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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Books Reading Tonight

Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 10:22 AM

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There's a fair range of subjects being covered tonight.

At Town Hall, Anne Keeney leads a discussion about the importance of postsecondary education in the awful, awful job market.

At the Seattle Public Library, Tavis Smiley speaks. This is going to be the most packed reading of the night, guaranteed. If you like NPR, you probably already knew about this one.

At Elliott Bay Book Company, Christina Sunley reads from The Tricking of Freya, a novel based on Icelandic lore. If you know anything at all about Icelandic lore, you know it is fucked up and weird and lovely. I have not read this book, but I'm hoping it can retain that feel. I also really like the cover.

Jane Hirshfield reads at Benaroya Hall. She is a poet, translator, and Zen Buddhist, as well as a person who is knowledgeable about very old Japanese texts, and she's got two or three new books out now. Here is the beginning of one of her poems, called "This Was Once a Love Poem":

This was once a love poem,
before its haunches thickened, its breath grew short,
before it found itself sitting,
perplexed and a little embarrassed,
on the fender of a parked car,
while many people passed by without turning their heads.

You can find more of Hirshfield's poetry here. This is the reading of the night.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here.

Comments (1) RSS

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It's better to be doing something to improve your marketable skills (e.g. post-secondary education) and broaden your career prospects, than to just sit around like a mushroom.

Even if the UW isn't taking more students in some areas, there are a lot of good colleges and certain departments at university that would love additional people.

Posted by Will in Seattle on March 12, 2009 at 10:35 AM