BOOKPATHS

Ukraine

What’s On: Your No. 1 Guide to Kyiv offers a guide to “Gogol’s Ukraine.”

Though the grotesque, earthy, and life affirming tales of Nikolai Gogol were written is St. Petersburg, they were very much a product of his native Poltava, with the legends, language, sights, sounds, and smells of his native land inspiring him to produce such classics as ‘Tales From a Farm Near Dikanka’, which would change the nature of Russian literature forever. – from What’s On Website

Berlin, Germany

Nicholas Kulish explores Berlin’s literary scene.

Wit and wordplay are a native sport, and locals turn out in force at readings big and small, from the stately Literaturhaus in Charlottenburg in the west to the bare concrete and benches at the RAW-tempel — where the Chaussee der Enthusiasten reading took place — in the former railyard where the former Reichsbahn used to fix up its trains in Friedrichshain in the former east. – from “In Berlin, Authors Find Their Voice,” by Nicholas Kulish, The New York Times

Russia; Ukraine

Tom Parfitt writes about the rivalry between Russia and Ukraine over Nikolai Gogol.

First, it was politics, then it was gas. Now the protracted antagonism between Russia and Ukraine is taking on a literary tinge, as the bickering neighbours vie for the legacy of Nikolai Gogol on the 200th anniversary of his birth. – Tom Parfitt, The Guardian

Venice, Italy

Matthew Hoffman goes in search of “one of the most famous fictional inhabitants of Venice…Donna Leon’s dogged investigator Commissario Brunetti.”

But perhaps the detective most associated with a particular city in our times is Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti, whose local beat is the mysterious lagoon city of Venice. When I was first beginning to explore this maze of a place, I planned excursions to discover the locations of Brunetti's apartment, the main police station (the Questura), his favourite bars, and other sites that had caught my interest from reading about his work. I was once rewarded, while watching from a bridge, by seeing a police boat arrive with a handcuffed suspect whom they were delivering to what I took to be Brunetti's office. (I didn't realise that the real Questura had moved years previously to the unromantic precincts of the bus terminal, and the old Questura in Castello reduced to a local station.) – Matthew Hoffman, The Independent

San Francisco, California, U.S.

Heidi Benson interviews Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Q: When you were named San Francisco's first poet laureate in 1998, you spoke of the damage to the culture caused by the yawning gap between the city's rich and poor. Have your worst fears been borne out?

A: When I arrived in the city, the citizens seemed to have an island, considering San Francisco a kind of offshore republic, founded by gold miners and gold diggers, cast-off seamen and vagabonds, railroad barons and rogue adventurers and ladies of fortune. What with the electronic revolution and the Information Age, we have joined the rest of the world.

Oldies such as myself talk about the good old days with nostalgia since that was when they were young and beautiful (and full of testosterone).  – from “Catching Up with Lawrence Ferlinghetti,” by Heidi Benson, San Francisco Chronicle

Born on March 31st

René Descartes
1596 in La Haye, Touraine, France

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Andrew Marvell
1621 in Winestead, Yorkshire, England

Edward FitzGerald
1809 in Bredfield, Suffolk, England

Nikolay Gogol
1809 in Sorochintsy, Ukraine, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)

Gogol’s Ukraine (What’s On Guide to Kyiv)

Andrew Lang
1844 in Selkirk, Selkirkshire, Scotland

Octavio Paz
1914 in Mexico City, D.F., Mexico

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1990

Octavio Paz Society

Maria Lang
1914 in Västerås, Sweden

John Fowles
1926 in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England

Cesar Chavez
1927 in Yuma, Arizona, USA

The Cesar E. Chavez Foundation

United Farm Workers

PBS – The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers’ Struggle

Nichita Stanescu
1933 in Ploiesti, Romania

Judith Rossner
1935 in New York, New York, USA

Marge Piercy
1936 in Detroit, Michigan, USA

Marge Piercy Website

Al Gore
1948 in Washington, D.C., USA

Al Gore Website

Point Lobos State Reserve, Carmel, California, U.S.

Richard B. Woodward follows in the footsteps of Edward Weston.

One exception to this biographic amnesia, and a worthy candidate for a plaque from the National Register of Historic Places, is Edward Weston’s house on the Monterey Peninsula. If American modernist photography can be said to have a spiritual birthplace that can still be visited, it’s his home on Wildcat Hill in Carmel Highlands where he lived off and on from 1938 until his death in 1958. Many of the Weston photographs that now sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars were printed here. What’s more, his commanding series of seascapes and landscapes were taken only a few miles from the front door, at what is now the Point Lobos State Reserve. – from “In Point Lobos, Where Edward Weston Saw the World Anew,” by Richard B. Woodward, The New York Times

Related Website
Point Lobos State Reserve

Born on March 30th

Sir Henry Wotton
1568 in Boughton Malherbe, Kent, England

Sir John Hawkins
1719 in London, England

Anna Sewell
1820 in Yarmouth, Norfolk, England

Literary Norfolk

Paul Verlaine
1844 in Metz, France

Vincent van Gogh
1853 in Zundert, Netherlands

van Gogh Museum Amsterdam

Sean O'Casey
1880 in Dublin, Ireland

Erwin Panofsky
1892 in Hannover, Germany

Erwin Panofsky Papers, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

Jean Giono
1895 in Manosque, France

Centre Jean Giono, Manosque, France

Jean Giono and Manosque

Countee Cullen
1903 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Sir Ernst Gombrich
1909 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)

The Gombrich Archive

Milton Acorn
1923 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Tom Sharpe
1928 in London, England

Ted Morgan
1932 in Geneva, Switzerland

First signs of spring.  Thaw.  The air smells of buttered pancakes and vodka, as at Shrovetide.  A sleepy, oily sun blinking in the forest, sleepy pines blinking their needles like eyelashes, oily puddles glistening at noon.  The countryside yawns, stretches, turns over, and goes back to sleep. -- from Dr. Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak

April 2009 Literary Events

To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company. -- Andre Gide

World

International Children's Book Day
April 2, 2008
http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=269

Since 1967, on or around Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday, 2 April, International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children’s books.

