NATHAN BALLINGRUD & MARLY YOUMANS READING & BOOKSIGNING
Malaprop's Bookstore & Cafe, onsdag, august 28, 2013 kl. 7pm
Praise for Youmans "Youmans is the best-kept secret among contemporary American writers." -John Wilson, editor, Books & Culture "It is seldom that a novel from a small university press can compete with the offerings from the big houses in New York. A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage may be the best novel this reviewer has read this year. Its quality and story-telling remind one of The Adventures of Roderick Random, Great Expectations and The Grapes of Wrath among others. The winner of the 2012 'Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction,' A Death... has the potential to become a classic American picaresque novel. / One wishes, however, that this novel will not get shunted into the regional box and be seen only as a Southern novel. Its themes and the power of its language, the forceful flow of its storyline and its characters have earned the right to a broad national audience." 30 July 2012 John M. Formy-Duval (ABOUT.COM CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE) "A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage tells of a young boy's travels through the black heart of Depression America and his search for light both metaphorical and real. Writing with a controlled lyrical passion, Marly Youmans has crafted the finest, and the truest period novel I've read in years." --novelist Lucius Shepard "Occasionally I read a new work of fiction that blows me away, and Marly Youmans's A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage (Mercer) did just that. Every page in this book resonates with beautifully crafted language, a 'universal melody that sings of deep loss and conciliation,' and a moving story of a young boy, who after the death of his beloved younger brother, takes to the rails in Depression-era America. I agree with one reviewer that said this is destined to be an American classic." -Nancy Olson (a Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the Year), Quail Ridge Books About A Death at White Camellia Orphanage After a tragedy at the White Camellia Orphanage, young Pip Tatnall leaves Lexsy, Georgia, to become a road kid, riding the rails east, west, and north. A bright, unusual boy who is disillusioned at a young age, Pip believes that he sees guilt shining int he faces of men wherever he goes. On his picaresque journey, he sweeps through society, revealing the highest and lowest in human nature and only slowly coming to self-understaning. He searches the points the points of the compasss for what will help, groping for a place where he can feel content, certain that he has no place where he belongs and that he rides the rails through a great darkness. His difficult path to collect enough radiance to light his way home is the road of a boy struggling to come to terms with the cruel but sometimes lovely world of Depression-era America. A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage won The Ferrol Sams Award for fiction and the Silver Award in fiction in the ForeWord Book of the Year Awards. Youmans is the author of five novels, two Southern fantasies for young adults set in western North Carolina, four books of poetry, and two forthcoming novels. She is from Cullowhee, has a son living in Asheville, and has maintained a 47-year close connection with the region. In addition to her reading from A Death at White Camellia Orphanage, she will be reading poetry from The Foliate Head and Thaliad. Praise for Ballingrud "Nathan Ballingrud is one of my favorite short fiction writers."—Jeff VanderMeer "Nathan Ballingrud's 'The Way Station' is another story of the sort I've come to expect from him: emotionally intense, riveting, and deeply upsetting in many ways. It deals with loss, with the aftereffects of Katrina on a homeless alcoholic who's haunted by the city itself be-fore the flood, and in doing so it's wrenching. . . . It's an excellent story that paints a riveting por-trait of a man, his city, and his loss."—Tor.com on The Naked City "But the two most remarkable stories in Naked City are by relatively new authors: 'The Projected Girl' (Haifa) by Lavie Tidhar and 'The Way Station' (New Orleans and St. Petersburg, Florida) by Nathan Ballingrud are both heartbreakers."—John Clute on Strange Hori-zons About North American Lake Monsters These are love stories. And also monster stories. Sometimes these are mon-sters in their traditional guises, sometimes they wear the faces of parents, lovers, or ourselves. The often working-class people in these stories are driven to extremes by love. Sometimes, they are ruined; sometimes redeemed. All are faced with the loneliest corners of themselves and strive to find an escape. Nathan Ballingrud was born in Massachusetts but has spent most of his life in the South. He worked as a bartender in New Orleans and New York City and a cook on offshore oil rigs. His story "The Monsters of Heaven" won the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with his daughter.
Location: Street: 55 Haywood St City: Asheville, Province: North Carolina Postal Code: 28801 Country: United States (tilføjet fra IndieBound)… (mere)
Location: Street: 55 Haywood St City: Asheville, Province: North Carolina Postal Code: 28801 Country: United States (tilføjet fra IndieBound)… (mere)
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