Thursday, January 4, 5 p.m., Darvills Bookstore
— from Jill McCabe Johnson for Artsmith —
The annual Artsmith Artist Residency takes place this week at the Kangaroo House Bed and Breakfast, and book lovers will have the chance to hear the artists read plus see some artist books at Darvill’s Bookstore at 5:00 pm, Thursday, January 2.
Each year, the interdisciplinary residency awards up to five artists a week’s lodging in the inspiring setting of the San Juan Islands, so they have unfettered time to work on their respective arts. A peer review panel assesses applications, and this year four writers and one book artist from across the country received the coveted residency fellowships.
Writers Achy Abejas, Yvonne Garrett, Tina Schumann, and Penn Stewart will share works ranging from historical fiction to personal essays to narrative poetry, and Carrie L. Larson will share some of her artist books at this special Artsmith Salon Series event. The reading will be followed by a reception and book-signing, including light hors d’oeuvres.
About the Artists
ACHY OBEJAS is the author of the recent story collection, The Tower of the Antilles, the critically acclaimed novels Ruins, Days of Awe, and three other books of fiction. She edited and translated (into English) the anthology Havana Noir, and has since translated Junot Díaz, Rita Indiana, Wendy Guerra, and many others. In 2014, she was awarded a USA Ford Fellowship for her writing and translation. She currently serves as the Director of the MFA in Translation program at Mills College in Oakland, California.
YVONNE GARRETT holds an MFA in Fiction (The New School), an MA in Irish Studies (NYU), an MLIS (Palmer/LIU), an MA in Humanities & Social Thought (NYU), and a BA in English (Smith College). Her work has been published in Irish America, Alternative Press, Thrash Metal, and the Brooklyn Rail, among others. Her fifth poetry chapbook with Mary Ellen Sanger split open the sky came out in early 2016. She is currently pursuing a PhD at Drew University.
CARRIE L. LARSON, a visual artist currently based in Hoquiam, Washington, has always called the Northwest home. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1993 from Whitman College in Walla Walla, where she was privileged to study art under Keiko Hara. There she was introduced to Book Arts as a means of expression—a foundation that continues to influence the permutations of her art-making. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows locally and juried shows nationally, while her artist’s books are held in the library collections of Baylor, Indiana and Yale Universities. Carrie practices her calling from a tiny home studio and scoots out-of-doors whenever possible. She enjoys the company of books, her husband John, and a couple of cats, who like to investigate works in progress.
TINA SCHUMANN is the author of three poetry collections, As If (Parlor City Press, 2010) which was the recipient of the Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize, Requiem. A Patrimony of Fugues (Diode Editions, 2016) which won the Diode Editions Chapbook Contest for 2016, and Praising the Paradox (Red Hen Press, forthcoming 2019.) The anthology she curated and edited, Two Countries. U.S. Daughters and Sons of Immigrant Parents was released from Red Hen Press in the fall of 2017. Her work received the 2009 American Poet Prize from The American Poetry Journal, a pushcart nomination and finalist status in the 2013 Terrain.org Annual Poetry Contest, as well as honorable mention in The Atlantic 2008 poetry contest.
PENN STEWART is the author of the acclaimed novel, Fertile Ground, and his short stories, poetry, book reviews, photographs, and personal essays have appeared in such journals and magazines as Prairie Schooner, Pacifica Literary Review, Night Train, Word Riot, Two Hawks Quarterly, Rolling Thunder Quarterly, Front Porch Review, Dogzplot, Hippocampus Magazine, Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, Fresh Yarn, Ellipsis, and The Meadowland Review. He lives with his wife, two daughters, and a chocolate lab named Yoda in Wichita Falls, Texas where he teaches creative writing at Midwestern State University.
