Here’s an interesting Portland even for tonight: Danielle Trussoni reads from her memoir, Falling through the Earth, at Powells. Here’s are the details:
7:30 PM
Powell’s City of Books on Burnside
1005 W Burnside
Portland, OR
The author’s website is here.
Lord knows we could use thoughtful and critical coverage of the Western Sahara conflict here in the United States, but I’m afraid Slate‘s piece on the subject doesn’t meet standards of professional journalism. Written by Carne Ross, the short essay has all the trappings of independent, investigative work, until the end, when one realizes, upon reading the author’s bio, that he is “director of Independent Diplomat, a nonprofit group that is advising the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, the government-in-exile of the Sahrawi people. ” This is just as bad as getting an advisor of the Moroccan government to write about Western Sahara. Couldn’t they find someone who isn’t an advocate (for either side) and doesn’t have a conflict of interest?
A Man Without a Country
Kurt Vonnegut
Seven Stories Press
192 pp.
Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis
Jimmy Carter
Simon & Schuster
224 pp.
At first glance, Kurt Vonnegut, author, pessimist and humorist might not seem to have much in common with Jimmy Carter, author, optimist and former President of the United States. But these two members of the so-called Greatest Generation are worried about America, and both have recently published books on the subject.
A Man Without a Country is a slender book of Vonnegut’s musings, opinions and insights about the state of humanity, specifically American humanity. It starts out grumpy — which brings my mother to mind, only eighty to Vonnegut’s eighty-three and Carter’s eighty-two. Like her, it focuses on all the bad news in the world: greed, religion, politics, and the curious admixture of religion with politics. He ventures into the last subject via an obscure reference to the Great Lakes people, apparently extinct except for Vonnegut, allowing him to mention Socialist Party candidate Eugene Victor Debs, which naturally segues into Stalin, Christianity, the Spanish Inquisition, Hitler and, ta ta ta ta, Karl Marx. Notice a trend here? And I don’t mean the K’s in Kurt and Karl. No? As with all Vonnegut books, a pattern will emerge. Or not.
The New York Times‘ Edward Wyatt asks a bunch of publishers and editors about their reasons for increasingly turning to paperback originals.
“In the last four or five years, it’s gotten hard to publish fiction by lesser-known authors, and even by some better-known authors,” said Morgan Entrekin, the publisher of Grove/Atlantic. And when a book fails in hardcover, booksellers often will limit their orders for a paperback edition, making it harder to sell the author’s next book. “When you’re taking back 50 to 70 percent of the hardcover copies you shipped,” Mr. Entrekin said, “the stores — rightfully so — are not willing to take another chance.”
There’s a picture of Entrekin with two of his paperback originals, both of them nominated for this year’s Orange Prize: Leila Aboulela’s Minaret and Alice Greenaway’s White Ghost Girls.
Peruvian magazine Etiqueta Negra, which now has a circulation of 11,000, gets some love from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Founded four years and 33 issues ago by two brothers born in a remote part of the Andes Mountains who had no experience in publishing or journalism, Etiqueta Negra has grown from an idea “that probably wouldn’t make it in a place like Peru” to a circulation of 11,000. The magazine is available in the United States only via pricey special-order subscriptions (www.etiquetanegra.com.pe), but it is read across the Americas — from Argentina to Canada. While plans are in the works to distribute the magazine more widely around the world, annual online subscriptions (PDF files) will soon be available for $30.
More here.
This is a bit of good news from PEN: Iranian journalist Akbar Ganj has been released rom prison this week for the Iranian New Year. The email announcement states that “Since his sentence is officially over on March 30, it is unlikely he will be returned to prison. Additionally, there appear to be no maneuverings to re-arrest him, despite his outspoken criticism of Iranian policies. His family says that his is very weak due to his imprisonment and long hunger strike, but that he is in good spirits and recovering.” More about Ganji here.
Author and biographer Ron Chernow is set to succeed Salman Rushdie as the head of PEN, the writers’ organization.
“I felt that with the enormous increase in interest in nonfiction, it would be good to have a major nonfiction writer,” Mr. Rushdie said in an interview at the organization’s offices on lower Broadway in SoHo, “especially in view of the problems we’ve seen arise there recently. And his Alexander Hamilton biography constantly reminded me of a time when the best writers in America were also changing American history.”
I have to say, I’m sorry to see Rushdie go. I thought he did a great job the last two years, particularly with the World Voices Festival. This year’s edition will bring many important world writers, among them Orhan Pamuk, Nadine Gordimer, Amartya Sen, and Toni Morrison, to New York for readings. In addition, the festival will feature media stars and polar opposites Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Tariq Ramadan, so it should make for a very interesting discussion on reform in Islam. Unfortunately, however:
Since 2004, though, Mr. Ramadan has been denied a visa by the United States government on grounds of a Patriot Act provision that his writings “endorse or espouse terrorist activity.” Together with the American Civil Liberties Union, PEN has filed suit challenging that decision.“I felt that more conservative voices were missing last year,” Mr. Rushdie said, “and Ramadan would certainly be one.”
But change is good, and it will be interesting to see what direction Ron Chernow will take the organization. The positions of vice-president and secretary will be taken over by Jhumpa Lahiri and Rick Moody, respectively.
Writing in Reuters, Alaa Shahine reports:
Arab women are taking more senior government posts than before but many are still years away from challenging men’s domination of key decision-making positions, a top U.N. official said on Monday.Several Arab states have allocated parliamentary seats and cabinet portfolios for women, but the failure to challenge stereotypes depicting women as inferior to men could hamper such progress, U.N. Under Secretary-General Mervat Tallawy said.
“Despite the many achievements in the last five years, women in the Arab world are still far from equality and still face many challenges,” said Tallawy, also executive secretary of the Beirut-based Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.
“Soap operas still give the woman roles where she sits and chops vegetables while the man is sitting in front of a computer. The woman cries and screams in the face of the first problem, while the man is wise,” she told Reuters.
Read it all here.
My short story “A Nice Young Man” has been translated into Italian by Chiara Manfrinato for the magazine El Ghibli. The story originally appeared in Pindeldyboz in 2003. Spero che lei piace la lettura!
Those of you in New York may be interested in this important event celebrating the life of activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer. Co-hosted by Amy Goodman and James Zogby, it will involve readings and performances by Maya Angelou, Patti Smith, Eve Ensler, Suheir Hammad, Vanessa Redgrave, Mariam Said (widow of the late Edward Said), Najla Said, Betty Shamieh, Alice Walker, Maysoon Zayid, Howard Zinn, and many others.
Rachel’s Words
March 22nd, New York City
Co-hosts: Amy Goodman and James Zogby
Riverside Church
490 Riverside Drive
8.00 pm
$20 Suggested donation (No one turned away for lack of funds. Doors open at 7.30)
Further details about the event here.
Related: Too Hot for New York, by Philip Weiss.
