World Book Night

WHO: From Kodiak, Alaska, to Key West, Florida, in 6,000 towns and cities across America, volunteers will give away half a million free books on one day: April 23, 2012. Come meet those volunteers and hear the stories of where they will be distributing their books — as varied and colorful as the people themselves, and as engaging as their book choices.

WHAT: World Book Night U.S. is an ambitious campaign to give away half a million free, specially printed books across America. Volunteer book lovers will help promote reading by going into their communities and distributing free copies of a book they enjoy to new or light readers, reaching them especially in underserved places – and even some fun spots. Volunteers from your area will be picking up the books they selected to share in locations as diverse as VA hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, ballparks, mass transit, diners, and more.

We are proud to be a community partner for the first World Book Night in the U.S., following the impressive launch of this campaign by our bookstore, library, author, and publisher colleagues in the UK and Ireland last year.

We will be hosting activities the week before World Book Night, in preparation for the givers going out into the community on April 23.

http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/ 

California Girl Chronicles by Michelle Gamble-Risley book signing

Michelle Gamble-Risley will be at After-Words books on April 11 at 7p.m. signing copies of her book California Girl Chronicles (3L Publishing, Paperback, $12.95).

Michelle Gamble-Risley, author of the internationally critically-acclaimed new book, California Girl Chronicles, kicks off her book tour at After-Words Bookstore.

One of the sexiest hot sellers this summer will be the new internationally critically acclaimed book, California Girl Chronicles: Brea and the City of Plastic which is a sexy, witty romp that takes readers into the life of Brea Harper as she tries to break into Hollywood as a screenwriter only to be continually distracted by her romantic escapades. Numerous reviewers have praised the book, and author Michelle Gamble-Risley has been chosen by Chicago-based bookstore, After-Words, to launch her spring and summer book tour with a wine reception on April 11, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. 

“After-Words Bookstore is the ideal bookstore to launch this fun and fascinating story about a sexually empowered, adventurous woman, who is confident and secure enough to pursue her dreams whether in the entertainment industry or the bedroom,” said Gamble-Risley, who is also the CEO of the highly successful independent publishing company, 3L Publishing (www.3LPublishing.com). “I wanted to write a strong female protagonist like Sookie Stackhouse in the Charlaine Harris series. Only this time, I didn’t want the girl to be violated in extreme ways and then return to her attacker’s arms. I feel like I’ve seen enough of the victimization of women in literature. I felt it was time to put the true ‘girl power’ back into the girl and imagine a woman, who under no circumstances, would return to a man who would violate her. I think that sends the wrong message to younger and older women alike.”

The result of Gamble-Risley’s effort is the witty, wonderful and sexy Brea Harper. Gamble-Risley is pleased to report that many reviewers have indeed lauded the fact that Brea is a woman who knows what she wants and goes for it. While also flawed and sometimes just misguided, she is self-aware enough to know she’s making mistakes when she makes them. “You know we get to repeat our lessons until we learn them,” said Gamble-Risley. “Brea takes a few hard falls, but you will see as the series progresses, she does learn, change and evolve – that’s what makes her so interesting and relatable to younger and older women.”

You can now watch the new California Girl Chronicles book trailer on You Tube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDiZdVC08Mc

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.

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 Capó 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.

AWP Event sponsored by Drunken Boat

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Web.  Reading 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.

A Greater Monster by David David Katzman book signing

David David Katzman will be at After-Words books on February 29, 2012 from 6-8 pm signing copies of his book A Greater Monster (Paperback, $17.95, Beadhead Books).

Local author David David Katzman’s second novel, A Greater Monster, is a groundbreaking multimedia work that includes 65 pages of illustrations, numerous graphic design elements, visual text poetry, and links to two websites, one of which features original music composed to mirror events in the book and another featuring an animated sequence.

This story itself is a psychedelic fairytale for the modern age - influenced by Alice in Wonderland, Williams S. Burroughs, and graphic novelist Grant Morrison. This darkly poetic tale takes you on a trip into a twisted alternate reality that reflects civilization like a funhouse mirror. A Greater Monster breathes new life into the possibilities of fiction.

David David Katzman’s first novel, Death by Zamboni, continues to be an acclaimed success. He was published in Bridge Literary Magazine and Tailspins magazine. Katzman has a Master’s Degree in English Literature from University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from The Ohio State University.

Latin Lessons by Hal Weitzman book signing

Hal Weitzman will be at After-Words books on February 16, 2012 from 6:30 p.m. giving a talk and signing copies of his book Latin Lessons: How South America Stopped Listening to the United States and Started Prospering (Hardback, Wiley, $25.95).  Wine reception following.

In recent years, the U.S. economy has fallen on hard times, with persistently high unemployment, stagnant wages, and a fast-expanding national debt burden. At the same time, South America has been booming, with rapid economic growth, falling jobless rates and decreasing indebtedness.  In Latin Lessons: How South America Stopped Listening to the United States and Started Prospering, Financial Times reporter Hal Weitzman explains how, after many decades of destructive political and military interference and disastrous economic and trade policies, many South American countries have had enough of the American way of doing things. Thanks to demand from big emerging economies, which has caused commodity prices to surge and cash to flow in to the continent, most South American governments have become increasingly “resource nationalistic” and have ramped up social spending to meet the needs of the poor and the indigenous, causing poverty levels to drop – at the same time as poverty has been on the increase in the United States.

Combining sharp wit and great storytelling with trenchant analysis, Hal Weitzman examines how America “lost the South” and argues that if the United States is to find a new role in a world of emerging superpowers, it must reengage with Latin America. Hal Weitzman explores the mistakes the United States has made in Latin America—and the high price it will pay for them.

Hal Weitzman has been on the staff of the Financial Times since 2000, and is currently Chicago and Midwest bureau chief. He first joined as an editor on the FT’s Op-ed desk, was named Americas News Editor in 2002, and was the newspaper’s Andes bureau chief from 2004 to 2007. He was based in Lima but traveled extensively, reporting from Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Chile. As well as the FT, his reporting from the region also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, New Statesman, The Irish Times, The Australian and Jane’s Foreign Report. Originally from Wales, he was educated at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; Oriel College, Oxford; and Leeds University.