A Lion, a Pirate, and a Round of Roulette

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This past weekend saw two of our favorite regular series return to the Malvern stage. First up, on Saturday night the lovely folks from VSA Texas (The State Organization on Arts and Disability) and the Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities) joined us for another round of The Lion & The Pirate Unplugged, an open mic for writers and musicians of all ages and abilities. Performers included some familiar faces, such as Milton Sullivan, Nicole Cortichiato, Shaniqua Esparza, and KK Marshall, as well as some bold new acts, including Carolyn Cornell, Kamand Alaghehband, and Richard Allen White, who had celebrated his birthday the day before (many happy returns!)

Let April and Laura introduce you to all things Lion and Pirate below, and then click on the Playlist, top left of the video, to watch the performers strut their stuff.

And on Sunday afternoon we welcomed a second batch of talented performers, this time from Austin Writers Roulette, a community of writers, lyricists, and poets who write short works based on monthly themes. June’s theme was “Train Wreck Adventures”… check out the readings below (again, the Playlist link will let you see more of the videos), and then keep an eye on the AWR website for July’s theme so you can join the Rouletters!

Sunday Delights at Malvern Books

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Sandra and FrankHere’s wishing you a very happy National German Chocolate Cake Day, book fiends! Let’s honor this joyous occasion by recalling something equally sweet: a sunny Sunday afternoon spent in the company of talented poets Sandra Storey and Frank Pool (pictured at right). We were celebrating the recent release of Every State Has Its Own Light, Sandra’s first full-length collection and a finalist for the May Swenson Poetry Award. Sandra was visiting us all the way from Boston, and many of her Texas-based family members came out to support her. Sandra was joined on our stage by Austin local Frank, who has recently returned to writing poetry—and we’re very glad he’s back. Thanks to both Sandra and Frank for such a delicious day of verse!

Check out footage from their readings below… and if you like to balance your poetry with a little prose, why not come by the store tonight for Novel Night? We’re very generously offering a sweet-as-cake 20% OFF ALL FICTION TITLES from 6pm till closing!

BookExpo 2015

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It’s that time of year again… BookExpo America! Three days of bookish ballyhoo, featuring an assorted cast of publishers, buyers, and book nerds from across the country…

BEA 15 01And so we put on our sensible shoes and headed off to the ginormous glass monstrosity that is the Javits Center for our annual dose of destiny and power books. (If you missed BookExpo but fancy a trip to the Javits Center anyway, I’m sure there are still tickets available for future Javitsian expos of the non-literary variety… Plastics Today or Cannabis World Congress, anyone?)

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Your tote bag game was strong this year, BEA! Well done. And we can’t wait to take a look at all the intriguing catalogs we happily toted home; nothing gives us more pleasure than contemplating our upcoming orders from brilliant indie presses like Biblioasis, New York Review of Books, and Graywolf Press.

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Of particular interest—three fantastic titles coming up from San Francisco’s City Lights, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Keep an eye out for I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career (correspondence between Allen Ginsberg and City Lights’ founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti); Pictures of the Gone World (a limited edition reprint of City Lights’ first book, a collection of poetry by Ferlinghetti); and Shock Treatment (a 25th anniversary edition of the first book by iconoclastic performance artist/poet Karen Finley).

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If it’s not already obvious, we love small, independent presses! Even really small presses.

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Of course, the publishing giants were out in full force (is it just me, or was the Ellora’s Cave booth surprisingly low on be-thonged spokespeople this year?) and they had some… interesting offerings lined up. No, we won’t be stocking any of the three titles pictured above—but a taco cleanse does sound pretty fun.

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A Novel Night in May

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Last Thursday we hosted the fifth edition of our Novel Night reading series, a monthly celebration of all things prose. Check out the footage below and take a look at the photos we posted on our Facebook page.

Our first reader was Gary Hobbs, who introduced us to his debut novel, Access to Capital, a page-turner that gives you a glimpse into the faltering and frantic financial world of the 1980s.

Richard Kendrick read from Déjà Vu, described by Rick Russo as “a rare book that combines modernist formal experimentation with excellent post-modernist content and prose.” The novel tells the story of Alden Homer and Blake Whitman, two very different adventurers whose paths cross as they explore Asia.

And last but not least, Malvernite Schandra hosted the Book Talk segment, in which a member of staff introduces the audience to one of their favorite titles on our shelves. Schandra discussed Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” the classic tale of rat-race-rejection—which we happen to stock in a very stylish Melville House edition that comes complete with online access to a recipe for ginger nuts!

Reading Cats and Dogs

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What’s it going to be, animal fans? Do you prefer the daft and drooling devotion of a Dachshund, or would you rather your lap be warmed by a dapper and discerning Tuxedo cat? It’s probably obvious that I’m Team Feline (do you blame me?), but we have a couple of dedicated dog enthusiasts on staff as well—luckily, our brand-spanking-new Melville House order arrived with something for everyone…

Cats and Dogs

Melville House is an independent Brooklyn publisher founded in 2001 by the husband and wife team of writer Dennis Loy Johnson and sculptor Valerie Merians. We proudly stock quite a few of their handsome titles, including the two recent releases below…

Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss

From the best-selling author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, we have the story of Alec Charlesworth, a grief-stricken librarian who encounters a talking cat called Roger. This novel is a page-turning mix of comedy and Gothic suspense; there are laugh-out-loud moments mixed in with some genuinely creepy bits (e.g. “Purring was the way they sent people into a trance, you see—and then, when their prey was sort of paralysed and helpless, the cats would set to work with their claws”). Best read with the lights on and the family cat occupied elsewhere.

The Dialogue of the Dogs by Miguel de Cervantes; translated by David Kipen

From chatty cats to conversational canines—Cervantes’ The Dialogue is apparently the first talking-dog story in Western literature. Much like Cat Out of Hell, this novella is a humorous mix of parody and fantasy. It features a syphilitic philanderer who, while recovering in hospital, eavesdrops on two talking guard dogs. The Dialogue first appeared in 1613 in a collection of twelve stories… and, four-hundred years later, I’d wager this is still the only tail tale in which a pair of garrulous Mastiffs discuss the evils of humanity in the form of a Greek dialogue.

Sunday Afternoon with Issa Nyaphaga & ComeDrumForFun

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What a wonderful Sunday at Malvern Books! We got the afternoon off to a lively start with Mae Stoll and ComeDrumForFun, a small community of hand drummers who love to play and celebrate West African rhythms on traditional West African instruments like the djembe. Have a listen to their fantastic performance below—and, as Mae says, foot-stomping is definitely encouraged!

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I think you’ll agree ComeDrumForFun is a tough act to follow—but Issa Nyaphaga was certainly up to the task. An acclaimed multi-media artist and dedicated human rights activist, Issa published over 5000 cartoons, drawings, and comics in his home country of Cameroon, reaching over 5 million readers, many of whom were marginalized and illiterate. In the late 1990s in Paris he was a contributing cartoonist with Charlie Hebdo. He has also conducted art therapy programs for child soldiers and at-risk children and teenagers, and earlier this year he addressed the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on the subject of freedom of artistic expression. Issa was visiting Malvern to introduce his new book, Art Stronger Than Hate (Alamo Bay Press), a collection of provocative political cartoons that demonstrate his commitment to free speech, artistic expression, and social justice. Have a listen to Issa below, and prepare to be educated and inspired by this extraordinary artist and activist.

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