entertainment
Laurie Hertzel is senior editor for books at the Star Tribune, where she has worked since 1996. She is the author of "News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist," winner of a Minnesota Book Award.
Posts about Book stores
Ethan Rutherford launches story collection at Micawber's
Posted by: Laurie Hertzel Updated: May 8, 2013 - 2:52 PM
Ethan Rutherford reads from "The Peripatetic Coffin" at his book launch at Micawber's.
Hans Weyandt, co-owner of Micawber's Bookstore, got things rolling Tuesday night when he introduced Ethan Rutherford, author of the new short-story collection, "The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories" (Ecco Press).
" 'Peripatetic' is a word that is not used by anyone anywhere in the United States today," Weyandt said. He said he enjoyed calling up distributors and ordering the book, because it required them not only to pronounce the word but also to spell it.
Weyandt's little bookstore in St. Paul's St. Anthony Park neighborhood was packed to the stacks with friends and fans of Rutherford, there for the first stop of his rather extensive book tour, which will take him to the West Coast next week, and then to the East Coast. Rutherford, who lives in Minneapolis with his wife and toddler son, is a graduate of the University of Minnesota's MFA program in creative writing. Rutherford also reviews books for the Star Tribune.
Matt Burgess reads from his work-in-progress.
A friend he met in the program, Matt Burgess--author of "Dogfight: A Love Story"--was up next. (And in the crowd, their writing teachers--Charles Baxter and Julie Schumacher.) (Also in the crowd, novelist Peter Bognanni, winner of the American Academy's Rome Prize, removing his hip white-framed sunglasses as he dashed through the door a little late.)
After a few more jokes about the word "peripatetic" (which Burgess said he had to look up the meaning of), Burgess read a brief, very funny scene from his work-in-progress, "Uncle Janis," a novel about undercover narcotics cops in Brooklyn.
The bookstore was crowded on this warm spring night, and Rutherford swung the door a few times, trying to kick up a breeze. (There was also free beer, which might have served to both cool and warm the guests.)
"This is a sort of wonderful day," Rutherford said. "It's like a wedding, except I don't have to dance."
He chose Micawber's for his book launch, he said, both because it's his favorite bookstore, and because he loves independent bookstores in general. "I've tricked you all here, I've given you free beers, so please buy a book," he urged the crowd. (Any book, he said, though he would especially like it if they bought his book.) (And they did, selling out Weyandt's supply of "Coffin.")
Rutherford's collection contains three sea stories, including the title story (the well-traveled coffin is a submarine), and Rutherford told the audience that it had long been his wish "to write 'Moby Dick II.' It turns out that's not a story that anybody was waiting for."
Micawber's Bookstore was packed.
And then he read from the last story in his collection, "Dirwhals!," a futuristic tale about whale-hunters--though these whales live not in the sea, but in the sand.
And after that, booksigning and beer and the reading turned into a happy party. Like a wedding, but with no dancing.
Bookstore's love poem competition down to a few finalists
Posted by: Laurie Hertzel Updated: April 4, 2013 - 2:43 PM
Common good poetry. Photo courtesy of David Enyeart, Common Good Books.
You can't miss the finalists in the Common Good Books first annual amateur love poem contest--they're printed on huge sheets (three by four feet) of posterboard and are suspended from the ceiling of the bookstore. You can read them even without your bifocals. And then, after you've found them and read them, you can go up to the counter and vote for your favorite.
The finalists were chosen by G. Keillor, Prop., himself from more than 150 entries, and he will announce the winner at 1 p.m. on April 21 at a celebration of poetry at Weyerhaeuser Chapel at Macalester College.
The finalists are: Emily Walz, Thomas Kendrick, Barbara Miller, Carol Van Hale, Bernard Jacob, Delores Mixer, Norman Holen, Anne Parsons, Roy Close, Rob Dougherty, Ginger Bolling and Thomas Hamburg.
The bookstore is at 38 S. Snelling Av., St. Paul. Stop by, read, cast your vote. And watch your head.
