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Past Programs | Directions to Casa Libre

Edge 47: a Reading Series of Emerging and Younger Writers
w/Natalie Diaz, Shann Ray, and Bill Wetzel

Curator: Melissa Buckheit
Melissa Buckheit's Bio

A note from the curator: I have often wanted to listen to authors who are in the same place in their career as myself--emerging, published in journals, with a chapbook and/or a first full-length book, still growing but full of passion, new ideas, and an edge. But there is often infrequent opportunity for this; in fact, I have often felt disappointed in the lack, that such an open community might often be circumscribed in its literary programming.  Additionally, featuring emerging writers engages other young as well as established writers, to support, frequent and attend Casa Libre and other writing events. This cycle creates the foundation for a writing community which self-generates, remains true, open, and allows many voices the opportunity for visibility and being heard. I want Tucson to be an artistic community which includes and features many voices and peoples. Literature is the province of communication, but also reflectivity, the reflection and representation of all our narratives and of new narratives and ideas, voices which are challenging and also challenge us.

Wednesday, September 19
7:30 p.
m.
Suggested Donation: $5

Come to Edge: A Reading Series of Emerging and Younger Writers. Edge is a series of local and national writers and cross-genre artists, emphasizing diversity of narrative, identity and literary source. Its purpose is to create community, visibility and voice for emerging and younger writers. Broadsheets of the authors' work will accompany each reading. Books and journals will be available for purchase and signing by the authors. Refreshments will be available after the reading.

Readers:

SamNatalie Diaz was born and raised in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in
Needles, California. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. After playing professional basketball in Europe and Asia for several years, Diaz returned to Old Dominion and completed a double-MFA in poetry and fiction. Her first poetry collection, When My Brother Was an Aztec, was published by Copper Canyon Press in May of 2012. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the Iowa Review, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Black Renaissance Noire, Crab Orchard Review, and others. Diaz currently lives in Mohave Valley, Arizona, and directs the Fort Mojave Language Recovery Program, working with the last remaining speakers at Fort Mojave to teach and revitalize the Mojave language.

SamaShann Ray’s collection of stories American Masculine (Graywolf Press), named by Esquire as one of Three Books Every Man Should Read and selected by Kirkus Reviews as a Best Book of 2011, won the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bakeless Prize.  Sherman Alexie called it “tough, poetic, and beautiful” and Dave Eggers said Ray's work is “lyrical, prophetic, and brutal, yet ultimately hopeful."  Ray is a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and has served as a research psychologist for the Centers for Disease Control and as a panlist for the National Endowment for the Humanities, Research Division.  Ray's book of creative nonfiction and political theory Forgiveness and Power in the Age of Atrocity (Rowman & Littlefield), was named an Amazon Hot New Release in War and Peace in Current Events, and engages the question of ultimate forgiveness in the context of ultimate violence.  The winner of the Subterrain Poetry Prize, the Crab Creek Review Fiction Award, and the Ruminate Short Story Prize, his work has appeared in some of the nation’s leading literary venues including McSweeney‘s, Narrative, Story Quarterly, and Poetry International.  Shann grew up in Montana and spent part of his childhood on the Northern Cheyenne reservation.  He lives with his wife and three daughters in Washington where he teaches leadership and forgiveness studies at Gonzaga University.

MarkBill Wetzel is a writer, humorist, and filmmaker interested in using traditional methods as well as new media to tell stories and reach new audiences. He is a coauthor of the short story collection The Acorn Gathering and has written for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, Red Ink Magazine, www.opednews.com and been anthologized in the Studies In Indian Literatures series. He is a Blackfeet Indian, originally from Montana, who has lived in Tucson for the last 10 years. He's currently working on a short story collection, a screenplay as well as a satirical novel on twitter. Follow him at:http://twitter.com/billthebutcher2 & https://twitter.com/BillWetzelsJack.

Next Edge Reading will be held October 17, 2012

Past Edge Readings:

June 2012

May 2012

Apr 2012

Mar 2012

Feb 2012

Jan 2012

Nov 2011

Oct 2011

Sept 2011

 


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