The South End Writes program will host Susan Conley on Tuesday night, April 26 at the South End Library where she will read from her China memoir, The Foremost Good Fortune, which describes the years she spent there recently with her husband and two young sons. She was diagnosed with breast cancer while in Beijing: the experience of battling the disease in a culture so different from ours is a focus of the book. Conley, a former South End resident, is currently living in Portland, Maine, where she founded a creative-writing lab, The Telling Room. She has been published in the New York Times, the Paris Review and Ploughshares.
Author Susan Conley to Read From Her Memoir, The Foremost Good Fortune, on April 26, at the South End Library, at 6:30 PM
The next South End Writes event at the South End Library will feature Susan Conley, who will read from her debut-memoir, "The Foremost Good Fortune" on Tuesday, April 26, at 6:30 PM. Conley, who reported from China for the New York Times about the H1N1 flu epidemic --the China Flu Blues-- in 2009, lived there with her sinologist husband, Tony, and two young sons. But, she writes, "what happens while we’re there is that one of us gets cancer. It turns out to be me."
"The Foremost Good Fortune is just about as honest a book as you'll ever read," wrote the Washington Post. "The trip Conley went on was to a far more complex place that she envisioned. This is a beautiful book about China and cancer and how to be an authentic, courageous human being."
A former South End resident and native of Maine, Conley has taught creative writing and literature at Emerson College, Simmons College and within Harvard's Teachers as Writers Program. She and her family have since returned to Portland, Maine, where she started a creative writing lab, The Telling Room. She is now working on another novel.
Poet and South End Resident Henri Cole to Read From His New Collection at the South End Library Tuesday, March 15, at 6:30 PM
The South End Writes is hosting nationally renowned poet Henri Cole, the first poet reading for the series sponsored by FOSEL. The South End resident, who teaches at Ohio State University but is here for spring recess, will read from the new paperback edition of “Pierce the Skin” on Tuesday, March 15. “Pierce the Skin” was just named a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Poetry Award. Cole has published numerous collections of poetry, including “Middle Earth,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Another collection,“Blackbird and Wolf” received the Lenore Marshall Poetry Award from the Academy of American Poets. Cole, who is the poetry editor for The New Republic, was born in Japan to an American father and French mother but was raised in Virginia.
In the summer, Cole teaches poetry workshops at the Fine Works Art Center in Provincetown.
A number of Cole's collections of poetry are available for "take-out" at the South End Library, thanks to head librarian, Anne Smart.
Reminder: Filmmaker Alice Stone Presents Her Work in an Evening of Film, Tuesday, March 1, at the South End Library, 6:30 PM
In its continuing series, The South End Writes, FOSEL presents scriptwriter and filmmaker Alice Stone for an evening of film on Tuesday, March 1, at 6:30 PM at the South End library. An article about the South End resident, Alice Stone's lens on life, has appeared in this week's South End News.
The presentation had been canceled due to a snowstorm a month ago.
Stone is a local filmmaker in residence at the Boston Center for the Arts. She created the reality television series, “Ding Dong Feng Shui,” for Scout Productions (“Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”); produced and directed a documentary about women bikers called “She Lives To Ride;” and is currently working on “Angelo Unwritten,” a non-fiction film about a former foster care teen making his way toward adulthood. Alice Stone began her career as an editor, assisting on numerous feature films including “The Silence of the Lambs,” and the locally-filmed “The Crucible.” She also edited programs for PBS and the Discovery Channel.
The Tuesday night program will include, among other things, excerpts from “She Lives to Ride,” which was broadcast on PBS , and distributed theatrically to arthouse cinemas across the US and abroad. The documentary was nominated for an International Documentary Association Distinguished Achievement Award. In addition, Tuesday night’s program will feature a Public Service Announcement produced by Stone for a local charity, which stars a Rutland Square resident. For the last part of the evening, Stone will present scenes from “Angelo Unwritten.”
The next scheduled author in The South End Writes program is nationally-renowned poet Henri Cole, who will read from his new paperback edition of "Pierce the Skin" on Tuesday, March 15. "Pierce the Skin" was just named a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Poetry Award. Cole, a South End resident, has published numerous collections of poetry, including “Middle Earth,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Another collection,“Blackbird and Wolf” received the Lenore Marshall Poetry Award from the Academy of American Poets. Cole teaches at Ohio State University and is the poetry editor for The New Republic.
