MAX RITVO: A Celebration
Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 7:00PM
Join us for a celebration the late poet Max Ritvo and the release of his new book, Four Reincarnations. The late poet Max Ritvo developed a huge national following through his poems and interviews. His friends gather to read from his first book of poetry in a celebration of the Max Ritvo's life and legacy. Hosted by Evan Walker-Wells, editor of Scalawag magazine.
"One of the most original and ambitious first books in my experience." -- Louise Glück
Reverent and profane, entertaining and bruising, Four Reincarnations is a debut collection of poems that introduces an exciting new voice in American letters. When Max Ritvo was diagnosed with terminal cancer at age sixteen, he became the chief war correspondent for his body. Ritvo explores the prospect of death with singular sensitivity, but he is also a poet of life and of love-a cool-eyed assessor of mortality and a fervent champion for his body and its pleasures.
Evan Walker-Wells is a close friend of Max's; they become close in college after Max's initial treatment for sarcoma and Evan's treatment for lymphoma. They studied poetry with Louise Glück; Evan became a live-laugh track for Max's comedy performances. Evan is a co-founder and the publisher of Scalawag magazine.
YIDDISH STORIES with Ellen Cassedy & Sheva Zucker
Saturday, January 14, 7:00PM
Join us at The Regulator Bookshop for a bilingual reading of Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories by Blume Lempel, a new collection of stories translated from the Yiddish by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub and winner of the Translation Prize awarded by the Yiddish Book Center. Ellen Cassedy will join Yiddish scholar Sheva Zucker to read stories from the book in Yiddish and English.
Blume Lempel (1907-1999) was born in a small town in what is now Ukraine. On the eve of World War II she immigrated to New York, where she wrote in Yiddish into the 1990's. Her work was published all over the world and won numerous prizes. Most of it was never translated - until now.
Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub selected and translated Blume Lempel's stories. Ellen is a prize-winning translator and the author of We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust. She lives in Washington, DC. Sheva Zucker is currently the Executive Director of the League for Yiddish and the editor of its magazine Afn Shvel. She is the author of several Yiddish texbooks, has taught Yiddish at Duke University, and writes on women in Yiddish literature.
PAGE BY PAGE: Building the Sketchbook Habit Workshop
Sunday, January 15, 2:00 -- 5:00PM
Pre-registration encouraged and payment required at the time of registration. For ages 16 and up. To Register, email: tristin.miller@gmail.com. Price: $25. payable to the instructor.
Resolve to make more art in the New Year! Join artist and author Tristin Miller for PAGE by PAGE: Building the Sketchbook Habit workshop at The Regulator Bookshop. All materials are included and a hand-bound sketchbook will be gifted to each student. Light refreshments will be served.
Tristin Miller is an artist who carries a sketchbook with her wherever she goes. The sketchbook has been fundamental in supporting her work as an artist and arts instructor. She resides in Greensboro, NC and is a fine arts instructor at the Art Alliance of Greensboro and teaches courses in the foundations of drawing and painting.
NONFICTION AUTHORS ASSOCIATION (NFAA)
Wednesday, January 18, 6:15PM -- 7:45PM
For more information: http://www.meetup.com/Durham-Chapel-Hill-Chapter-Nonfiction-Authors-Association
NANCY PEACOCK
Thursday, January 19, 7:00 PM
Hillsborough author Nancy Peacock will be at The Regulator Bookshop to read and sign her novel, The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson. From the author of The New York Times Notable Book Life Without Water comes a novel that follows the epic journey of a former slave turned Comanche warrior who travels from the brutality of a New Orleans sugar cane plantation to the daunting frontier of an untamed Texas, searching not only for the woman he loves, but for his own identity. With riveting characters, vivid landscapes, and cultural sensitivity, Peacock sheds a fresh and thoughtful light on a volatile period of American history.
From a Texas jail cell in 1875, Persimmon Wilson, a former slave turned Comanche warrior, awaits the hour of his hanging. Although unable to receive justice in the courts, he is determined to set the record straight. Thus, two days before his execution his last request is paper and ink, with which he writes his story-for although he is a former slave he can read and write. It is that story, in Persy's own words, which forms The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson.
Nancy Peacock is the author of the novels Life Without Water and Home Across the Road, as well as the memoir, A Broom of One's Own: Words on Writing, Housecleaning, and Life. She currently teaches writing classes and workshops in and around Chapel Hill, where she lives with her husband, Ben.
JUDY HOGAN
Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 7:00PM
Local author Judy Hogan will read from her new books, Nuclear Apples? and Formaldehyde, Rooster, the third and fourth installments of her popular Penny Weaver Mystery series.
Judy Hogan is the author of six mysteries in the Penny Weaver series, six books of poetry, and two non-fiction books. Hogan founded Carolina Wren Press and helped found the N.C. Writers' Network and served as its first President. She teaches creative writing and gives consultation to writers. She's also an activist in her village of Moncure, North Carolina where she lives, writes, and farms.
