Mystery Writers of America Grand Master to appear in May 21 free event at TCR-Lindale

Bestselling author Lawrence Block, creator of several popular mystery and thriller series, will read from his new memoir, Step by Step, on Thursday, May 21 at 7 p.m. at Theatre Cedar Rapids-Lindale. Block will also take audience questions, and sign books. The event, which is a part of Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series, is free and no tickets are required.

“Lawrence Block is one of my personal favorites,” said Rob Cline, series coordinator for the Out Loud! Author Series, “and we’re thrilled to present him just two days after the release of his new book.”

Block is one of the most prominent authors writing today with over 60 novels to his credit. Step by Step: A Pedestrian Memoir is a departure from his fiction. In this memoir, the creator of Matthew Scudder, Bernie Rhodenbarr, and John Keller takes a look at his life through the lens of his adventures walking. Whether recounting the tale of how he walked to school as a child because he couldn’t ride a bike or the story of hitting the 70 mile mark in a 24-hour ultramarathon, he truly lets readers walk a mile in his shoes as he shares his heartwarming personal account of life’s trials and tribulations, discomforts and successes.

Block, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, is a four-time winner of the Edgar Allen Poe and Shamus Awards, as well as a recipient of prizes in France, Germany, England, and Japan. He is a devoted New Yorker and an enthusiastic global traveler.

Block’s web site can be found at www.lawrenceblock.com.

Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series is supported by the Giacoletto Foundation with media support from The Gazette and event book sales provided by the Cedar Rapids Barnes & Noble. More information is available at www.metrolibrarynetwork.org.

Lan Samantha Chang will read from new work when she appears at Theatre Cedar Rapids-Lindale as part of Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series. The event, which is free, is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6.

Chang is the director of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop as well as an alumna of the acclaimed writing program. The author of the novel Inheritance and the fiction collection Hunger: A Novella and Stories, Chang will also take audience questions and sign books.

“We’re very excited about this event,” said Rob Cline, series coordinator for Out Loud! “This is a wonderful opportunity for folks to experience beautiful writing and to hear about the world’s most famous writing program from a woman who knows it from the perspective of both student and instructor.”

The Chicago Tribune described Hunger as being made up of “spare and haunting tales that ask ordinary questions about that extraordinary emotion: love.”

Inheritance, which spans seven decades in China and America and explores the lives of two sisters, was praised by Joanne Wilkinson in Booklist: “Chang fulfills the promise of her haunting short-story collection, Hunger, with an elegant first novel that seems impossibly wise about the strictures of love and culture.”

While a student at The University of Iowa, Chang was the winner of the James-Michener-Copernicus Award. She has also been honored as the California Book Award Silver Medalist, as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award, and with a Bay Area Book Award as well as with literary awards from the Greensboro Review and the Transatlantic Review. Her work has been nominated for the PEN Center USA West Award and the PEN/Hemingway Literature Prize and has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, and The Best American Short Stories.

Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series is supported by the Giacoletto Foundation with media support from The Gazette and event book sales provided by the Cedar Rapids Barnes & Noble. More information about the series is available at www.metrolibrarynetwork.org.

V.I. Warshawski creator’s visit second event of 2009 Metro Library Network series

Bestselling author Sara Paretsky, creator of the popular V.I. Warshawski series of detective novels, will give a talk, take audience questions, and sign books on Saturday, April 18 at 7 p.m. at Theatre Cedar Rapids-Lindale. The event, which a part of Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series, is free and no tickets are required.

Paretsky, who was born in Ames, is often credited with revolutionizing the role of women in detective fiction with the introduction of Warshawski in 1982′s Indemnity Only. Her most recent novel, Bleeding Kansas, is set in the Kaw River Valley where she spent much of her childhood. The forthcoming Warshawski novel is entitled Hardball.

“Sara Paretsky is a perfect fit for our series,” said Rob Cline, series coordinator for the Out Loud! Author Series. “Not only is a great and popular mystery writer, she’s also a passionate advocate for libraries.”

By creating a strong female investigator who uses her wits as well as her fists, Paretsky challenged the conventions of a genre in which women traditionally were either vamps or victims. Eleven other Warshawski novels followed, all national bestsellers, including her most recent, Fire Sale. The Los Angeles Times says, “Paretsky is unique among the women writing about women,” while Publishers Weekly claims, “Among today’s P.I.’s nobody comes close to Warshawski.” In addition to her Warshawski novels, Paretsky’s has written Ghost Country, which blends comedy, magic, and a gritty realism in Chicago’s mean streets. She has also edited three collections of short stories and her books are published in twenty-four languages.

