Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Pride Week Readings, Pt 2

Magers & Quinn Booksellers and Quatrefoil Library present two nights of GLBT readings--7:30pm, Tuesday, June 21, and Thursday, June 23. Four authors visit Magers & Quinn during Pride Week. Their work--history, fiction, memoir, and essays--showcase the GLBT experience both past and present.

7:30pm, Tuesday, June 21:

7:30pm, Thursday, June 23:

These events are co-sponsored by Quatrefoil Library. Quatrefoil Library is celebrating our 25th Anniversary in 2011. The volunteer-run, non-profit library collects, maintains, documents, and circulates gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer materials and information in a safe and accessible space. Quatrefoil’s collection includes books, videos, DVDs, and sound recordings, which members may check out, as well as a large collection of non-circulating periodicals. Learn more at www.qlibrary.org.

7:30pm, Thursday, June 23

Ryan Van Meter reads from his memoir If You Knew Then What I Know Now.The middle American coming-of-age has found new life in Ryan Van Meter's coming-out, made as strange as it is familiar by acknowledging the role played by gender and sexuality. In fourteen linked essays, If You Knew Then What I Know Now reinvents the memoir with all-encompassing empathy--for bully and bullied alike. A father pitches baseballs at his hapless son and a grandmother watches with silent forbearance as the same slim, quiet boy sets the table dressed in a blue satin dress. Another essay explores origins of the word "faggot" and its etymological connection to "flaming queen." This deft is an argument for the intimate--not the sensational--and an embrace of all the skinned knees in our stumble toward adulthood.

“Ryan Van Meter’s is both a charming and wounding intelligence. To read a book this observant, this fiercely honest, and this effortlessly beautiful is to feel the very pulse of contemporary American essays.”--John D’Agata

Ryan Van Meter grew up in Missouri and currently lives in California where he is an assistant professor of creative nonfiction at the University of San Francisco.His essays have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Indiana Review, Gulf Coast, Arts & Letters, and Fourth Genre.

CM Harris reads from her novel Enter Oblivion. CM Harris’ novel is the story of Vince, a young, moody boxer from Brooklyn with an oozing bullet wound and a spot awaiting him in the Narducci crime family. When Vince returns travelers' checks he's stolen from a British tourist, he soon finds himself in 1980s London, the epicenter of New Wave culture, unsure whether he will become a rock star, a rent boy, or a laughingstock. Vince's journey brings an awkward friendship with a glamorous drag queen, a stint in a post-punk rock band, a frustrating romance with a Bowie-esque pop star, and bloody quarrels with a misfit skinhead--Vince's own cracked reflection. In this quirky yet charming story of love and family and culture clash, Vince discovers his place in a rapidly changing world.

“C.M. Harris has the savvy to create a rousing tale, as well as the language, imagery, and wit to deliver it.”--Lavender Magazine

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