20120329

The Icon Thief by Alec Nevala-Lee book signing


First time local author, Alec Nevala-Lee, will be at After-Words Books on Thursday March 29, 2012 from 6:30-8:30 reading from and signing copies of his first book The Icon Thief (Signet; 978-0-451-23620-3; March 6, 2012 $9.99). Wine reception following.

A controversial masterpiece resurfaces in Budapest. A ballerina's headless corpse is found beneath the boardwalk at Brighton Beach. And New York's Russian mafia is about to collide with the equally ruthless art world.

Maddy Blume, an ambitious young art buyer for a Manhattan hedge fund, is desperate to track down a priceless painting by Marcel Duchamp, the most influential artist of the twentieth century.  The discovery of a woman's decapitated body thrusts criminal investigator Alan Powell into a search for the same painting, with its enigmatic image of a headless nude.  And a Russian thief and assassin known as the Scythian must steal the painting to save his reputation--and his life. 

The murderous race is on. And in the lead is an insidious secret society intent on reclaiming the painting for reasons of its own—and by any means necessary.

Alec Nevala-Lee was born in 1980 in Castro Valley, California. He graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in Classics, and worked for several years as an associate at a global investment firm based in New York. His first novel, The Icon Thief, will be released by Signet in March 2012, to be followed by a sequel, City of Exiles, later this year. He lives with his wife in Oak Park, Illinois.

20120302

AWP Conference Event with the 2009 Bread Loaf Waiters


The 2009 Bread Loaf Waiters will be at After-Words books on Friday, March 2, 2012 from 8-10 pm reading from their work

The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is one of America's most valuable literary institutions.  For the past 87 years, the workshops, lectures, and classes, held in the shadow of the Green Mountains have given America proven models of literary instruction. Bread Loaf is not a retreat—not a place to work in solitude. Instead it provides a stimulating community of diverse voices in which to test our own assumptions regarding literature and seek advice about our progress as writers.

Ten poets and fiction writers from all over the country will be here and reading from their latest work.Dara Barnat, Greg Brown, Jennine CapĆ³ Crucet, Reese Okyong Kwon, Jane Lin, Peter Mountford, Roger Reeves, Giuseppe Taurino, Ross White, Alexi Zentner are Bread Loaf Waiters or “work study scholars” who received one of the most coveted scholarships to the Bread Loaf Conference. These promising writers earned their keep by serving three meals a day to the paying guests.

20120301

AWP Event sponsored by Drunken Boat


How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the WebReading to be held Thursday, March 1, 2012 at After-Words Book

Various authors and poets visiting for the AWP conference, hosted this year in Chicago, http://www.awpwriter.org/ will be at After-Words books on Thursday, March 1, 2012 from 6:15-8:15 pm. Wine reception.

Join Drunken Boat, Memorious, failbetter.com, Blackbird, and Midway Journal for night of worry free, poetry and prose! Come hear authors Michael Martone, Randall Brown, Kent Shaw, Margaret Luongo, Nicky Beer, Erica Dawson, Caki Wilkinson, Daniel Nester, Sibyl Baker, Michelle Chan Brown, and Shira Dentz.