Submitted by Village Books
Every month Village Books in Fairhaven hosts a full calendar of author talks attended by local and visiting authors. Listen to authors of your favorite titles talk about their work, or discover new favorites by attending one (or more) of these popular talks.
Friday, May 1, 7:00 p.m.
Deryl Walls, “Catalogue Raisonne: The Block Prints of Guy Anderson”
This catalogue raisonne on the work of legendary Northwest Painter Guy Irving Anderson is the first publication on his work in twenty-eight years. The book documents all phases of his process, with color images of all his extant blockprints. A must for all Northwest Art libraries, public or private.
Deryl Walls is a Northwest native, a graduate of Western Washington University. He has owned Gallery Dei Gratia of La Conner, Washington, for twenty-seven years. It was founded to exhibit Mr. Anderson’s artworks and continues to make available the complete estate inventory of his works. The Gallery’s website is GalleryDeiGratia.com. Jase Ihler has been an associate of the gallery for seven years. He is a graduate of Western Washington University and currently resides in Bellingham, Washington.
Sunday, May 3, 4:00 p.m.
Tom Kirkendall and Vicky Spring, “Washington: A Photographic Journey” (Slide Show)
“Washington: A Photographic Journey” is a book of images dedicated to celebrating the diversity and beauty of the entire state. With over 100 photographs of the landscape and recreational activities within its 80 pages, the book offers a true feel of what it means to live in the state of Washington.
Tom Kirkendall and Vicky Spring have been combining a love of adventure and photography for over 25 years. They started out with more than ten guide books on cross-country skiing, bicycle touring, mountain biking and hiking for The Mountaineers Books. After a few years of book publishing they decided to work exclusively on capturing the best of the outdoor world with their cameras globe. Currently, they are concentrating on showcasing the amazing diversity of North America to fill out their file of calendar quality images of mountains, glaciers, oceans, rivers, forests, sand dunes and deserts. Tom and Vicky love assignment work, the more challenging the better. Among their more memorable assignments is documenting a winter climb to the summit of Mount Rainier in a blizzard and attempting to photograph the elusive Sasquatch. Beyond the standard landscapes, they cover outdoor action sports such as climbing, hiking, canoeing, kayaking and cycling.
Wednesday, May 6, 7:00 p.m.
Jeremy Pataky, “Overwinter” — Poetry
A debut collection from an exciting new voice in Alaska poetry, “Overwinter” reconciles the natural quiet of wilderness with the clamor of built environments. Pataky’s migration between Anchorage and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park inspires these poems that connect urban to rural. This duality permeates “Overwinter.” Moments are at turns fevered or serene. The familial and romantic are measured against the wildness of the far north. Empty spaces bring both solace and loneliness in full, and fully imagined, places. Past loves haunt the present, surviving in the spaces sculpted by language.
Jeremy Pataky’s debut book of poetry, “Overwinter,” was published by University of Alaska Press in March 2015. Jeremy earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Montana and a BA at Western Washington University. His work has appeared in Colorado Review, Black Warrior Review, Cirque, Ice Floe, Left-Facing Bird, The Southeast Review, and many others. He has worked as a wilderness guide, nonprofit executive director, university instructor, and after school poetry teacher. He is a founding board member of 49 Writers, Inc. He splits his time between Anchorage and McCarthy, Alaska, in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
Thursday, May 7, 7:00 p.m.
Tony Angell, “The House of Owls”
“The House of Owls” gives a vivid sense of why owls have captivated people throughout history. Nationally-known wildlife artist Tony Angell provides detailed information and gorgeous drawings of all North American owl species, and provides a fascinating overview of the impact owls have had on human culture. He considers the challenges owls face in a world of human-driven change, urging lovers of nature to consider all that we’d lose if we lost the owls. A celebration of a creature that has held special meaning for people from the age of cave paintings to the age of Harry Potter, “The House of Owls” is a delight for anyone who wants to better understand these astonishing birds.
Tony Angell is the author or illustrator of numerous books in the fields of art and natural history. He served as supervisor of environmental education for Washington state’s Department of Public Instruction for more than 30 years while also maintaining an award-winning career as a professional artist. He lives in Lake Forest Park.
