Ake, Jorn archive

January 16th, 2008

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!!

This Sunday, January 20^th, from 1 pm to 5 pm, Chop Suey Books in Richmond, Virginia (1317 West Cary Street - the near-campus location) is presenting readings by Popular Ink authors Nathan Alling Long and Jorn Ake. This reading is part of an exciting ongoing series featuring our authors and contributors.

Long’s writing has managed to slip into journals such as Glimmer Train, Indiana Review, Story Quarterly, The Sun, and Tin House. Long contends that this is because he writes such short pieces. He is researching how to collapse the ribcage of words, to get them into even smaller spaces. From Long’s Popular Ink book The Dog and The Last Hot day of Summer:

An itinerant worker wonders whether the bus can continue to take him where he wants to go

“Why waste your money, Ray?” Billy said at the station. He’d gone with me to get my ticket. “Get there the same amount of time using your thumb.”

“We’ll see,” I said back. It was hot, early summer, and the station’s air wasn’t running yet. The doors were wide open, and I could hear each bus pull up, the hiss of brakes and doors opening and closing.

“Ray,” he said, “there’re places you can’t get to by the dog.”

Ake is a Popular Ink author and a contributing editor for The Indelible Kitchen, and is the author of All about the Blind Spot and Other Poems (Popular Ink) and Asleep in the Lightning Fields (Texas Review Press & winner of the X. J Kennedy Award). From All about the Blind Spot and Other Poems:

George was a small boy. He had only one friend. More than one friend would require a larger boy. Her name was Molly. She lived in a small house across the street. George lived in a large house with a big tree behind it. The largeness of the house made George feel unsettled. In Molly’s house George could put his hands in his pockets and lean against a wall. He could close his eyes and hum. A hum in a large house could go too far. A small crack could develop or a leak in the pipe beneath the sink. A large house could explode.

Lee Capps, a contributor to our Indelible Kitchen, will also be presenting his work. Mark your calendars and please join us on Sunday, January 20 in Richmond, Virginia at Chop Suey Books for this very special event!