Book Notes: Poets share their ‘Story’ Friday at Chase Gallery
Here’s an event that combines poetry and art: a reading Friday at the Chase Gallery in conjunction with “Telling the American Story, History, Memory, Place, Story, Picture, Space.”
This group art exhibition has filled the gallery in Spokane City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd., for most of the month. It’s a collaboration between artists and poets, inspired by this year’s Get Lit! theme, “Telling the American Story.”
So on Friday, a number of the poets will read from their works in the exhibit, including Zan Agzigian, Mark Anderson, Lisa Conger, Laurie Lamon, Tom Davis, Ben Read and Bernadette Vielbig.
The event takes place at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, adjacent to the gallery, and is free and open to the public.
An Orozco reading
Daniel Orozco, one of the region’s top fiction writers, will give the final reading in this season’s Gonzaga University Visiting Writers Series on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Orozco teaches fiction writing at the University of Idaho and is perhaps best-known for his story “Orientation,” which was published in “Best American Short Stories 1995.” His work has also appeared in McSweeney’s and various Pushcart Prize anthologies.
Based on his previous local reading last month, you can expect some funny and thought-provoking material.
Orozco will also conduct a free question-and-answer session Wednesday from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in the Foley Teleconference Room on the Gonzaga campus.
The free Wednesday evening reading will be in the Cataldo Globe Room on the GU campus. It’s sponsored by Gonzaga and Humanities Washington.
‘Truckin’ With Bubba’
Waitts Lake, Wash., author Hal Howard has just released his first book, “Truckin’ With Bubba … And I Ain’t Bubba” (iUniverse, $14.95), a comic account of his years teaching novice truckers how to drive a big rig.
The “Bubbas” of the title are his sometimes hapless students.
Howard, who also happens to be the president of the Greater Loon Lake Chamber of Commerce, said he hopes that people get “some laughs” and some insights into life on the road and the travails of getting a commercial driver’s license.
It’s available through the Amazon or iUniverse websites.
Elizabeth Berg alert
Elizabeth Berg, best-selling Chicago author of “Talk Before Sleep” and “Open House” (an Oprah book), will make an appearance April 7, 7 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave.
She’ll be reading and signing her most recent novel, “Once Upon a Time, There Was You.”
Portraits of vets
The events for Get Lit!/Big Read continue today with a reading and painting exhibition titled “VETS: 50 Portraits of Veterans and Their Stories” from 3 to 5 p.m. at the John Thamm Gallery, 11 S. Washington St.
You’ll get to meet some of the veterans depicted in Thamm’s book of the same name, which features oil portraits of local vets. You’ll also hear excerpts from their stories read by Tom Davis, along with poetry celebrating the lives of veterans by the Zone 4 poets.
It’s free.