Saturday, May 9, 10:30 a.m.
Sheryl Hershey, “Lila and the Dandelion” — Local Children’s Author
Celebrate Children’s Book Week with Village Books! Lila is a happy little girl who listens with her heart and speaks with her hands. Lila is deaf, though the book doesn’t focus on this. Instead it demonstrates the positive impact that she has on those around her. The moral of the story? “The world is a better place simply because you are in it.”
Sheryl Hershey is an author who lives in Bellingham, with her husband Gary, a chocolate lab named Buddy (who has his own blog!), and two cats. Her inspiration for Lila and the Dandelion is her grandmother, Lila Ahlsten, who taught children who were blind, deaf, and couldn’t speak at the Washington State School for the Blind in Vancouver. Mrs. Ahlsten believed that her students had a positive role to play in the world. Thus, the Lila books were born.
Saturday, May 9, 1:00 p.m.
Rebecca VanSlyke, “Mom School” — Local Children’s Author
Celebrate Children’s Book Week with Village Books! Kids go to school to learn reading and math. But where do moms go to school? Where do they learn important skills like building forts out of couch cushions and doing more than one thing at a time, like talking on the phone while fixing your hair? At Mom School, of course!
Rebecca Van Slyke has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She writes picture books, easy readers, nonfiction, and poetry. She has illustrated five art books for children. She is also the author of “Mom School,” and forthcoming picture books “Dad School,” “Lexie, the Word Wrangler,” and “Where Do Pants Go?,” due to be published in 2016. Rebecca is a second-grade teacher in Lynden, where she lives with her husband, daughter (when she’s not in college), and a very spoiled dachshund.
Saturday, May 9, 7:00 p.m.
David Mason, “Sea Salt: Poems of a Decade,” 2004-2014 — Poetry
Long regarded as one of the best narrative and dramatic poets at work in the United States, David Mason has also been regularly producing soulful lyrics. In the ten years since the publication of his last collection of shorter poems, Mason has refined his art in the fires of wrenching personal change. The result is an almost entirely new poetic voice and his most rigorous and memorable book to date. Emotionally resonant and elegant in phrasing, the poems of “Sea Salt,” which have appeared in publications such as “Best American Poetry,” The New Yorker, Harper’s, and “Poetry,” are a powerful evocation of crisis and change.
David Mason’s books of poems include “The Buried Houses,” “The Country I Remember,” and “Arrivals.” His verse novel, “Ludlow,” was published in 2007, and named best poetry book of the year by the Contemporary Poetry Review and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. His poetry, prose and translations have appeared in such periodicals as The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Times Literary Supplement. A former Fulbright Fellow to Greece, he served as Poet Laureate of Colorado from 2010 to 2014, and teaches at Colorado College.
Tuesday, May 12, 7:00 p.m.
Dave Tucker, “Geology Underfoot in Western Washington” — Offsite Event at Whatcom Museum
Ancient volcanoes preserved as deeply eroded scraps. Seafloors forced high into the sky. Fossils of a long-extinct, 385-pound flightless bird that roamed subtropical floodplains. From the crest of the Cascades to the Pacific, and from the Columbia River north to the Canadian border, the ghosts of deep time are widely exposed in western Washington. But geology never really dies. It is very much active and alive in the region: volcanoes periodically erupt, showering their surroundings with ash; earthquakes shake Earth’s surface and the constructions of humans, sending tsunamis ashore to wreak havoc; and melting alpine glaciers send forth great floods of water. Join us for a free event at Whatcom Museum with Dave Tucker, who will present his new book “Geology Underfoot in Western Washington,” one of the most comprehensive guides to our region’s geology ever written. This event is put on in partnership with Whatcom Museum and North Cascades Institute.
