Accent on Facebook

Thanks to Byron, our erstwhile marketing genius, Accent on Books now has a Facebook page! So if you are a member of Facebook, drop by our page, get the latest scoop on what's happening with us, and consider becoming a Fan. And if you're not yet a Facebook member (a Facebookie?) maybe here's a reason to become one.

After all, we'd love to have a lot of fans. It can get surprisingly hot in the mountains in August. (Sorry.)

Hope Through Literacy in the Palestinian Territories

The Astrid Lindgren Prize was set up by the Swedish government to promote children's literature and children's cultural rights. It is the world's richest children's literature prize and has been awarded since 2003 to individuals such as Maurice Sendak, Philip Pullman and Katherine Paterson.

This year, for only the second time, the recipient was an organization: The Tamer Institute for Community Education. Founded in 1989 during the first Palestinian intifada, the Tamer Institute works to promote reading, writing and literacy among children in the West Bank and Gaza, especially in those areas where access to formal education has been curtailed. According to a statement on their website, the institute's "philosophy is centered on the idea that learning environments for children and young people can only be created among youth who are encouraged to read, write and participate in dialogue while working in small groups united by a common dream and joint aspirations." The Lindgren judges praised the group's "perseverance, audacity and resourcefulness."

More can be found here

Friday, 3/27, at Accent on Books: Cheri Jones

The power of poetry to explore areas of thought and experience that prose cannot touch is obviously something Cheri Jones understands well. This is clearly shown by her new book, Chains, which Jones will be presenting at Accent on Books this coming Friday beginning at 6:00 PM.

Chains is an appropriate title for this sequence of poems which portrays several generations of a family struggling with and against each other, bound as they are by chains of love and hate, kinship and madness. Although the characters are fictitious, the book is illustrated with photographs which add a powerful dimension.

Cheri Jones will be introduced Friday night by another acclaimed local poet, Marijo Moore. We hope you'll be able to join them for this special event at Accent on Books.

"To show my disdain for your policies, I shall read a 17-century French novel!"

When it comes to areas such as politics and literature, the French are sometimes just a bit different. A recent example is an increasingly popular way to express opposition to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Rather than taking to the streets with torches and pitchforks, President Sarkozy's disenchanted constituents are buying and reading copies of La Princesse de Cleves, a novel published anonymously in 1678, that's generally held to be the work of one Madame de La Fayette. A novel of romantic intrigue amongst the royalty, it is considered to be of great historic importance; however, Sarkozy has over the years repeatedly expressed his dislike of it and his opinion that "knowledge of is was not useful."

Sarkozy's bad reviews have now made this novel all the rage in France. According to The Telegraph, badges with the slogan, "I am reading La Princesse de Cleves," quickly sold out at the recent Paris book fair, and public readings of the book have been taking place at various locations including the Sorbonne.

While Accent on Books takes no official stance on the policies of the French President, we will be happy to order La Princesse de Cleves, for anyone who wants a copy. Paperback editions, in English translation, are available from both Oxford World Classics and Penguin Classics. However, last I checked, both editions, interestingly enough, were temporarily out of stock.

Friday, 3/20, at Accent on Books: Flatiron Writers

The Flatiron Building in downtown Asheville has been an architectural landmark since the 1920's. Since the 1990's it's also become a kind of literary landmark as the meeting place of the Flatiron Writers, a group of writers who have supported, encouraged and critiqued one another as they have developed their skills and polished their manuscripts.

Now, thanks to a Regional Artist Project Grant, three members of the group have had their work published. The volume is called, appropriately enough, Irons in the Fire, and the Flatiron Writers will be at Accent on Books this coming Friday, beginning at 6:00 PM, to talk about their work and sign copies of the book. The three writers are Geneve Bacon, Toby Heaton, and Heather Newton, and the short novels that each have written for this collection range widely in theme and subject matter. Their success is yet another indication of the rich collection of literary talent that can be found in Asheville and Western North Carolina, and we hope you can join us to congratulate them on their accomplishments.

More information about all our events at Accent on Books can be found at our website.

NBCC Awards

The last twelve months have not been the most encouraging of times for the 900 or so members of the National Book Critics Circle. As newspapers across the country have been reducing in size and laying off personnel in response to the internet and the faltering economy, book sections have often been among the first casualties, the latest major blow being the disappearance last month of the Washington Post Book World. Of course there are still many outlets for book criticism, in magazines as well as the aforementioned internet. However, there is a sense that the disappearance of book review sections from major newspapers reflects a change to our nation's literary culture which might not be positive.

Despite the gloom, there was still a sense of celebration when the Book Critics Circle presented its annual awards last week. While these honors might not garner quite the publicity of the Pulitzer Prizes or the National Book Awards, they still carry significant prestige and can often help little known books and authors find wider audiences. This year, for the first -- and, according to the organization, the last -- time there were two winners in the poetry category.

This year's winners:

Fiction: 2666, by Roberto Bolano
General Nonfiction: The Forever War, by Dexter Filkins
Biography: The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul, by Patrick French
Autobiography: My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq, by Ariel Sabar
Poetry: Half the World in Light, by Juan Felipe Herrera, and Sleeping It Off in Rapid City, by August Kleinzahler
Criticism: Children's Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter, by Seth Lerer

More about the NBCC and the winning books can be found at the organization's website.

A Series of Fortunate Bedtime Stories

As we all know, it is A Good Thing To Read To Your Children. But what if Junior's bedtime has arrived and you don't feel like reading (or reciting) Goodnight Moon or Where The Wild Things Are for the umpteenth time? Well, you could always make up a story on your own. And here's some advice for doing so from the world's most dyspeptic children's author, Lemony Snicket, author of the Series of Unfortunate Events books:

1. Ask your child what the title should be. This stalls for time and spreads the blame if the story's no good.
2. Name the villains after people who wronged you in high school.
3. When you get stuck, remember Raymond Chandler's advice: "When in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns." The bedtime equivalent is a clumsy talking animal holding a tray of cream pies.
4. At the end of the story, all of the characters should be very, very tired.
5. Don't bring your cocktail, because you might accidentally leave it and wake your child when you sneak back to retrieve it. Alternately, you may forget about it entirely and three days later someone will find a warm martini on you child's dresser.

Thanks to the hipness website "Daily Candy" and the New Yorker blog "Book Bench" for conveying these rules to grateful parents everywhere. By the way, Mr. Snicket has a new book out entitled, The Composer Is Dead, and it's available at Accent on Books.