Past Updates
April Update
I hope this finds you reading something wonderful. Listening counts, too, and I've just had the great pleasure of listening to the CD of Barack Obama's first book, the 2004 "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance." This transfixing and so-honestly told story of family, race and identity delves into our president's early years, and if you do listen on CD, you'll hear him to a do as stellar job relating his story as he did writing it. Put this book next on your list.
Listening's a theme, lately - extra time on the road, due to a semester of teaching at Bay Path College in Longmeadow Mass., gives me good stretches to enjoy recorded books. And essays. Thanks to my Ireland-based sister-in-law, Mary Shea, I'm enjoying a gift of a CD containing prolific and multi-faceted author Joseph O'Connor's Drivetime Diaries, which first ran on Irish radio. Track it down online for a collection of both hilarious and touching essays on topics including Irish politics, a stepmother's influence, and recollections from the author's world when he was 5. The essay on the kudzu-like prevalence of the word "like" alone is worth the price.
Tommy Shea and I are hoping we'll have listeners April 7, starting at 6:30 pm, when we present "Write Night," a night of writing information, at the Palmer (Mass.) Public Library. Funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, it will be free and open to all ages, no registration required. Come on by that night - bring a notebook, a pen and your interest in writing.
I'm also looking forward to April 30, when, from 1 to 4 p.m., I'll be part of a fundraising garden party and book signing and book sale to benefit Weston Rehabilitation Center for Women, 28 Lower Westfield Road, Holyoke, Mass. The event will be held at Mont Marie in Holyoke and authors will include Ruth Sanderson, Kevin O'Hara, Jean Stone, Leslea Newman, Marty Dobrow, Sean Glennon, Dori Ostermiller and Ellen Meeropol. Tickets are $30 in advance and $50 at the door. For more information, contact Carol Pederzani at (413) 205-5003 or cpederzani@TheBigE.com.
Thanks to all who attended Bay Path College's Writers' Day III back in February. We had enthusiastic audiences for the day of talks on writing, and hope they'll return for Writers' Day IV, scheduled for Oct. 29. Participants will include Adam Braver, whose fiction based on historical figures and events includes the amazing "Nov. 22, 1963." Stay tuned for details on other speakers and topics.
I'm continuing to make progress on my book about Mags Riordan and the Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic in Malawi, and continue to write for Obit magazine. One of my most recent Obit pieces was about The New Guard, a literary magazine founded by Maine writer Shanna Miller McNair, who chose to kick off the initial pages of the inaugural issue with a series of letters written by writers to their dead literary heroes or sheroes.
As well as applauding The New Guard, I'm celebrating several new books by friends:
Go hug your mother - or the loved person/critter of your choice.
Suzanne
Listening's a theme, lately - extra time on the road, due to a semester of teaching at Bay Path College in Longmeadow Mass., gives me good stretches to enjoy recorded books. And essays. Thanks to my Ireland-based sister-in-law, Mary Shea, I'm enjoying a gift of a CD containing prolific and multi-faceted author Joseph O'Connor's Drivetime Diaries, which first ran on Irish radio. Track it down online for a collection of both hilarious and touching essays on topics including Irish politics, a stepmother's influence, and recollections from the author's world when he was 5. The essay on the kudzu-like prevalence of the word "like" alone is worth the price.
Tommy Shea and I are hoping we'll have listeners April 7, starting at 6:30 pm, when we present "Write Night," a night of writing information, at the Palmer (Mass.) Public Library. Funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, it will be free and open to all ages, no registration required. Come on by that night - bring a notebook, a pen and your interest in writing.
I'm also looking forward to April 30, when, from 1 to 4 p.m., I'll be part of a fundraising garden party and book signing and book sale to benefit Weston Rehabilitation Center for Women, 28 Lower Westfield Road, Holyoke, Mass. The event will be held at Mont Marie in Holyoke and authors will include Ruth Sanderson, Kevin O'Hara, Jean Stone, Leslea Newman, Marty Dobrow, Sean Glennon, Dori Ostermiller and Ellen Meeropol. Tickets are $30 in advance and $50 at the door. For more information, contact Carol Pederzani at (413) 205-5003 or cpederzani@TheBigE.com.
Thanks to all who attended Bay Path College's Writers' Day III back in February. We had enthusiastic audiences for the day of talks on writing, and hope they'll return for Writers' Day IV, scheduled for Oct. 29. Participants will include Adam Braver, whose fiction based on historical figures and events includes the amazing "Nov. 22, 1963." Stay tuned for details on other speakers and topics.
I'm continuing to make progress on my book about Mags Riordan and the Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic in Malawi, and continue to write for Obit magazine. One of my most recent Obit pieces was about The New Guard, a literary magazine founded by Maine writer Shanna Miller McNair, who chose to kick off the initial pages of the inaugural issue with a series of letters written by writers to their dead literary heroes or sheroes.
As well as applauding The New Guard, I'm celebrating several new books by friends:
- "Birkebeiner, A Story of Motherhood and War," an historical novel by Jeff Foltz
- "Little Boy Blue," a memoir in verse by Gray Jacobik
- "Show Me Good Land," a novel by Shonna Milliken Humphrey
"Remembering the Music, Forgetting the Words" made me want to go hug my mother. It also made me want to go hug Kate Whouley for her generous, fearless and spot-on recounting of a mother-daughter relationship during its most tragic yet poignantly beautiful final years."
Go hug your mother - or the loved person/critter of your choice.
Suzanne