On Sept. 14th, Corazón del Pueblo, LA Eastside art space, will host a Floricanto Adelanto to welcome poets & writers in LA for the official Festival Flor y Canto: Yesterday • Today • Tomorrow. The reading will be styled after the recent Floricanto held at the Mission Cultural Center which doubled as the 40th Anniversary Celebration of El Tecolote newspaper, the Bay Area's community arts and literature publication. Poets & writers will be introduced briefly and given 4 - 5 minutes to share. There will be no features or headliners. Poets will be assigned slots on an alphabetical basis. Corazón del Pueblo is located at 2003 East 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033. We hope it will be an opportunity for younger writers and spoken word slingers from our communities across LA to become familiar with and be mentored by more established writers from across the state and the nation while stimulating the creation and development of an annual Eastside Festival de Libros y Letras.
Libros Schmibros, a community lending library and used bookstore located directly across the street from Corazón del Pueblo at 2000 East 1st, has graciously offered to provide space for book tables and signing opportunities for those writers who have books to sell or promote. Authors will be allowed to sell their own books at Libros Schmibros free of charge. Consignment sales opportunities for publishers will also be provided at the traditional rates. Writers and book vendors will be responsible for bringing their own tables.
Since space and time are limited, both the poetry/spoken word showcase slots and the book vending opportunities are being made available on a first-come, first-served basis. For local poets, priority will be given to those who have previously performed at Corazón del Pueblo.
The cut off date to sign up for the reading is Tuesday, September 7.
Participating poets/writers confirmed as of 9/1/10
Francisco X. Alarcon
Leon Arellano
Johnny Berrios
Sammy Carrera
Frank Escamilla
John Carlos de Luna
Reina Alejandra Prado
Abel Salas
Sincerely,
Corazon del Pueblo: Arts, Education & Action Collective
corazondelpueblo@live.com
TO SIGN UP FOR THE READING, CALL 213.321.7115
TO RESERVE SPACE FOR BOOK VENDING/SIGNING, CALL 310.924.9821
CELEBRATING THE POWER OF LITERATURE TO PROMOTE PEACE,
DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE ANNOUNCES 2010 FINALISTS
Winners to be honored at gala Dayton ceremony on November 7th
Dayton, OH (September 1, 2010) – Celebrating the power of literature to promote peace, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation today announced the twelve finalists for the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in fiction and nonfiction.
Inspired by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia, The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. The Prize celebrates the power of literature to promote peace, nonviolent conflict resolution, and global understanding.
The 2010 finalists explore a diverse range of challenging issues ranging from cultural dislocation (A Good Fall by Ha Jin) to famine (Enough: Why the World’s Poor Starve in an Age of Plenty by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman) to the impact of war crimes and mass murder (Tears in the Darkness by Michael and Elizabeth Norman, A Postcard from the Volcano by Lucy Beckett) and are set in locations around the world, including Nigeria (The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Adiche), Jamaica (The Book of Night Womens), Kashmir (In the Valley of the Mist by Justine Hardy), and Ethiopia (Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese),
The full list of finalists can be found below and at: www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org.
A winner and runner-up in fiction and nonfiction will be announced on September 22nd. Winners receive a $10,000 honorarium and runners-up receive $1,000.00. They will be honored at a gala ceremony hosted by award-winning journalist Nick Clooney in Dayton on Sunday, November 7th.
The committee previously announced that historical novelist Geraldine Brooks (March, Year of Wonders, People of the Book) will be the recipient of the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award, a distinction she shares with Studs Terkel (2006), Elie Wiesel (2007), Taylor Branch (2008), and Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (2009).
"This year’s finalists help readers to see pressing global issues through the eyes of individuals whose lives are immediately affected by the larger forces around them," said Sharon Rab, chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. “While challenging us to confront difficult and painful truths, each work, in its own way, is ultimately hopeful, offering the reader powerful insight into the resilience of the human spirit.”
The 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize fiction finalists are:
- A Postcard from the Volcano by Lucy Beckett (Ignatius Press): Beginning in 1914 and ending on the eve of World War II, this epic coming-of-age story follows a Prussian aristocrat as he confronts the ideologies that threaten the annihilation of millions of people.
- A Good Fall by Ha Jin (Pantheon Books): In this stark and insightful collection, acclaimed writer Ha Jin depicts the struggle of Chinese immigrants in America to remain loyal to their traditions as they explore the freedom that life in a new country offers.
- Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Knopf): A young Ethiopian doctor is forced to flee revolution in his homeland for New York City in this enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.