Paretsky’s deep-rooted concern for social justice, the hallmark of her novels, has carried her voice beyond the world of crime fiction. In Writing in an Age of Silence, she explores the traditions of political and literary dissent that have informed her life and work. As a frequent contributor to The New York Times‘ op-ed page, and a speaker at the Library of Congress, Oxford University and the University of Chicago, she is an impassioned advocate for those on society’s margins.

Not only has Paretsky broken barriers with her work, she has also helped open doors for other women writers in the field. Her role in founding Sisters in Crime, an organization that supports women mystery writers, caused Ms. Magazine to name her Woman of the Year in 1988. In 2002, the British Crime Writers Association awarded her the Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement. Paretsky has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and a visiting professor at Northwestern University. Her work is celebrated in the documentary, Women of Mystery and she has been the recipient of three honorary doctorates. To give back to the community, Paretsky has established scholarships at the University of Kansas, including a special prize for students doing creative work in the arts or sciences. In 2001, she established the Sara and Two C-Dogs Foundation, which primarily supports girls and women in the arts, letters and sciences. She has also mentored students in Chicago’s inner city schools.

Growing up in eastern Kansas, she and her four brothers attended a two-room country school where Paretsky began her lifelong love of baseball and underdogs, playing third base for a school team that always finished at the bottom of its rural league. Her first published writing, which appeared in The American Girl magazine when she was eleven, told a tale of surviving a tornado with her schoolmates. While at the University of Kansas, Paretsky went to Chicago to do community service under the direction of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She received both a doctorate in history and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Paretsky’s web site can be found at www.saraparetsky.com.

Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series is supported by the Giacoletto Foundation with media support from The Gazette and event book sales provided by the Cedar Rapids Barnes & Noble. More information is available at www.metrolibrarynetwork.org.

Sandra Dallas, the first Out Loud! author of 2009, drew 150 people to Theatre Cedar Rapids-Lindale! She entertained the crowd with stories from her career and about the writing of Tallgrass, this year’s selection for Linn Area Reads. Following her talk, she graciously signed books for her many eager fans.

Sandra Dallas presents at Theatre Cedar Rapids on March 1

More photos available here.

“Volvos from Florida,” an Op-Ed in the New York Times by Lan Samantha Chang, was published on March 7, 2009 (link).

A Fundraiser for the Cedar Rapids Public Library

Date: Saturday, February 28
Location: Coe College, Stewart Memorial Library, Perrine Gallery
Time: 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Cost: $20.00 admission
Program: Eight internationally acclaimed authors will read from their respective works.  Books signed by the authors will also be available for silent auction.  The authors who will be in attendance are:

• Marvin Bell
• Lan Samantha Chang
• John D’Agata
• James Galvin
• David Hamilton
• Christopher Merrill
• Marilynne Robinson
• Cole Swensen

Live music and refreshments will be provided.

All proceeds will be donated to the Cedar Rapids Public Library Foundation.

Reservations are not required, but seating is limited.

For more information, call 365-6304

CEDAR RAPIDS—The planning committee for the annual community reading program known as Linn Area Reads has selected Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas for the 2009 edition of the program. Dallas will read from the book on Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m. at Theatre Cedar Rapids’ Lindale facility. The reading will also be the first event of this year’s edition of Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series. In addition to Dallas, the series will feature appearances by Sara Paretsky, Lan Samantha Chang, Lawrence Block, and Michael Buckley.

“Both the Linn Area Reads programs and the Out Loud! lineup offer great opportunities for readers across our wider community,” said Rob Cline, series coordinator for the Out Loud! series and a member of the Linn Area Reads planning committee. “There is quite a bit of variety this year in both programs and we believe that will get even more people involved.”

Tallgrass explores the underlying prejudice that led to the internment of those of Japanese descent during World War II. When a young girl is murdered in Ellis, Colorado, in the early 1940s, most of the town quickly assumes the killer escaped from the nearby internment camp. Guided by her parents, 13-year-old Rennie Stroud, stands in opposition to the prevailing winds.