Tonight's Evening of Film Postponed to March 1 Due to Today's One-Two Punch Snow Storm
South End Library's head librarian Anne Smart and filmmaker Alice Stone have decided to cancel tonight's evening of film due to today's snow storm, which is expected to resume tonight and into tomorrow. The event, in which Stone had planned to show excerpts from her film "She Loves to Ride "and excerpts from current work, has been postponed to Tuesday March 1, at 6:30 PM. The Friends of the South End Library is looking forward to seeing you then.
South End Filmmaker Alice Stone Presents Excerpts From Her Work, Tuesday Night, February 1, at the South End Library's Evening of Film
In its continuing series, The South End Writes, FOSEL presents local scriptwriter and filmmaker Alice Stone for an evening of film on Tuesday at the South End library. Stone is a local filmmaker in residence at the Boston Center for the Arts. She created the reality television series, "Ding Dong Feng Shui," for Scout Productions ("Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"); produced and directed a documentary about women bikers called "She Lives To Ride;" and is currently working on "Angelo Unwritten," a non-fiction film about a former foster care teen making his way toward adulthood. Alice Stone began her career as an editor, assisting on numerous feature films including "The Silence of the Lambs," and the locally-filmed "The Crucible." She also edited programs for PBS and the Discovery Channel.
The Tuesday night program will include, among other things, excerpts from "She Lives to Ride," which was broadcast on PBS , and distributed theatrically to arthouse cinemas across the US and abroad. The documentary was nominated for an International Documentary Association Distinguished Achievement Award. In addition, Tuesday night's program will feature a Public Service Announcement produced by Stone for a local charity, which stars a Rutland Square resident. For the last part of the evening, Stone will present scenes from her non-fiction film in current production called "Angelo Unwritten."
The next scheduled author in The South End Writes program is nationally-renowned poet Henri Cole. He will read at the South End Library from his work on Tuesday, March 15. Cole, a South End resident, has published numerous collections of poetry, most recently "Pierce the Skin" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Previous work, "Middle Earth," was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Another collection, "Blackbird and Wolf" received the Lenore Marshall Poetry Award from the Academy of American Poets. Cole teaches at Ohio State University and is the poetry editor for The New Republic.
Reminder: Author Doug Bauer Will Read New Work From a Forthcoming Collection at the South End Library, Tuesday, January 25, at 6:30 PM
Renowned author and long-time South End resident Doug Bauer will read from a forthcoming collection at the South End Library on Tuesday night at 6:30. He is the author of a number of books, articles, essays and reviews, including a book on writing called The Stuff of Fiction. Head librarian Anne Smart has requested many of his books which are currently available to patrons at the branch. Bauer is Professor of Literature at Bennington College in Vermont. The reading is part of The South End Writes series, sponsored by FOSEL. Coming up in February's program is scriptwriter and filmmaker Alice Stone, another South End resident, who will discuss and show some of her movies next week, Tuesday, February 1, also at 6:30 PM at the South End Library. As always, FOSEL provides delicious refreshments and the event is free to all.
Hope to see you there.
"The South End Writes" Series Kicks Off the New Year With January 25th Reading by Renowned Author And South End Resident Doug Bauer
Happy New Year to you all!
FOSEL is delighted to kick off its 2011 program, "The South End Writes," with nationally recognized author Doug Bauer. The South End resident, who is currently a Professor of Literature at Bennington College, will read a personal essay from a forthcoming collection on Tuesday evening, January 25 at 6:30 PM. The event is free and includes refreshments.
FOSEL's monthly series at the South End Library began last fall with author Sue Miller, reading from her recent book The Lake Shore Limited, and continued with other local authors, including Phil Gambone (Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of GLBTQ Americans); Scott Pomfret (Since My Last Confession, a Gay Catholic Memoir) and Alison Barnet, who writes about the "old" South End for the South End News.
Doug Bauer’s books include the novels, Dexterity, The Very Air, and The Book of Famous Iowans, and the non-fiction books, Prairie City, Iowa and The Stuff of Fiction. He’s also edited two anthologies, Prime Times: Writers on Their Favorite Television Shows and Death by Pad Thai and Other Unforgettable Meals. A personal essay by Bauer, entitled "What We Hunger For," was included in Best Food Writing 2009, a Da Capo Press anthology.
Bauer has received grants in both fiction and non-fiction from the Massachusetts Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, most recently in January 2010 when the NEA awarded him $25,000 in support of his ongoing work in contemporary literature. His stories and essays have appeared in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Sports Illustrated, Tin House, Agni, and many other magazines. Bauer has worked as a magazine editor and for several years as a free-lance journalist before returning to academic life, earning a Doctor of Arts degree from the State University of New York, Albany. He has taught at Harvard