Dave Tucker lives in Bellingham, Washington. He has a Masters degree in geology and is a research associate in the geology department at Western Washington University. He is a director of the Mount Baker Volcano Research Center, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that raises funds to support research at the active volcano and educate the public about volcanic hazards of Mount Baker. Tucker has been mapping Baker’s geology since the mid-1990s, in particular the distribution of volcanic ash deposits. He leads public field trips and gives presentations about the geology of northwest Washington, and is author of a popular blog, Northwest Geology Field Trips.
Wednesday, May 13, 7:00 p.m.
Matthew Brouwer, “Stories We Must Tell” — Poetry
In his first full length collection of poems, Matthew Brouwer recounts his lengthy journey of descent after a backpacking injury slowly strips him of the ability to walk. A gut wrenching and soul searching struggle with limitation and loss, “Stories We Must Tell” is full of hard fought insights acquired on a long, bruising path towards healing.
Matthew Brouwer is a performance poet and teaching artist residing in Bellingham, WA. His work bridges the worlds of spoken word and literary poetry to create a style that can be both evocative and subtle, enlivening and profound. He has performed throughout the US and been featured in regional literary, performance, and visual arts showcases and a smattering of print and online journals. Matthew leads workshops and retreats for teens and adults, and coordinates the Whatcom Juvenile Justice Creative Writing Project.
Thursday, May 14, 7:00 p.m.
Kate Gray, “Carry The Sky” — Fiction
It’s 1983 at a Delaware boarding school. New rowing coach Taylor Alta is reeling is from the death of the woman she loved. Physics teacher Jack Song struggles with his personal code of honor. These two narrate the story of a strange and brilliant young boy who draws atomic mushroom clouds, bounces through the corridors, and is befriended by an older student with secrets of her own. “Carry the Sky” sings a brave anthem about what it means to be different in a world of uniformity.
A rower for years, Kate Gray began her teaching career in an East Coast boarding school and now has taught English for more than twenty years teaching at a community college in Oregon. Her first full-length book of poems, “Another Sunset We Survive” (2007), was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and followed chapbooks, “Bone Knowing” (2006), winner of the Gertrude Press Poetry Prize, and “Where She Goes” (2000), winner of the Blue Light Chapbook Prize. She and her partner live in a purple house in Portland, Oregon, with their very patient dogs.
Saturday, May 16, 7:00 p.m.
John Neeleman, “Logos” — Fiction
While novels and cinema have repeatedly sought after the historical Jesus, until now none have explored what may be a more tantalizing mystery — the Christian story’s anonymous creator. Logos is a literary bildungsroman about the man who will become the anonymous author of the original Gospel, set amid the kaleidoscopic mingling of ancient cultures. In A.D. 66, Jacob is an educated and privileged Greco-Roman Jew, a Temple priest in Jerusalem, and a leader of Israel’s rebellion against Rome. When Roman soldiers murder his parents and his beloved sister disappears in a pogrom led by the Roman procurator, personal tragedy impels Jacob to seek blood and vengeance. The rebellion he helps to foment leads to more tragedy, personal and ultimately cosmic: his wife and son perish in the Romans’ siege of Jerusalem, and the Roman army destroys Jerusalem and the Temple, and finally extinguishes Israel at Masada. Jacob is expelled from his homeland, and he wanders by land and sea, bereft of all, until he arrives in Rome. He is still rebellious, and in Rome he joins other dissidents, but now plotting ironic vengeance, not by arms, but by the power of an idea. Paul of Tarsus, Josephus, the keepers of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and even Yeshua, the historical Jesus himself, play a role in Jacob’s tumultuous and mysterious fortunes. But it is the women who have loved him who help him to appreciate that violence is a dire cycle.
John Neeleman is a trial lawyer in Seattle, Washington. “Logos” is his first novel.
Monday, May 18, 7:00 p.m.
