neisner on Sherlock Holmes

The Bertrand Russell Society was formed shortly after Russell’s death in 1970. Russell was born in 1872 and worked in fields such as mathematical logic; philosophy; social, religious, and educational reform; anti-war protests and politics. An accomplished writer, Russell received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. This ongoing lecture series promises to enlighten and entertain. Monthly meetings are open to everyone, not just to members of the society.

Valley Manor Book Discussions

1570 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14610.
Free and Open to the public.
Date: Thursday, November 12th from 10:30 a.m. - Noon.
Facilitator: M.J. Iuppa

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

25 And Under

Hosted by: Sally Bittner Bonn
Tuesday November 17 7:00 pm
Free to W&B members, $3 general public

More than a quarter century ago W&B first opened its doors. To celebrate that milestone anniversary we initiated a brand new monthly reading series featuring writers who are 25 and younger. Join us as we discover a new generation of writers for the next quarter century.

Open History Reading Group

Hosted by: Steve Huff
Thursday, November 19, at 7:00 pm
Free to W&B members, $3 general public
Topic:African Leaders of the 20th century.

Join us for meetings of an open history-reading group. In these gatherings we choose historical topics rather than specific books, and then you choose a book on the subject that most interests you. The discussions are convivial, exciting, and informative.

Visiting Writers Series Presents: Dennis Maloney and Paul Hogan

Thursday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m.
$4 W&B members / $6 general public

In this exciting, multi-genre series, Writers & Books brings up and coming writers to Rochester for exciting Thursday night readings, pairing them with a local writer who is also an up-and-comer.

Rivers Run Book Discussions

Friday, Nov. 20, 2 p.m
Location: Rivers Run

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely

Wide Open Mic

Hosted by: Norm Davis
Monday November 23 7:30 pm
Free to W&B members, $3 general public

W&B is proud to sponsor Rochester's largest running open mike, hosted by Norm Davis, poet and editor of HazMat Review. Known for its eclectic mix. Wide Open Mike welcomes poets, performers, and writers of all kinds.

<— To October 2009 •To December 2009—>

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Writers & Books, Rochester's community literary center, inspires and instructs over 25,000 people each year through a wide array of offerings in nearly every literary genre. Believing that the written and spoken word are central to our lives and culture, Writers & Books celebrates, promotes and works to make them available to all. Writers & Books is located at 740 University Avenue, near Atlantic Avenue in the Neighborhood of the Arts.