- The Book of Night Women by Marlon James (Penguin Group; G. P. Putham's Sons/Riverhead Books): Born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century, a woman with dark, mysterious powers finds herself at the heart of a slave revolt plotted by the women around her.
- The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim (Henry Holt and Company): In early-twentieth-century Korea, the privileged daughter of a calligrapher struggles to choose her own destiny while her country crumbles under Japanese occupation.
- The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Adiche (Knopf): Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie turns her penetrating eye on both her native country and America in twelve dazzling stories that explore the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them.
The 2010 nonfiction finalists are:
- Enough: Why the Worlds Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman (Public Affairs): This powerful investigative narrative shows exactly how, in the past few decades, American, British, and European policies have conspired to keep Africa hungry and unable to feed itself.
- In the Valley of the Mist by Justine Hardy (Free Press): A personal, moving, and vibrant picture of the Kashmir Valley, one of the most beautiful and troubled places in the world -- described through the experiences of one family, whose fortunes have changed dramatically with those of the region.
- Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson (Penguin Group, USA): From the author of the #1 bestseller Three Cups of Tea, the continuing story of this determined humanitarian’s efforts to promote peace in Afghanistan through education.
- Tears in the Darkness by Michael and Elizabeth Norman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux): Using the perspective of a young American soldier, this account of World War II’s Bataan death march exposes the myths of war and shows the extent of suffering and loss on both sides.
- The Education of a British-Protected Child by Chinua Achebe (Knopf): From the celebrated author of Things Fall Apart, a new collection of autobiographical essays—his first new book in more than twenty years
- Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (McSweeney's): The meticulously researched story of a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four who chose to stay in New Orleans through Hurricane Katrina and protect his house and business—but then abruptly disappeared.
Finalists will be reviewed by a panel of prominent writers including Ken McClane, Cullen Murphy, Katherine Vaz, and Nancy Zafris.
To be eligible for the 2010 awards, English-language books must be published or translated into English in 2009 and address the theme of peace on a variety of levels, such as between individuals, among families and communities, or among nations, religions, or ethnic groups.
About the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize honors writers whose work uses the power of literature to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding. Launched in 2006, it has already established itself as one of the world’s most prestigious literary honors, and is the only literary peace prize awarded in the United States. As an offshoot of the Dayton Peace Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize awards a $10,000 cash prize each year to one fiction and one nonfiction author whose work advances peace as a solution to conflict, and leads readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view. An annual lifetime achievement award is also bestowed upon a writer whose body of work reflects the Prize's mission; previous honorees include Studs Terkel, Elie Wiesel, Taylor Branch, Nicholas Kristof, and Sheryl WuDunn.
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On Sunday Sept. 26 at 11 am, join Denver's gay community, Art from Ashes, Ed Gillespie of G3 & Noelle Benjamin of Salon Noelle in the first Denver Running of the Gays to support creative programs for youth. Runners have agreed to raise $250 each in sponsorships to run 3 blocks down 17th Avenue in heels! Art from Ashes supplies the t-shirts, runners supply the heels, Steuben's and Hamburger Mary's supply the specials, and JR's supplies the party!
SIGN UP HERE to BE A RUNNER!
CLICK HERE to SPONSOR A RUNNER!
RECOMMENDED
Before (During) After: Louisiana Photographers' Visual Reactions to Hurricane KatrinaTwelve Photographers and essays by John Biguenet, Steven Maklansky, and Dr. Tony Lewis
University of New Orleans Press, August, 2010
Before, During, After is a visual and literary narrative of how Hurricane Katrina has transformed the lives and work of twelve photographers from Southeast Louisiana. Five years after the storm's wake, we look back to discover Katrina's imprint on the creative expression of each artist. The book emphasizes not only the effect of Hurricane Katrina but also the way individuals are influenced by their environments, particularly in times of dramatic upheaval. Adding depth to the pictorial representation, each photographer has written an intimate account of how Katrina changed his or her life, work and vision of the future.
Featuring Eric Paul Julian, Elizabeth Kleinveld, Rowan Metzner, David Rae Morris, Thomas Neff, Samuel Portera, Frank Relle, Jennifer Shaw, Mark Sindler, Zack Smith, Jonathan Traviesa and Lori Waselchuk.
This book sits on my work table where I glance at the photos every day. Some are painful, others hopeful, all beautiful. The photos show daily life, destruction, rebuilding, color and excitement, but at its heart, this book is about the people of New Orleans. Which is only right.
Later.