DAVID S. MITCHELL in conversation with Ken Lewis and Tim Tyson
Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 7:00PM
Join author David S. Mitchell, attorney Ken Lewis and historian Tim Tyson in conversation about Mitchell's debut political novel, We Hold These Truths. Tyson, Lewis, and Mitchell will explore the cultural ramifications of the first black U.S. president, the larger political questions raised by the 2010 Election Cycle, missed opportunities for progress, and lessons liberals can apply going forward under a president Trump and beyond.
In We Hold These Truths, Al Carpenter-the dashing and erudite African-American law student-turned campaign aide-struggles to square the historic opportunities presented by the outcome of the 2008 election with the reality that multitudes of liberals didn't really desire the CHANGE for which they'd clamored. Join Al and his code-switching, witty, ambitious and riotous inner circle as they search for answers to life, and love, in the rigorous classrooms of Manhattan, North Carolina and Harvard Law School in the days leading up to and after America's most recent-and perhaps most significant-demonstration project: the election of #44.
David S. Mitchell received a BA in History from Yale and graduated from Harvard Law School. He lives in the DC, his birthplace, and comments extensively on the intersection of politics, race, and popular culture. To read more, and to join the conversation, visit theauthordavid.com.
Ken Lewis is an attorney in Durham, North Carolina. Tim Tyson is an author, historian, and adjunct professor at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill.
TIM TYSON
Wednesday, February 1, 2017 at 7:00PM
Timothy Tyson (Blood Done Sign My Name) will give a talk and book signing for the launch of his new book, The Blood of Emmett Till.
Part detective story, part political history, Tyson's The Blood of Emmett Till revises the history of the Till case, not only changing the specifics that we thought we knew, but showing how the murder ignited the modern civil rights movement. Tyson uses a wide range of new sources, including the only interview ever given by Carolyn Bryant; the missing transcript of the murder trial; and a recent FBI report on the case. In a time where discussions of race are once again coming to the fore, The Blood of Emmett Till redefines a crucial moment in civil rights history.
Timothy B. Tyson is Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Visiting Professor of American Christianity and Southern Culture at Duke Divinity School, and adjunct professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina. He is the author of Blood Done Sign My Name, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, winner of the Southern Book Award for Nonfiction and the Grawemeyer Award in Religion, among others; and Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power. Tyson serves on the executive board of the North Carolina NAACP.
BETTYE KRONSTAD
Thursday, February 2 at 7:00PM
Bettye Kronstad met Lou Reed in 1968 as a 19-year-old Columbia University student and they were briefly married. Their relationship spanned some of the most pivotal years of his life and career, from the demise of The Velvet Underground to the writing and recording of his seminal solo masterpieces Transformer, for which Lou wrote 'Perfect Day' about an afternoon they spent together in the park, and Berlin, which draws on tales from Bettye's childhood.
In Perfect Day, Bettye looks back on their initially idyllic life together on the Upper East Side; Lou's struggle to launch a solo career; his work and friendships with fellow stars David Bowie and Iggy Pop; and his descent into drink and drug abuse. The result is a powerful and poignant meditation on love, loss, writing, and music.
Bettye Kronstad is a teacher, writer, and theater professional. For over twenty years she has taught English and theater in inner-city public high schools in the Bronx and Harlem, New York; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New Mexico; and Texas. She currently lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
New York Times and a major article in Vanity Fair magazine. This has happened in recent days with Tim Tyson's The Blood of Emmett Till. Tim was the first person in more than 60 years to garner an interview with Carolyn Bryant, the woman in whose name 14 year old Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955--an infamous event that sparked the American civil rights movement. In his book, Tim Tyson writes that she said of her long-ago allegations that Emmett grabbed her and was menacing and sexually crude toward her, "that part is not true."
University student and they were briefly married. Their relationship spanned some of the most pivotal years of his life and career, from the demise of The Velvet Underground to the writing and recording of his seminal solo masterpieces Transformer, for which Lou wrote 'Perfect Day' about an afternoon they spent together in the park, and Berlin, which draws on tales from Bettye's childhood.
art teacher-out of the picture. Not sure where to turn, Izzy joins The Infinite Family Project, an experiment in child and family development, led by the awkwardly charming child psychiatrist Preston Grind. Funded by an eccentric billionaire, the project is an attempt to create a "perfect little world," bringing together ten different families as a single family unit in order to raise exceptional children. All starts well, with Izzy and her son thriving in their new surroundings, but soon the equilibrium among the families begins to disintegrate and things fall apart. As her growing feelings for Dr. Grind further complicate the adventure in experimental living, Izzy ultimately must decide what truly matters when it comes to family.
For the last two years, acclaimed theologian Amy Laura Hall has written a lively, wide-ranging, opinionated column for the Durham Herald-Sun. In her column, Hall has sought--without flatly rejecting globalism--to think and act locally. She has also responded to what she sees as a disturbing Christian turn toward asceticism and away from abundance. Drawing from her scholarship, but also from conversations at coffee shops and around the dinner table, Hall's "missives of love" engage topics such as school dress codes, ubiquitous surveillance cameras, LGBTQ dignity, and bullies in the workplace. They draw richly and variously on pop songs, dead saints, young adult literature, and many stories about actual neighbors and family members. Often offbeat and always riveting, they ask how the world around us works and can work much better for the sake of daily truth and flourishing.
and sign copies of his new novel, 
Alexander Star, a senior editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The note came along with a copy of