Climb Down at Malvern Books

Climb DownWe decided to get July off to a well-rounded start by spending an evening with the multi-talented poet and visual artist David Thornberry. Observant Malvernites may remember spying his art on our walls; this time around we were celebrating the launch of his new poetry collection, Climb Down, every copy of which has a hand-painted, original cover featuring David’s artwork. Watch the second video below for an explanation of the book’s title (at around the 12-minute mark); it’s a wonderful metaphor taken from a rather terrifying mountain climbing incident.

Joining David on our stage was another Malvern fave, W. Joe Hoppe, host of the Poetry Corner reading series (returning in the Fall). On this occasion, W. Joe was sharing some of his own work, including a fantastic poem about Michael Collins, who piloted the Apollo 11 command module alone (“he circled like a film noir taxi / keeping the motor running for the getaway”), while crew members Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin gallivanted on the moon for the better part of a day.

Check out the footage below to enjoy some brilliant poetry—and then come to our Novel Night on Thursday to round out your literary calendar with some smashing prose!

Ever So Eventful

It’s been a happily hectic few days here at Malvern Books. First up: last Tuesday we launched a new reading series, W. Joe’s Poetry Corner (hosted by the delightful Mr. Hoppe), and we got things off to a fine start with W. Joe’s first guest, poet and visual artist David Thornberry. A spirited thank you to everyone who stopped by to admire David’s art (bedecking our walls in the photos below), ask him thoughtful questions, and enjoy his poetry. We trust you found the evening as entertaining as we did. For those of you who were otherwise occupied with rollerskating lessons or assorted bee-keeping tasks, we’ve included a few photos and some footage below…

David Thornberry artwork

David and artwork

David reads

And on Sunday afternoon we got our art on once again, this time in the form of a visit from Josh Ronsen (pictured below) and his Tiny Art collection. Josh has been exchanging works of art with artists from around the world since 2009, and he brought us over five-hundred teensy (under 1 inch!) pieces to admire. A particular favorite: MUMA, a modern art museum designed for ants—because insects need inspiration too!

Josh Ronsen

Tiny Art

Tiny Art 2

Tiny Art 3

Josh Ronsen 2

Forklift and Fun Times

Happy Thursday to you, Malveroos, and a very happy birthday to renowned existentialists Simone de Beauvoir and Judith Krantz (the google doodle goes to Ms. de Beauvoir). Because a random post should begin with a random introduction!

On our assorted-bits-and-bobs list this week:

  • If you’re curious to learn more about the trials and tribulations of opening an indie bookstore, head over to The Bookseller and check out this blog post by our very own curmudgeon-in-chief, Dr. Joe!
  • We have the new issue of everyone’s most beloved journal of poetry, cooking, and light industrial safety in stock. Yup, Forklift, Ohio #27 has landed, and it features Malvern Books’ favorite Pates, Blake Lee and Taylor Jacob. And the carnivores amongst you will be delighted to hear that this particular issue is packaged like a slab of butcher’s meat.
  • If you’re looking for winter amusements, there’s no shortage of events at Malvern. Next Wednesday at 7pm we have the inaugural reading in our Everything is Bigger poetry series (featuring the aforementioned Blake Lee Pate, along with Dean Young and Vincent Scarpa), and the following Tuesday (the 21st) we’re introducing another new series, W. Joe’s Poetry Corner. W. Joe’s first guest will be poet and visual artist David Thornberry (check out his awesome chapbook covers below), who will give a reading and also sit down for a chat with our host. As always, our Events Calendar has all the details (and we like to keep y’all informed on our Facebook page, too).

David Thornberry

  • Finally, computer boffins at Stony Brook University in New York have developed an algorithm that can analyse and compare the language of “successful” and “unsuccessful” novels—and they’ve discovered several trends:

Less successful work tended to include more verbs and adverbs and relied on words that explicitly describe actions and emotions such as “wanted”, “took” or “promised”, while more successful books favoured verbs that describe thought processes such as “recognised” or “remembered.”