What: Reading to Celebrate Carol Bly
Where: Open Book
When: Friday, May 30, 2008 • 7 p.m.
Free and open to the public.

Carol Bly, who died in December 2007, was the author of books of short stories and essays, and books about how to write stories and nonfiction and how to teach creative writing. Recognized as a nationally acclaimed private writing consultant, Carol was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Carleton, the Edelstein-Keller Distinguished Author at the University of Minnesota, and the recipient of the 2001 Minnesota Humanities Award for Literature. Her papers are in the Literary Manuscripts Collections in the Manuscripts Division here at the Libraries. In addition to family and friends reading from her works in celebration of the publication of her posthumous novel Shelter Half, Al Lathrop, curator of the Manuscripts Division, will be speaking at the event.

Cosponsored by The Loft Literary Center, Holy Cow! Press, and the University of Minnesota Libraries Archives & Special Collections.

Posted by Timothy Cronin at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Who: David Hajdu, author of The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America
What: Book talk and signing
Where: Elmer L. Andersen Library
When: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 • 7:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public.

The Friends of the University Minnesota Libraries and the Children’s Literature Research Collections proudly present a Twin Cities appearance by David Hajdu, author of The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America.

Dessert reception follows with books available for sale courtesy of Red Balloon Bookshop. David Hajdu will be signing books during the reception.

Comic books, not rock-and-roll, created the generation gap. They also spawned juvenile delinquency, crime, sexual deviance, and things of unspeakable depravity. Long before Elvis appeared on Ed Sullivan from the waist up, long before Jerry Lee Lewis married his cousin, long before James Dean yelled, “You’re tearing me apart,” teachers, politicians, priests, and parents were lining up across from comic-book publishers, writers, artists, and children at bonfires and Senate hearings decrying the evil that was the ten-cent plague.

David Hajdu’s The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America comprises the last book in an informal trilogy about American popular culture at mid-century, and radically revises common notions of popular culture, the generation gap, and the divide between “high” and “low” art.

This special event with David Hajdu is part of an evening celebration honoring John Borger and his gift of almost 40,000 comic books to the Children’s Literature Research Collections at the University Libraries.

Posted by Timothy Cronin at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What: Exhibit: Gendered Bits: Identities, Practices, and Artifacts in Computing
Where: Elmer L. Andersen Library
When: Through July 23, 2008
Free and open to the public.

This exhibition, presented by the Charles Babbage Institute, explores how gender has shaped the professional identities and material culture of computing. It examines issues and raises questions about gender broadly as well as specific matters of masculinity and the contributions, struggles, and shifting roles of women.

Posted by Timothy Cronin at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What: A Contract with God by Will Eisner, part of the free five-part book discussion series Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature – Modern Marvels
Where: Highland Park Branch Library
When: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 • 7 p.m.
Facilitator: Judith Katz, University of Minnesota Center for Jewish Studies
Free and open to the public.
More information: http://wilson.lib.umn.edu/outreach/marvels.html

Set among 1930s Bronx tenements, these four stories capture the brutal, tender world of working-class Jews. In the title story, Frimme Hersh's daughter suddenly dies, sorely testing the "contract" this self-made man once entered into with God. In "Cookalein," Eisner casts a humorous eye on the amorous, social-climbing tendencies of young urbanites spending a summer in the Adirondacks. Wry, honest, and sad, these four stories showcase Eisner's unique ability to capture character with the quick stroke of his pen.

This series explores Jewish literature and culture through scholar-led discussions of contemporary and classic books on the theme of “Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel.” The program is the result of a grant to the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities Libraries, which is partnering with The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. Local support is provided by the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota. Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature, a book discussion series, has been made possible through a grant from Nextbook and the American Library Association.

Posted by Timothy Cronin at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What: The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman, part of the free five-part book discussion series Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature – Modern Marvels
Where: Highland Park Branch Library
When: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 • 7 p.m.
Facilitator: Judith Katz, University of Minnesota Center for Jewish Studies
Free and open to the public.
More information: http://wilson.lib.umn.edu/outreach/marvels.html

The comic book transfigured, this graphic novel tells the story of Spiegelman's parents Vladek and Anna, Jews reaching maturity in a Europe on the verge of Nazism, and their terrifying history and eventual survival in the concentration camps. Spiegelman uses the broadest tools of the genre—Jews are drawn as mice, Nazis as cats, Poles as pigs, Frenchmen as frogs, and so on—to make vivid the unimaginable, both to the reader and to himself, appearing as a character in the book listening to his father's story.

This series explores Jewish literature and culture through scholar-led discussions of contemporary and classic books on the theme of “Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel.” The program is the result of a grant to the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities Libraries, which is partnering with The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. Local support is provided by the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota. Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature, a book discussion series, has been made possible through a grant from Nextbook and the American Library Association.

Posted by Timothy Cronin at 03:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What: Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: Stories by Ben Katchor, part of the free five-part book discussion series Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature – Modern Marvels
Where: Highland Park Branch Library
When: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 • 7 p.m.
Facilitator: Judith Katz, University of Minnesota Center for Jewish Studies
Free and open to the public.
More information: http://wilson.lib.umn.edu/outreach/marvels.html

Steeped in a melancholy, grey-tinted world of elevated trains, luncheonettes, and gently decaying tenements, Katchor's perambulating photographer Julius Knipl documents a rapidly vanishing urban netherworld. Peopled by men who map the migration of hairstyles and those who belong to the Amalgamated Panty-Waist Fitters Union, his cityscape is a familiar one, albeit with the touch of a demented fairy tale.

This series explores Jewish literature and culture through scholar-led discussions of contemporary and classic books on the theme of “Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel.” The program is the result of a grant to the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities Libraries, which is partnering with The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. Local support is provided by the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota. Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature, a book discussion series, has been made possible through a grant from Nextbook and the American Library Association.

Posted by Timothy Cronin at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What: The Quitter by Harvey Pekar, part of the free five-part book discussion series Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature – Modern Marvels
Where: Highland Park Branch Library
When: Tuesday, August 5, 2008 • 7 p.m.
Facilitator: Judith Katz, University of Minnesota Center for Jewish Studies
Free and open to the public.
More information: http://wilson.lib.umn.edu/outreach/marvels.html

Ostensibly covering Pekar's early years, this dark graphic novel tackles everything from his brief stint in the Navy to jazz criticism and mid-century race relations. The gritty and atmospheric artwork by American Splendor collaborator Dean Haspiel perfectly captures Pekar's cantankerous tone. But a surprisingly hopeful message ultimately surfaces. It's possible to find your way in the world, Pekar suggests, even if it takes a lifetime to do it.

This series explores Jewish literature and culture through scholar-led discussions of contemporary and classic books on the theme of “Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel.” The program is the result of a grant to the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities Libraries, which is partnering with The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. Local support is provided by the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota. Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature, a book discussion series, has been made possible through a grant from Nextbook and the American Library Association.

Posted by Timothy Cronin at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What: The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar, part of the free five-part book discussion series Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature – Modern Marvels
Where: Highland Park Branch Library
When: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 • 7 p.m.
Facilitator: Judith Katz, University of Minnesota Center for Jewish Studies
Free and open to the public.
More information: http://wilson.lib.umn.edu/outreach/marvels.html

After eating a parrot, an aged Algerian rabbi's cat develops the ability to speak and quickly declares his desire not only to be Jewish, but to have a bar mitzvah. The rabbi engages his pet in a spiraling debate, touching on topics such as spelling, parental love, and the very nature of Jewish identity.

This series explores Jewish literature and culture through scholar-led discussions of contemporary and classic books on the theme of “Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel.” The program is the result of a grant to the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities Libraries, which is partnering with The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. Local support is provided by the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota. Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature, a book discussion series, has been made possible through a grant from Nextbook and the American Library Association.

Posted by Timothy Cronin at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)