This October, the Chattahoochee Valley Libraries (CVL) are pleased to welcome not one, not two, but three different authors to town for free presentations and book signings.
Both events will be held in the auditorium of the Columbus Public Library, 3000 Macon Road. Admission is free, and no tickets or advance reservations are needed. The authors’ books will be on sale at each event.
October 21 at 6:00pm - Author PADRAIG ROONEY
Famed Irish author and poet PADRAIG ROONEY will talk about his new book Rebel Angel: The Life and Times of Annemarie Schwarzenbach, the first official biography of the famed (some might say infamous) writer and photographer whose work challenged the Nazi regime.
In the book, author Rooney explores the short but impassioned life of its title subject, whose work as a writer and photographer was as uncompromising and adventurous as her personal life. Stories abound about the intermixing of her professional and personal live,s which included her long and tortured relationship with Carson McCullers and a host of others in society.
This special event is presented in cooperation with the Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians at Columbus State University.
Pádraig Rooney was born in Ireland and lives in the Pyrénées-Orientales in France. He was a teacher of English literature in international schools for many decades and is an award-winning poet. The Gilded Chalet: Travels in Literary Switzerland was described in the TLS as “Brilliant. Thoroughly absorbing.” His articles have appeared in The Irish Times, The Guardian, London Review of Books, The Scotsman and The New European.
October 28 at 6:00pm - Authors KAREN SPEARS ZACHARIAS and E.J. WADE
On the heels of a global pandemic, two post-menopausal Appalachian women, one black, one white, abandoned hearth, home, and spouses shrugging in dubious wonderment to live and study abroad together in a university flat along Scotland's River Ayr.
The hilarious, rousing and deeply meaningful record of that journey by poet E.J. Wade and novelist Karen Spears Zacharias is the recently published The Devil’s Pulpit & Other Mostly True Scottish Misadventures. They’ll share these tales (and others that may or may not have made it into the book) as a part of this special presentation.
During their time in Scotland the co-authors roamed from the depths of Finnich Glen to the outcroppings of Dunure Castle. Sometimes wishing they'd been raised by Buddhist Monks instead of by foul-mouthed chain-smoking Appalachian mothers, these two University of the West of Scotland grad students embraced the wandering spirits of their matriarchal ancestors and left no ScotRail ticket unused.
“Part travel journal, part memoir, part story about a friendship, The Devil’s Pulpit & Other Mostly True Scottish Misadventures seamlessly weaves together prose and poetry like a harmonic musical chord," says Marjory Wentworth, former South Carolina Poet Laureate and author of One River, One Boat: Occasional Poems and Other Stories. "Rooted by a mutual longing for information about family history, poet E.J. Wade and prose writer Karen Spears Zacharias travel to Scotland, 'where / myth and legend riddle reality' to discover fundamental truths about where they come from and who they are in the world. Both writers bring an anthropological perspective to every encounter, creating a text that resonates far beyond these pages."
E.J. Wade is an award-winning poet whose work has been published in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Women Speak, Salvation South, and Callaloo Literary Journal. She holds an EdD in Disability and Equity in Education from National Louis University, an MA in Appalachian Studies from Shepherd University, and an MA in Creative Media Practice from the University of the West of Scotland. Karen Spears Zacharias is an American writer whose ten previous books and numerous articles focuses on women and justice. She holds an MA in Appalachian Studies from Shepherd University and an MA in Creative Media Practice from the University of the West of Scotland. A Georgia native, she lives at the foot of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon.