AfterViews

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

2011-04-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous, lyric, Cry, the Beloved Country published in 1948 has a narrative pull seemingly drawn from both the clarity of the storytelling and the complexity of its subject matter--black struggle in the time of apartheid in South Africa--but also from the strength of its characters and the simultaneous simplicity and depth of the often lyric writing. An old Zulu pastor, Stephen Kumalo, leaves his

And the Winners Are...

2011-01-14T12:05:00.000-08:00

Thank you again, all of you who entered the Authorbuzz book giveaway and sent me your notes, well-wishes, and emails with fascinating ghost stories of your own. Thanks especially for waiting, since I found myself first wrapped up in schoolwork, then needing to finish school work, then rushing to do last-minute Christmassy things for my daughter. I'm coming out of all the fogs now! and hoping

Going Mobile

2010-10-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

Dance on the Turquoise Whale, a story from my new collection of short fiction, For the Sake of the Boy (seeking a publisher :) is live today in the Ether Books app. on Apple--iPhones, -pads, -tunes, etc. Please drop in to read. The Ether Books blog which mentions the post is here. This is a first-time publication of Dance..., and also my first publication in the UK or globally by a UK publisher.

Ghost Stories!

2010-09-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone, for the wonderful--and spooky!--ghost stories trickling in to my mailbox! For those who didn't catch this edition of Authorbuzz, send in your own true-life ghost story to add your name to a drawing for one of 5 signed copies of Temporary Lives I'm giving away. (Via email: ramolad1@gmail.com) Contest still open. And here is the Authorbuzz link, with more about the

Readings

2010-09-13T10:31:00.000-07:00

Will be reading from Temporary Lives at Arlington's Central Library this Wed, Sep 15, at 7pm http://arlingtonvalib.blogspot.com/2010/09/author-event-sept-15-temporary-lives.html and also at the George Mason Fall for the Book MFA Alumni Reading, Sep 23, at 4:30 pm (Dewberry Hall North, Johnson) http://fallforthebook.org/?page_id=979/ Also looking forward to meeting with high school students at T

Temporary Lives News

2010-09-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

Some lovely, if astonishing news: Temporary Lives has been named a finalist in fiction for the 13th Annual Literary Award in Fiction from the Library of Virginia, along with Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna (recent winner of the Orange Prize) and Josh Weil's The New Valley. Terribly illustrious company. Their books sound awfully interesting. Feel a bit like an impostor. But of course charmed and

A Fourth of July Post: Against Endless War or War at All

2010-07-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

I'd wanted to continue with my AWP posts -- so much to say! -- but realize the 4th is tomorrow and am reminded by The World Can't Wait that we are apparently living in a time -- and a place -- where one gruesome war after another is brought up, sanctioned, and embarked on, while most of the US shops on, in numb consumerism, unable to connect those images on the screen with the sinister bottomless

Writers and Readings and Panels at AWP Denver/1

2010-06-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

So, while everyone else typed their notes up at Denver, on the plane from Denver, and directly post Denver, I wrote mine in my head mostly and find I have them these days as a sort of subterranean constant companion--procrastination is my middle name apparently, I could possibly take up a new career selling it by the pound. I'd like to say I was so wrapped in teaching, writing, reviewing, playing

Readings and Books

2010-05-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

I read a story this cool rainy afternoon at The Writer's Center in Bethesda to a small and intimate group of listeners who braved the dripping rain beside the wonderfully and diversely talented Dan Gutstein, who read a series of variously intense and playful non/fictions from his new book titled Non/Fiction. It's a book to dip into and savor, and it's another I'm adding to my review list for this

Bree O'Mara

2010-05-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

It's been more than a month, I know, and I have so much I've been plotting and planning to write about, but everything is interrupted for this. I can't seem to get over the enormous tragedy of South African Irish writer Bree O' Mara's life being taken, in the recent Libyan plane crash--the one where the lone Dutch boy survived--along, of course, with all else on the plane. I'd not heard of her

The Book of Light, by Lucille Clifton

2010-03-09T19:00:00.000-08:00