2009 April : Local LIT

April 2009

If we are not supposed to dance . . . why all this music? – Gregory Orr

04/01/09

Thomas Paine Part 4: The Forgotten Founding Father: A lecture on Paine in Europe and The Rights of Man, Age of Reason, and Agrarian Reform presented by Jack Fruchtman Jr., author of Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom.

04/02/09

Poet and novelist (and husband of author Zadie Smith) Nick Laird. Part of the 11th Annual Villanova Literary Festival.

4/03/09

Marathon reading of Kurt Vonnegut’sSlaughterhouse Five.

”A Little Spring Madness!” poetry reading by the Mad Poets Society, featuring poets Ken Pobo, Robert Quezado-Dardon and Margaret Robinson, and musicians Johnny Never, Tom Mullian, Joe Fanning, and flutist Kirsten Erwin. Starts 7 PM in the Mansion Parlor in Media Borough Hall, 3rd & Jackson Streets, Media, PA.

04/05/09

Children’s Book Authors Panel Discussion at Bryn Mawr College featuring David Wiesner, Paul Acampora, Jen Bryant, Elizabeth Mosier, Catherine Murdock andAlexander Stadler.

13th Annual POETRY INK: 100 POETS READING in Philly starting at 1 PM. Moonstone Arts Center, 10A S. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA. Contact: 215-735-9600.

04/06/09

Novelist Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish (adapted into the Tim Burton movie), The Watermelon King, Ray in Reverse, and, most recently, Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician.

04/07/09

JENNIFER WEINER talks about Certain Girls at Head House Books.

04/08/09

Poet Marilyn Hacker

RED CARPET BOOK LAUNCH PARTY #2 for Payback, the newest novel by Essence bestselling author and Philadelphia Daily News columnist Solomon Jones. Payback is a sequel to his previous novel, C.R.E.A.M. Friday, April 10th, 6:30 – 10 PM, Point of Destination Cafe, 6500 Greene St., Philadelphia. More info and RSVP HERE.

04/11/09

WALTER MOSLEY discusses and signs his new book, The Long Fall, at Barnes & Noble in Princeton, NJ.

04/14/09

Local favorite LISA SCOTTOLINE.

Tobias Wolff at Arcadia University.

04/15/09

Tobias Wolff at Bryn Mawr College

An evening with CNN newsman ANDERSON COOPER at the University of Delaware.

Local author Lise Funderberg talks about her new memoir, Pig Candy

04/16/09

Award-winning poet Lamont B. Steptoe, poetry reading and book signing, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Berks County, 416 Franklin Street, Reading, 6 PM. Lamont Steptoe is the recipient of a 2006 Pew Fellowship in the Arts in Poetry, and the American Book Award in 2005 for his book, A Long Movie of Shadows. Call to reserve: 610-370-2629.

Amiri Baraka and Greg Tate in Conversation at Labyrinth Books in Princeton, NJ. The two will be discussing Baraka’s new book Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music.

04/18/09

Local history author Bruce Mowday talks about and signs Jailing the Johnstown Gang.

Susan Orlean discusses and signs her children’s book, Lazy Little Loafers, at Head House Books.

The Germantown Poetry Festival featuring Sonia Sanchez, Trapeta Masonand the Twin Poets.

04/18/09- 04/19/09

Philadelphia Free Library Book Festival – An exciting two-day amalgamation of street fair, book sales, publishers’ tents and author talks & signings . Billed as “a burst of books, music, and inspiration on the Parkway,” this event, well worth paying admission for, is free to the public. The author line-up includes VICKIE MYRON, author of the current national bestseller, Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World; acclaimed novelist JANE HAMILTON, the PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of The Book of Ruth and the New York Times bestseller A Map of the World; JOYCE CAROL OATES with a new collection of short stories; our own local, illustrious Caldecott-Award-winning author/illustrator, DAVID WEISNER (Tuesday, The Three Pigs, Flotsam); Philadelphia-born JOE QUEENAN talking about and signing Closing Time, his new memoir of growing up Irish-Catholic in Philly; Local writer JEN BRYANT, author of the children’s picture book biography A River of Words: the story of William Carlos Williams; and Philadelphians ANDREA J. BUCHANAN and MIRIAM PESKOWITZ, co-authors of the internationally bestselling The Daring Book for Girls and the just published sequel,The Double-Daring Book for Girls; and many more.