Steve Martini, “The Enemy Inside”
Defending an innocent young man, defense attorney Paul Madriani uncovers a morass of corruption and greed that leads to the highest levels of political power in “The Enemy Inside,” an electrifying tale of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Steve Martini. One of the most successful lawyers in the country, Olinda Serna is a master at managing money as well as her influential clients. After years of fierce combat in the political trenches, Serna knows all the dirty secrets, where the bodies are buried, and how deeply they are stacked. When she’s killed in a roadside crash in the high desert of Southern California, powerful heads in Washington begin to panic, worried that their secrets may not be safe anymore. Alex Ives, a friend of Paul Madriani’s daughter, is accused of vehicular manslaughter in Serna’s death. Ives claims he had only one drink on the night of the accident, yet he can’t remember anything between the time he left for a party north of San Diego and the moment he woke up in a hospital the next morning. He’s still dazed and a little bruised, but also obviously very afraid. After all, a woman is dead, and he’s sure he didn’t kill her. To save an innocent young man’s life, the brilliant defense attorney must uncover everything he can about Serna and her clients—no matter how unsavory—a search that will lead him into a vortex of corruption, and at its center, a devious killer poised to strike again.
Steve Martini is the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including the upcoming “The Enemy Inside,” “Trader of Secrets,” “The Rule of Nine,” “Guardian of Lies,” “Shadow of Power,” “Double Tap,” and others featuring defense attorney Paul Madriani. Martini has practiced law in California in both state and federal courts and has served as an administrative law judge and supervising hearing officer. He lives in the Pacific Northwest and is currently at work on the next Paul Madriani novel.
Tuesday, May 19, 7:00 p.m.
Heather Lende, “Find the Good”
As the obituary writer in tiny Haines, Alaska, Heather Lende knows something about lives well lived. And now, she’s distilled what she’s learned about living a more exhilarating and meaningful life into three words: Find the Good. It’s that easy–and that hard. With humor and compassion, Lende reminds us that we can see every event as an opportunity to find the good. Drawing on her own experiences and unique skill of uncovering the positive aspects of the lives she chronicles, she shows us how to look at our relationships, our obligations, our priorities, our community, and our world from a fresh perspective. Lende empowers us to make the most of the life we have. As she says, “We are all writing our own obituary every day by how we live. The best news is that there’s still time for additions and revisions before it goes to press.”
Heather Lende has contributed essays and commentary to NPR, the New York Times, and National Geographic Traveler, among other newspapers and magazines, and is a former contributing editor at Woman’s Day. A columnist for the Alaska Dispatch News, she writes obituaries for the Chilkat Valley News and is the author of “Find the Good,” “If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name,” and “Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs.”
Wednesday, May 20, 7:00 p.m.
David Gessner, “All The Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner and the American West”
Going West. Is there another phrase that so perfectly encapsulates the American spirit? Another goal that so swiftly evokes the romance, adventure, and indomitable nature of our country’s history? For better or worse, the West has long been the destination of those who would go their own way. In the minds of many, it is still the land of wild men: the outlaw, the cowboy, the shaman and the rugged individualist. But the West of today is not the untouched landscape of the pioneer, and the future of a region beset by fracking, drilling, and a rapidly increasing population has perhaps never been less certain. In “All The Wild That Remains, acclaimed nature writer David Gessner takes to the road himself in pursuit of two very different men — Edward Abbey and Wallace Stegner — who called the place their home.
David Gessner is the award-winning author of “Return of the Osprey,” “My Green Manifesto,” “The Tarball Chronicles,” and other books. He teaches at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he founded the literary journal Ecotone.
Tuesday, May 26, 7:00 p.m.
Don Easterbrook, “Cruising Through Geologic Time in the San Juan Islands”
This is the most comprehensive book on the geology of the San Juan Islands in the past nine decades. Although written primarily for non-geologists, it also contains much new, previously unpublished geologic material of interest to geologists. The book includes geologic descriptions of the geology of all of the islands with more than 400 photos, maps, and laser, sonar, and satellite images, cross–indexed so the geology of any specific island can be easily found. An appendix of seafloor images is also included.
Don J. Easterbrook is Emeritus Professor of Geology at Western Washington University where he was department chairman for 12 years. He has B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees from the University of Washington. He has published several books, more than 150 papers in professional journals, and presented 30 research papers at international meetings in 15 countries. His research has included many years of work in the North Cascades, Puget Lowland, San Juan Islands, Columbia Plateau, Rocky Mts., New Zealand, Argentina and various other parts of the world. For more than five decades, he has studied the geology of the San Juan Islands and has just completed a comprehensive study of the San Juan Islands using newly developed laser, sonar, and satellite imagery that has revealed many new aspects of the geology of the islands.
