Startling, Mysterious, Short
It’s
been a joy to watch the success of our Nyack neighbor, David Means, who
won our hearts when he read for us in January ‘01. He had just exploded onto the
literary scene with his book Assorted Fire Events. It was a National Book
Critics Circle Award finalist, the first story collection to garner the Los
Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, and an Esquire Best Book of the
Year, and it has since been translated into six languages. His new story collection,
The Secret Goldfish (Ecco/HarperCollins, 9/04), has only heightened the
enthusiasm. His heroes include a hapless man stalked by lightning, a pair of carnies
bent on mayhem, a bog man dug up in an Ohio field, a neglected goldfish watching
a family fall to pieces—you know you have to hear this man!
Joining
him is another outstanding writer of short prose pieces, C. M. Mayo, a
Texas native who divides her time between Mexico City and Washington, DC. The
author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles Through Baja California
(University of Utah Press) and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia
Press), which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, she is widely
published in fine literary journals and the winner of many fellowships and residencies.
She is also well known for her translation work, and she teaches at the Writer’s
Center in Bethesda.
photo of David Means by Greg Martin
All readings include a question & answer period and a reception with books by the author(s) for sale.
Suggested
Donation: $5 ($3 for HVWC members and those under age 18)
The readings at the HVWC are made possible in part by a grant from the Bydale Foundation; the David G. Taft Foundation; the Orchard Foundation; and the Thendara Foundation; with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and by Westchester Arts Council with funds from Westchester County Government, corporations and individuals.