Tonight I’ll be reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits at Powell’s City of Books in Portland. Here are the details:
Friday, October 13
7:30 PM
Reading and Signing
Powell’s City of Books
1005 W Burnside
Portland, Oregon
If your book club is reading Hope, you may find it relevant that Harcourt has a reading guide online.
I am still at Wellesley, and having a wonderful time of it. Tomorrow, I’ll be participating in a roundtable about African Literature. Here are the details:
Saturday, October 7th
10:15 AM – 12 PM
Authors, Critics, Publishers: Conversations about Writing, Translating, Editing, and Publishing followed by discussion with audience.
PNW 212
Wellesley College
Wellesley, MA
More soon, I hope.
I’m in Boston for the rest of the week for a couple of events at Wellesley College. Tonight, Abdourahman Waberi and I will be doing a reading and Q & A at 7:30 PM. Here are the details:
7:30 – 8:45 PM
Readings and Discussion
277 Science Center
Wellesley College
Wellesley, MA
These events are open to the public. So if you’re in the Boston area, do come and say hello.
Today is the official release date for the paperback edition of my book, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, and, in an odd coincidence, I just found out that it is a finalist for the 2006 Oregon Book Awards. Here is the shortlist:
Ken Kesey Award for the Novel
Laila Lalami of Portland, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (Algonquin Books)
Peter Rock of Portland, The Bewildered (MacAdam Cage)
Justin Tussing of Portland, The Best People in the World (Harper Collins)
To see my name associated with anything named after Ken Kesey is a huge honor, and it’s a thrill to find myself in the company of Peter and Justin (both of whom I have met in the last year at the Loggernaut Reading Series.) The judge for this year’s award is Francine Prose, who also adjudicates the short fiction award. The finalists in that category are:
H.L. Davis Award for Short Fiction
Tracy Daugherty of Corvallis, Late in the Standoff (Southern Methodist University Press)
Scott Nadelson of Portland, The Cantor’s Daughter (Hawthorne Books)
Gina Ochsner of Keizer, People I Wanted to Be (Houghton Mifflin/Mariner Books)
Geronimo G. Tagatac of Salem, The Weight of the Sun (Ooligan Press)
You can find out more details at the OBA site. The winners will be announced at a ceremony hosted by Barry Lopez at the Portland Art Museum on December 1st.
I still have not finished packing my office. Today, though, I tried to go through all the clutter on my desk. Here’s what I found so far:
1 half-used box of small index cards.
1 set of large index cards with old notes and ideas for short stories.
2 jumbo-size paper clips.
2 staplers.
2 tape dispensers.
1 iKlear laptop cleaner.
3 bobby pins.
2 sets of Chinese hairpins.
2 hair bands.
1 butterfly pin.
2 half-used books of stamps.
My log book.
My note book.
1 pair of earplugs.
1 pair of reading glasses prescribed to me by a zealous optometrist back in 1998, and which I have never used nor needed.
1 nail file.
1 Wite Out.
1 map of Rabat, 1 of Casablanca, 1 of Morocco.
1 file folder labeled ‘Events’, 1 labeled ‘Fulbright.’
1 Authors’ Guild Bulletin.
1 greeting card that says, “You’re the best auntie in the world.” Aww.
4 pens, 2 highlighters.
A photo of my beloved grandmother, my mother, my younger brother, and me.
1 voucher for a yoga class.
Eye drops.
My cell phone.
The Anchor Book of Arabic Fiction.
Season of Migration to the North by Tayib Salih.
The Fall 2006 issue of Virginia Quarterly Review.
1 yellow notepad, half-used. The last item says, “Call Keiko.”
A bibliography of works on Morocco.
My laptop.
A publicity postcard for my book.
A United Airlines frequent-flyer card.
A reminder to make a dentist appointment. The reminder dates from January 17, 2006.
The July-August issue of World Literature Today.
The latest issue of the New Yorker, with 4 phone numbers scribbled on the cover.
1 chapstick.
The neighbor’s house keys.
My overflowing box of rejection letters.
Fan letters: A two-page one from a seventeen-year-old; a ten-page one from an inmate on death row.
1 phone recharger.
4 old back-ups for my laptop.
1 Dust Blaster Pro.
1 file labeled ‘Interesting Articles/Stuff To read.’
A collection of misspellings of my name, which I cut out of envelopes and other correspondence.
Various drafts of various parts of my novel.
My laptop.
And I need to trim this list to:
My laptop.
It’s been a bit quiet here at Dar Moorishgirl, as I’ve been busy preparing for my upcoming nine-month stay in Morocco. By far the hardest task has been to pack up my office–a frighteningly messy place most of the time, now made even scarier by the addition of boxes and packing material everywhere. Alex has been very organized about his stuff, though. His comics collection is already in bins, and his books are neatly boxed and already stored in the basement. I’ve been begging him to help, but whenever he touches something, I tell him not to pack that yet, that I might still need it. Hence the continuing mess. And have I mentioned I’m revising the last third of my novel? And traveling? And trying to find a furnished apartment in Casablanca? God help me.