Happenings, Week of August 13

This is our first in the series of Happenings, in which we post the week's book and author events.  For a map of these events, go to our Happenings page.  And, please,  if you have events to add, send them to nativehomeofhope@gmail.com.  We so much appreciate it!

Week of August 13

Utah Book Month, via The Bluestocking Society

Monday, August 13

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Book Release

A Brilliant Novel in the Works, by Yuvi Zalkow

When Yuvi's wife finds him in his underwear, standing on top of his desk, she isn't particularly impressed with his writing habits.

But Yuvi worries. He has a wife who wants things he can't give her, an editor who wants a book he can't deliver, a brother-in-law whose gastrointestinal disease may lead him to a morbid end, and dead parents who, well, they don't really want anything, but that doesn't stop the memory of them from haunting him.

As the structure of Yuvi's novel falls apart, so do his life and marriage. His novel and his life blend together as he struggles to pull out of the mess, traveling from his suburban Jewish home in Atlanta to the North Carolina mountains of his father's childhood, to several hospital waiting rooms, to the living room of a grieving Palestinian man, and even to Uranus (and back, of course).

Heartbreaking and hilarious, A Brilliant Novel in the Works is the utterly original debut novel from Yuvi Zalkow, praised by Cheryl Strayed as “the secret love child of the smartest person you've ever met and the weirdo who lives down the block.”

Yuvi Zalkow is only slightly less desperate than the characters in his stories. His writing has been published in Carve Magazine, Rosebud, Storyglossia, The Clackamas Literary Review, and other magazines. He’s currently getting an MFA at Antioch University while trying to trick someone into publishing his novel and his short story collection. More information about his writing can be found at his website. Yuvi lives with his wife and stepson in Portland, Oregon. (2009 bio via Bewildering Stories)

Here’s a great video by Yuvi:




Buy A Brilliant Novel in the Works at IndieBound or at Amazon

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Jenny Lawson, or The Bloggess, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Tattered Cover, Denver, CO

Claire Vaye Watkins, Battleborn, 7 p.m., Politics & Prose, Washington, DC

Tuesday, August 14

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Prague Winter, 7:30 p.m., Tattered Cover, Denver, CO

Jenny Lawson, or The Bloggess, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Barnes and Noble Mira Mesa, San Diego, CA

Marin Poetry Center Summer Traveling Show, with Mark Meierding, Ella Eytan, Patricia Garfield, Heidi Joseph, Melanie Maier, Yvonne Postelle and Charlotte Schmid, 7 p.m., Belvedere-Tiburon Library, Tiburon, CA

Cheryl Strayed, or Dear Sugar, Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things, 7 p.m., Broadway Books, Portland, OR (tickets required)

Wednesday, August 15

Paul Bendix, Dance Without Steps, 7 p.m., Books Inc., Berkely, CA

Douglas Brinkley, Cronkite, 7:30 p.m., Tattered Cover, Denver, CO

Jenny Lawson, or The Bloggess, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Powell’s Cedar Hills Crossing, Portland, OR

Aimee Phan, The Re-Education of Cherry Truong, and Pauls Toutonghi, Evil Knievel Days,7 p.m., Books Inc., Palo Alto, CA

Yuvi Zalkow, A Brilliant Novel in the Works, 7:30 p.m., 8 p.m., Elliott Bay, Seattle, WA

Thursday, August 16

Kate Hopkins, Sweet Tooth, 7:30 p.m., Powell’s Hawthorne, Portand, OR

Craig Johnson, The Cold Dish, 5 p.m., Barnes and Noble, Cheyenne, WY

Cathy Lamb, A Different Kind of Normal, 6 p.m., Powell’s Cedar Hills Crossing, Portland, OR

Jenny Lawson, or The Bloggess, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, 8 p.m., Elliott Bay, Seattle, WA

Marin Poetry Center Summer Traveling Show, with Sandra Cross, David Beckman, Kathryn V Gronke, Jodi L. Hottel, Mark Meierding, Paul Watsky and Terri Glass, 7 p.m., Dance Palace, Point Reyes Station, CA

Ruben Martinez, Desert American: Boom and Bust in the New Old West, 7:30 p.m., Booksmith, San Francisco, CA

O. Henry, A Short Story, Exhibit about O. Henry, aka William Sydney Porter, 2 p.m. Austin History Center, Austin, TX

Cheryl Strayed, or Dear Sugar, Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things, 7 p.m., Seaside Public Library, Seaside, OR

Toby Thompson, Riding the Rough String: Reflections on the American West, 7 p.m., Elk River Books, Livingston, MT

Gail Tsukiyama, A Hundred Flowers, Books Inc., San Francisco, CA

Yuvi Zalkow, A Brilliant Novel in the Works, 7:30 p.m., Powell’s Burnside, Portland, OR

Friday, August 17

Rick Bass, The Black Rhinos of Namibia, 7 p.m., Ellliott Bay, Seattle, WA

Jenny Lawson, or The Bloggess, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, 6 p.m., Costco Aurora Village, Seattle, WA

Sun Valley Writers Conference, Ketchum, ID

Robert J. Torres, “The Struggle for Statehood: The Search for Law and Order along New Mexico’s `Lawless Frontier,” part of the New Mexico Centennial celebration, 12 p.m., New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, NM

Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins, 7 p.m., Changing Hands, Tempe, AZ

Saturday, August 18


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Event Profile

Little Red Schoolhouse, Methow Valley

Mazama Festival of Books

Festival founder Art Gresh is working with The Methow Arts Alliance to bring authors of the Pacific Northwest to salon-style conversations with the public on August 18th and 19th.

The inaugural event at the Little Red Schoolhouse in Mazama seeks to connect Washington residents with local book culture.

The festival will host Ryan Boudinot (Misconception and Blueprints of the Afterlife), Erik Brooks (Polar Opposites), Washington State Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken (Plume), Jim Lynch (Truth Like the Sun), Colleen Mondor (The Map of My Dead Pilots), “freak music legend” Danbert Nobacon (Three Dead Princes), YA hero Blake Nelson (Dream School), Pauls Toutonghi (Evel Knievel Days), and Lidia Yuknavitch (The Chronology of Water) in conversation with Katherine Lampher and Lauren Cerand.

Admission is $5 per adult per program session, which include multiple events. Kids and teens (under 18) are free.

More at http://www.methowvalleyarts.org/arts-and-events/mazama-festival-books/

Inquire further with Lauren Cerand at correspondence@laurencerand.com

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O. Henry, A Short Story, Exhibit about O. Henry, aka William Sydney Porter, 2 p.m. Austin History Center, Austin, TX

Dena M. Sedar, Nevada’s Lost City, 1 p.m., Barnes and Noble, Henderson, NV

Sun Valley Writers Conference, Ketchum, ID

Pauls Toutonghi, Evel Knievel Days,7 p.m., Mazama Festival of Books, Methow Valley, WA

Yuvi Zalkow, A Brilliant Novel in the Works, 4 p.m., Green Apple, San Francisco, CA

Sunday, August 19

Rick Bass, The Black Rhinos of Namibia, 3 p.m., Eagle Harbour Book Company, Bainbridge Island, WA

Mazama Festival of Books, Methow Valley, WA


If you would like to know Happenings in your area beyond this week, drop us a line nativehomeofhope@gmail.com.