Come poets, come lovers, come poetry lovers, come love-poem-lovers...
Posted by: Laurie Hertzel Updated: March 4, 2013 - 12:24 PM
Poets at work! Star Tribune illustration by L.K. Hanson
What a brave and wonderful move, opening up a contest to unpublished poets. Brave because -- well, we know how many people secretly write poetry: All of us. And wonderful because -- well, there just aren't enough venues for poets.
But here come Common Good Books and Garrison Keillor with the first annual (which means if you don't win this year, there's always next year) Common Good Amateur Love Poem Contest. ("Amateur" meaning you cannot have published a book of poetry.)
Submit your poem (limit of 14 lines, or 200 words) by email to info@commongoodbooks.com. One poem per person, so pour everything you have into it. (In 200 words.)
Poems should focus on love or praise.
The finalists will be announced April 1, and the finalists will be displayed at the store for you to vote on. The winner will be announced at 1 p.m. on April 21 at a big Poetry Month event at Weyerhaeuser Chapel at Macalester College, hosted by Keillor. "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll rhyme," says the press release, and we can only imagine.
Sharpen thy quill pen.Don thy puffy-sleeved shirt. Bare thy soul.
Dave Eggers cancels Twin Cities appearance
Posted by: Laurie Hertzel Updated: February 22, 2013 - 3:30 PM
No word on whether or not he'll reschedule.
A guess even a staggering genius can't be in two places at the same time.
Author Dave Eggers headed silently this way
Posted by: Laurie Hertzel Updated: February 19, 2013 - 1:05 PM
Dave Eggers.
Dave Eggers, editor, author, dynamo, and, yes, heartthrob, with that curly hair and scruffy beard, is no stranger to the Twin Cities. He was here last year as a Pen Pals speaker, and his latest anthology of "non-required reading" (published October 2012) included a piece by Minneapolis writer Louise Erdrich.
(Is it ironic that Erdrich's piece was an excerpt from "The Round House," which just won the National Book Award, beating Eggers' own "A Hologram for the King"? Or just coincidence?)
Eggers will be in town in early March signing books at two bookstores--signings only, no reading or event.
Stll, his very presence, silent though it may be, is sure to draw crowds. He'll sign "A Hologram for the King" and most likely any of his other books, too ("Zeitoun" won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" first launched Eggers into fame in 2000) at 3:30 p.m. March 9 at Micawber's Bookstore, 2238 Carter Ave., St. Paul, and then again at 6:30 p.m. at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Av. S., Minneapolis.
A books blogger in Portland, Ore., noted that at his recent reading in Portland, a fan brought him a pear, which he ate. Actually, she said it was a "perfect pear wrapped in gold foil."
What gifts will Minnesotans bring?
ADVERTISEMENT
recent posts
- Ethan Rutherford launches story collection at Micawber's
- Craving green and blooming fragrant things? Head to Gustavus Adolphus
- McKnight writers awards announced
- A report from the front: World Book Night in Minnesota
- Tonight's Earth Day reading with John Caddy is postponed due to, of course, weather.
- "The Round House" a finalist for Carnegie Medal.
- Coffee House Press racks up an impressive list of awards
- Neal Karlen recalls the heyday of Minneapolis gangsters.
- Poet Jane Hirshfield reads in Minneapolis tonight
- Minnesota Book Awards cross the river and lighten up.
- Two new Kate DiCamillo books pubbing this year
- Mankato's Nick Healy to be honored in Chicago
- Second Milkweed poetry prize announced
- Arthur Phillips a finalist for the IMPAC/Dublin Award
- Bookstore's love poem competition down to a few finalists
- Robert Bly reads to a packed house
- Charles Baxter to judge National Book Awards
Post By Category
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
inside the StarTribune
-
425 Portland Av. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55488
(612) 673-4000
- Company
- Subscriber Services
- Website
- Buy Ads
- Store
- Connect with Us
© 2013 StarTribune. All rights reserved.
StarTribune.com is powered by Limelight Networks
Newspaper Subscriptions
eEdition
RSS
Newsletters