Thursday, May 28, 7:00 p.m.
Jack Shaughnessy, “Montego’s Tale & Puzzle Pieces on the Path” — Local Author
Montego Bay was just a horse, as much as any one of us is just a person. In the midst of personal crisis, Jack Shaughnessy found an unexpected friendship with this very special four legged intuitive creature. That friendship became a source of refuge and inspiration and often, uninhibited fun. “Montego’s Tale” contains a few of their most memorable adventures. “Puzzle Pieces on the Path” is a random collection of personal musings, memories, observations and imaginings. They come in the form of brief narratives, descriptive scenes, or short poems — as a whole they are meant to be upbeat.
Jack Shaughnessy is a Freelance writer living in Bellingham, Washington with his wife Judy. They have five grown children and eight grandchildren, all of whom add light to their lives.
Friday, May 29, 7:00 p.m.
Arleen Williams, “Walking Home” — Fiction
Seattle is a long way from the Horn of Africa. Despite escaping his country’s violence, Kidane is never too far from the nightmares and despair of his past. A new country, a new hope, and a new love may not be enough to save him. Only when he is able to face his worst fears can he have any hope of being truly free. Arleen Williams’ third novel, “Walking Home,” joins “Running Secrets” and “Biking Home” to complete The Alki Trilogy.
Arleen Willams will be joined by local authors Pamela Beason (whose latest mystery is “Undercurrents”) and Susan Colleen Browne (whose latest novel is “Mother Love”).
Arleen Williams is a novelist, memoirist, and co-author of a dozen short books in easy English for adults. She teaches English as a Second Language at South Seattle College and has worked with immigrants and refugees for close to three decades.
Saturday, May 30, 7:00 p.m.
James Wells, “The Great Symmetry” — SciFi, Local Author
In an asteroid in the Aurora star system, exoarcheologist Evan McElroy has made a discovery about the Versari, a long-departed alien race. Material, he thinks, for some great research papers. But Evan’s sponsor, the Affirmatix family of companies, realizes they can make huge gains from the new finding, if it is kept completely secret. Step one of their plan is to kill the entire research team — starting with Evan. As Evan flees for his life, he finds there is far more at stake than he could have imagined. His trajectory has reawakened the long-buried struggle of the Infoterrorists, who believe all knowledge screams to be free, against those who maintain and defend the True Story that holds all of civilization together.
James R. Wells is a life-long cave explorer and outdoor adventurer. He has led expeditions deep into some of North America’s great caves, including the Mammoth system, longest cave in the world. He writes about climate and environmental topics, and volunteers helping people to protect their community and habitat. In his day job, he designs information systems that reduce energy use, saving money and reducing pollution. He is the great-grandson of pioneering science fiction author H.G. Wells. The author lives in northwest Washington with his wife and his daughter.
Sunday, May 31, 4:00 p.m.
Lori Horvitz, “The Girls of Usually”
Lori Horvitz grew up ashamed of her Jewish roots, confused about her sexuality, and idolizing the “shiksa in her living room,” a blonde all-American girl whose photo came in a double frame and was displayed next to a family photo from a bar mitzvah. Unable to join the “happy blonde families,” she becomes a “hippie chick” who travels the world in search of … something. “The Girls of Usually” chronicles each trip, each romance, each experiment in reinventing herself that draws her closer to discovering the secret door through which she can escape from deep-rooted patterns and accept her own cultural, ethnic, and sexual identity.
Lori Horvitz’ short stories, poetry and personal essays have appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, including “Chattahoochee Review,” “Epiphany,” “South Dakota Review,” “Southeast Review,” “Hotel Amerika,” and “Quarter After Eight.” She has been awarded writing fellowships from Yaddo, Cottages at Hedgebrook, Ragdale, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Blue Mountain Center. Horvitz is Professor of Literature and Language at University of North Carolina at Asheville, where she also directs their Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.
