FOSEL: Friends of the South End Library

View Original

"The South End Writes" Authors Series 2012-2013 Season Featuring Local Writers, Poets and their Colleagues, Will Resume at the South End Library on Thursday, September 20, 6:30 PM

Yes, the summer FLEW by but console yourselves:the 2012/2013 season of The South End Writes will start up in less than two weeks. FOSEL has lined up an amazing group of writers and poets, some coming out with a debut collection or novel, others with a long list of nationally acclaimed books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction to their names, but each eager to read from his or her work and ready to answer your questions. With many thanks to TheSouth End Writes supporters who recruited the speakers, including Sue Miller and Doug Bauer, FOSEL board members Courtney Fitzgerald, Barbara Sommerfeld and Rhys Sevier, and head librarian Anne Smart (who also makes all the speakers' books available for lending at the branch).

And many thanks to graphic designer Mary Owens whose excellent posters for the SEW readings are a pleasure to put up around town.

Below is the list as it currently stands. In addition, Phil Gambone, who two years ago read from his collection Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans, hopes to talk in the coming spring about his work-in-progress, in which he retraces the steps of his father who helped liberate Europe as a soldier during World War II. And Mari Passananti, who read from her first novel last June, plans to read from her soon-to-published second novel, The K Street Affair, in the spring, as well. Both dates are currently being finalized.

THE SOUTH END WRITES 2012-2013

Thursday, September 20, 6:30 p.m.

Susan Naimark

The Education of a White Parent: Wrestling with Race and Opportunity in the Boston Public Schools, a memoir of white privilege and unequal access as observed by a former Boston School Committee member

======

Tuesday, September 25, 6:30 p.m.

L. Annette Binder

Rise, an award-winning debut short-story collection by a writer born in Germany, raised in Colorado and now settled in the South End.

=====

Rescheduled from Tuesday, October 2 to a to-be-confirmed date later this fall

Stephen Davis

More Room in a Broken Heart: the True Adventures of Carly Simon, the unauthorized biography of one of the most gifted folk singers by a former Rolling Stone magazine's editor and (now former) Simon family friend.

=====

Tuesday, October 9, 6:30 p.m.

Sara Lawrence Lightfoot

The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk and Adventure in the 25 Years After Fifty, a review by the long-time Harvard University sociologist, educator, former MacArthur Prize fellow and South End resident, of the career and life choices people make before and after retirement. Introduction by health coach and wellness counselor Colette Bourassa.

=====

Tuesday, October 16, 6:30 p.m.

Margaret Sullivan

"Boston's Fairest," an exhibit and lecture about the first 50 years of women in the Boston Police Department by the BPD's archivist, documenting the careers of wives and mothers who took on gangsters and bootleggers.

=====

Thursday, October 25, 6:30 p.m.

Maryanne O'Hara

a former associate editor at Ploughshares and oft-published short-story writer, O'Hara will read from her debut novel Cascade, a recent People magazine pick, and described as "richly-satisfying" by the Boston Globe.

=====

Tuesday, October 30, 6:30 p.m.

Margot Livesey

The Flight of Gemma Hardy, the seventh novel of Scottish-born Livesey which just came out in paperback, is modeled on the English classic, Jane Eyre, a "risky move" at which she for the most part succeeds, according to the New York Times. Introduction by novelist Sue Miller

=====

Tuesday, December 4, 6:30 p.m.

Victor Howes

A South End poet, decades-long college professor of literature and World War II veteran who published poems and book reviews in the Christian Science Monitor for many years, will read from his selected work.

=====

January 15, 2013, 6:30 p.m.

Leah Hager Cohen

The Grief of Others

The author, who publishes both fiction and non-fiction, will read from her latest novel which the New York Times described as "her best work yet." With an introduction by Sue Miller

=====

Tuesday, February 5, 6:30 p.m.

April Bernard

The poet (Romanticism)and novelist, most recently of history (Miss Fuller), is currently the director of creative writing at Skidmore College. With an introduction by South End author Doug Bauer

=====

Tuesday, February 26, 6:30 p.m.

Andre Dubus III

Townie, a memoir

The examination of the author's violent past has been described "best book" of non-fiction of 2011 and 2012 by many literary-gate guardians, and was preceded by his previous novelsHouse of Sand and Fog (made into a movie by the same name) and The Garden of Last Days. Sue Miller will introduce the author.

=====

Tuesday, March 19, 6:30 p.m.

Mari Passananti

will read from her second novel, The K Street Affair.

=====

Tuesday, April 18, 6:30 p.m.

Doug Bauer

Editor, writer of numerous books of fiction and non-fiction, and revered professor of English at Bennington College (to where he commutes from the South End), Bauer will read from his most recent collection of essays, What Happens Next?, to be published in the fall of 2013 by the University of Iowa Press.

=====

Tuesday, May 21, 6:30 p.m.

Alice Hoffman

The Dovekeepers, a historical novel describing the AD70 massacre at Masada from the point of view of four women at the fortress before it fell during the Jewish-Roman war, is the most recent of the nearly two dozen novels by Hoffman and just came out in paperback. To be introduced by Sue Miller.

=====

Tuesday, June 18, 6:30 p.m.

Philip Gambonewill return to read from his current work-in-progress, retracing the steps of his father who, as a soldier, was sent to Europe during the Second World War.

=====