UpSouth at BEA: Farai Chideya, Lori Tharps, and Patricia Spears Jones

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Up South, Inc.

Presents

VOICES AND VISIONS OF NEW AMERICAN DREAMS

Celebrate the release of Farai Chideya?s fiction debut, Kiss the Sky. Hear memoirist Lori Tharps,poet Patricia Spears Jones, and Farai Chideya read excerpts from their latest books and dialogue with these dynamic authors about their lives and work.

Friday, May 29, 2009, 2-4 pm

at the 2009 Book Expo of America (BEA)

Jacob Javits Convention Center, 655 West 35th Street, NY, NY

In the African American Pavillion, Meeting Room 1C01/1C02

Farai Chideya, author of Kiss the Sky (Atria), is a former host of NPR’s ?News and Notes,? the founder of PopandPolitics.com, and the author of several award-winning non-fiction books. Chideya lives in New York City.
(www.faraichideya.com)

Lori Tharps is the author of the critically acclaimed Kinky Gazpacho (Atria), now out in paperback, is also coauthor of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. She lives in Philadelphia, PA.
(www.loritharps.com)

Patricia Spears Jones is a celebrated poet, playwright, cultural commentator and author of Femme du Monde and The Weather That Kills. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

A half-hour reception will precede presentations. For more info visit www.upsouth.org, go to Up South International Book Festival on Facebook, or email: bluemedia@aol.com.

Comment(s)

  • § Chris Chambers said on : 05/08/09 @ 12:12

    I got a comp copy of Farai’s novel and it’s very good. Naturally, it’s got an autobiographical strain. Of course, this a little love melodrama and such to spice it up. I like that, and I think she nails it. What are your thoughts, Eisa? Look, it’s not To Kill A Mockingbird or Sense and Sensibility or Their Eyes Were Watching God, but although these books are marketed as if they are the wheel or fire, in reality I don’t think the current book industry is looking for stuff like that anymore. LOL They are praying that dicerning folk over above the average tool will pick up this book and be entertained, and, as I said, I think farai nails it for dicerning readers looking for interesting fiction. I think my wife & her colleagues might like this.
    I want to follow Tharp and Spears-Jones’ stuff. Sadly I’m tapped to do faculty seminars at Georgetown’s reunions, then something at Princeton’s. the 29th and 30 is always crazy.

    • Comment(s)

  • § eisa718®   said on : 05/08/09 @ 12:20

    I’m so happy to read well-written popular fiction – especially in the summer. Farai is amazing, and check out Hollyhood by Val Joyner (see her interview on this blog).

    I think the big publishers will be looking for big sellers in popular fiction and genre fiction OR books that are reviewed extensively and win high-brow literary awards. It will be harder for mid-list writers to break in with this economy and what’s happening specifically in publishing. At this year’s AWP RingShout panel, Chris Jackson said something to the effect of there is no more mid-list fiction. (I wasn’t there. Home with the belly back then.)That says a lot.