March 2008

Greetings from Stockholm, where the days are growing steadily longer and the return of light feels like the physical and emotional equivalent of taking a long, deep breath. After seven months living here, experiencing the cultures of an open-bordered society, learning the language and mores, I find myself drawn, in my reading, to an array of prose and poetry that crosses borders of some kind—continents, cultures, religions, gender roles, and languages, to name a few.

Reading Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s Imperial Life in Emerald City, an eye-witness account of life in Baghdad’s Green Zone, was particularly enlightening for me since the majority of my classmates in Swedish for Immigrants School have fled from Iraq. Chandrasekaran, The Washington Post’s former bureau chief in Baghdad, describes the Oz-like bubble that became U.S. headquarters during the occupation, a place where our government’s ineptitude played itself out. Then there’s The Afghan, Frederick Forsyth’s thriller that weaves a tale of counter-terrorism with a behind-the-scenes factual look into the various subsets, inner workings and influences of Islam. Now I’m into Shauna Singh Baldwin’s novel The Tiger Claw, inspired by the real life story of Noor Inayat Khan, a Sufi Muslim Indian woman living in France during World War II who ultimately became a British spy.

As for poetry, I may be overestimating my grasp of Swedish by tackling Valzhyna Mort’s Tårarnas Fabrik, translated from Belarusian into Swedish by Thomas Nydahl, but I didn’t want to wait until spring when the English version, Factory of Tears (co-translated by Franz Wright) is due to come out. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Mort read twice. Hers is a hauntingly original voice, whose authority is unusual for one so young (she’s only 26). If you’re not a regular reader of poetry, it’s a genre whose borders are worth crossing. You could start by checking out Mort’s poem, “Belarusian I”.

Upcoming Events and Workshops

Novelist Jim Shepard with guest poet Trudy Ames Thursday, March 6th at 7 p.m. MCLA Gallery 51 51 Main Street North Adams Free

Jim Shepard is the author of six novels and three short story collections, including most recently Like You’d Understand, Anyway which was nominated in September 2007 for a National Book Award, and for which Mr. Shepard recently received the Story Prize. His novel Project X was published in 2004 by Knopf and his story collection Love and Hydrogen by Vintage, 2004. His short fiction has appeared in, among other magazines, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Granta, The New Yorker and Playboy, and he is a columnist on film for the magazine The Believer. He teaches at Williams College and in the Warren Wilson MFA program.

Trudy Ames is a local poet and teacher at Mount Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, MA. She received her MFA from Bennington College. Her poems have appeared in The Southern Review, LIT, Under One Roof, Holding True, and Crossing Paths.

Signing and reception to follow.

Wordplay at Papyri Books Presents Kelli Newby

Saturday, March 8th from 7:00-9:00 p.m. 45 Eagle Street, North Adams, 413-662-2099 Free

On the 2nd Saturday of every month, Inkberry and Papyri Books join forces to highlight local and regional writers. The evening, hosted by Gail Burns, begins with featured readers and is followed by open-mic. Our featured reader, Kelli Newby, is a recent Bennington Writing Seminars graduate. She lives in North Adams and teaches part-time at MCLA. Her short story “Corpus” has been published in The Mind’s Eye and “The Genius Behind Pink Floyd” will soon be read on Story Time, a radio program out of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. She is currently working on a novel. Open mic to follow.

Stomp, Swing, Swoon, & Croon: Writing Our Poems with the Radio On Taught by Derek Mong Tuesdays, April 8 - April 22 at 6pm $75.00 ($67.50 for members) (about the discount) Register for this workshop

Tune up your six-string and dust off that boom box! Returning to the lyric’s roots, or what Shakespeare called “the food of love,” sweet music, we’ll turn our ears to the rock, jazz, hip-hop and funk-influenced poems wailing from the great big amp of American poets. Writers from all levels and musical persuasion are invited. Meets at Inkberry, Tuesdays, April 8 - April 22 at 6pm.

For more information on these readings, or to enroll, please visit www.inkberry.org, or call 413-664-0775.