The book was chosen in part due to its similarities to Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Classics at Brucemore, which will be presenting a theatrical version of Lee’s book July 9-11 and 16-18, is collaborating with Linn Area Reads to present programs that tie the two novels together. Both books address widespread prejudice and feature a young female narrator whose sense of justice is shaped by a noble father.

Dallas is the author of several novels, including the forthcoming Prayers for Sale which will be released in April.

Creator of the popular V.I. Warshawski series of detective novels, Sara Paretsky will give a talk, take audience questions, and sign books on Saturday, April 18 at 7 p.m. at TCR-Lindale. Paretsky, who was born in Ames, is often credited with revolutionizing the role of women in detective fiction with the introduction of Warshawski in 1982’s Indemnity Only. Her most recent novel, Bleeding Kansas, is set in the Kaw River Valley where she spent much of her childhood. The forthcoming Warshawski novel is entitled Hardball.

Lan Samantha Chang is the director of the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop and is also an alumna of the acclaimed writing program. The author of the novel Inheritance as well as the fiction collection Hunger: A Novella and Stories, she will read from her work, take audience questions, and sign books on Wednesday, May 6 at 7 p.m. at TCR-Lindale. While a student at the UI, she was the winner of the James-Michener-Copernicus Award. She has also been honored as the California Book Award Silver Medalist, as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and with a Bay Area Book Award and literary awards from the Greensboro Review and the Transatlantic Review. Her work has also been nominated for the PEN Center USA West Award and the PEN/Hemingway Literature Prize.

Lawrence Block is creator of several popular series including mysteries featuring Matthew Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr as well as novels featuring Keller, a contemplative hit man. Block is also an avid race walker and will read from Step by Step, his new memoir on that subject, on Thursday, May 21 at 7 p.m. at TCR-Lindale. The Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and four-time winner of the Edgar Allen Poe and Shamus Awards will also take audience questions and sign books.

Michael Buckley’s Sisters Grimm novels appeal to both children and adults, and fans of all ages will have the opportunity to meet Buckley on Saturday, June 20. Buckley will make presentations for the Cedar Rapids, Marion, and Hiawatha Public Libraries, reading from The Everafter War, the seventh book in his series about two feisty descendants of the Brothers Grimm and the magical community in which they live. Details of those appearances, which will be incorporated into the libraries’ annual Summer Reading Program, are forthcoming.

More information about both the Linn Area Reads program and the Out Loud! Author Series is available at www.metrolibrarynetwork.org.

Linn Area Reads is supported by Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Brucemore, Cornell College, East Central Library Services, Friends of the Cedar Rapids Public Library, Friends of the Hiawatha Public Library, The Gazette, the Giacoletto Foundation, Hancher Auditorium, Linn County Library Consortium, and the Metro Library Network.

Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series is supported by the Giacoletto Foundation with media support from The Gazette and event book sales provided by the Cedar Rapids Barnes & Noble.

Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2009 Out Loud! Author Series lineup on February 2!

A complete schedule of events will be published, as well as more information about the authors, on the Metro Library Network website.

Cedar Rapids native and bestselling author touts library as key to his career

CEDAR RAPIDS—John Sandford regaled a crowd of 300 with stories from his writing career Tuesday night at Washington High School, his alma mater. The bestselling author of the “Prey” series of thrillers told the audience that the Cedar Rapids Public Library was essential to his development as a writer. He recalled a summer spent reading over 100 books that helped him understand the components of the kind of fiction he would one day write.

The event was part of Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Author Series, a joint project of the Cedar Rapids, Marion, and Hiawatha Public Libraries which is funded by the Giacoletto Foundation.

Monetary donations were accepted for the flood ravaged Cedar Rapids Public Library. All told, the event raised $2800 to help the library recover.

“We couldn’t be more pleased,” said series coordinator Rob Cline. “Mr. Sandford’s presentation was delightful and we’re so thrilled that the audience responded with such generosity to help the library.”

Sandford’s presentation was the final Out Loud! event of 2008. The series also presented youth author Bruce Hale and novelists Elizabeth McCracken and Edward Carey this year. The series is funded for two more years.

The Giacoletto Foundation was established in 2007, fulfilling the wishes of the late Giacoletto brothers. Born in Clinton, Ind., John worked for Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids and Lawrence was a professor of engineering at Michigan State University.

Media support for the Out Loud! series has been provided by The Gazette.

Additional information about the series can found at www.metrolibrarynetwork.org.

Photos from the July 22 appearance of John Sandford at Washington High School are available here.