Argentina

Buenos Aires International Book Fair
April 23-May 11, 2009
Buenos Aires
http://www.el-libro.org.ar/

England

The London Book Fair
April 20-22, 2009
Earls Court, London
http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/

Scarborough Literature Festival
April 23-26, 2009
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
http://www.scarboroughliteraturefestival.co.uk/

Hungary

16th International Book Festival Budapest
April 23-26, 2009
Budapest
http://www.bookfestival.hu/index3a.html

International Book Festival Budapest held for the  16th time in 2009 is a recognized event of the international world of books, as one of the important professional and intellectual forums of the region.

Ireland

The 24th Cúirt International Festival of Literature
April 21-26, 2009
Galway
http://www.galwayartscentre.ie/cuirt/literature.html

Malaysia

Kuala Lampur International Book Fair
April 17-26, 2009
Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur
http://klbookfair.com/index.php/

Organized by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia, KLIBF 2009 is a major event in the global publishing calendar. Now in its 28th year, KLIBF provides the only opportunity in to network and meet with the local and international publishing community.

United States

National Library Week
April 12-18, 2009
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/pio/natlibraryweek/nlw.cfm

National Library Week 2009 will be celebrated with the theme, 'Worlds connect @ your library.'

National Poetry Month
http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41

Alabama

Alabama Book Festival
April 18, 2009
Montgomery
http://www.alabamabookcenter.org/

Arizona

Northern Arizona Book Festival
April 24-26, 2009
Flagstaff
http://www.nazbookfest.com/

What began as a moment of love and pure vision among local lovers of books evolved into a large-scale event of international regard within the lively culture of contemporary literature.

Enjoy what has been called the 'premier cultural event of the Northland' as well as the 'single greatest reason to live in Flagstaff!'

Arkansas

Arkansas Literary Festival
April 16-19, 2009
Little Rock
http://www.arkansasliteraryfestival.org/

California

Saroyan Town Walk
Fresno
April 18
http://www.williamsaroyansociety.org/index.html

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
April 25-26, 2009
UCLA Campus, Los Angeles
http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/

Welcome to the 14th Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the country’s largest celebration of the written word.

Connecticut

Connecticut Storytelling Festival
April 24-26, 2009
New London
http://www.connstorycenter.org/festival.html

Florida

Tampa-Hillsborough County Storytelling Festival
April 18, 2009
Tampa
http://www.tampastory.org/

Kansas

William Inge Theatre Festival
April 22-25, 2009
Independence
http://www.ingecenter.org/ingefestival.html

Our 2009 honorees are Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, the legendary creators of the longest-running musical in American history, The Fantasticks, as well as I Do! I Do!, 110 in the Shade, Celebration, and many other shows. Our Otis Guernsey New Voices playwright winner is Carlos Murillo.

Kentucky

Southern Kentucky Book Fest
April 18, 2009
Sloan Convention Center, Bowling Green, Kentucky
http://www.sokybookfest.org/

The Southern Kentucky Book Fest is the state's largest literary event and is presented by WKU Libraries, Bowling Green Public Library, and Barnes and Noble Booksellers. Held annually during National Library Week, the Book Fest draws thousands of readers of all ages who welcome the occasion to meet their favorite authors.

Maryland

Bethesda Literary Festival
April 17-29, 2009
Bethesda
http://www.bethesda.org/specialevents/litfest/litfest.htm

Annapolis Book Festival
April 18, 2009
At the Key School, Annapolis
http://www.keyschool.net/key_community/festival09.asp

Now in its seventh year, the Annapolis Book Festival on April 18, 2009 is an interactive, intergenerational celebration of the written word, fostering a love of literacy and learning in Anne Arundel County. Nationally-known authors will be on hand to speak about and sign their books.

Massachusetts

Newburyport Literary Festival
April 24-29, 2009
Newburyport
http://www.newburyportliteraryfestival.org/

Our 4th annual Newburyport Literary Festival, Getting the Word Out, will be held April 24-25, 2009 in venues throughout Newburyport's historic downtown.

Mississippi

Eudora Welty (1909-2009) Centennial – List of Events
http://www.eudorawelty.org/shop.html

The Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival
April 1-3, 2009
The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg
http://www.usm.edu/bookfest/

We invite you to help us celebrate 42 years of promoting excellence in children's literature. Our featured guest is the latest Southern Miss Medallion winner, Judy Blume.

New Mexico

18th Albuquerque Antiquarian Book Fair
April 3-4, 2009
Albuquerque
http://www.unm.edu/~alshal/aabf.htm

The 15th Annual Border Book Festival
April 17-19, 2009
Mesilla
http://www.borderbookfestival.org/

The Border Book Festival, Inc. (BBF) will celebrate its 15th anniversary festival, ¡15! with some interesting changes.  Elements of the traditional coming of age tradition, the Quinceañera, will highlight festival events and offer a look at the last 15 festival years.  Over 3,500 artists have been a part of this longest running book festival in New Mexico since its inception in 1995.

New York

New York Antiquarian Book Fair
April 3-5, 2009
The Park Avenue Armory, New York City
http://sanfordsmith.com/bookfair.html

PEN World Voices
“Evolution/Revolution”
April 27-May 3, 2009
New York City
http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1096

The PEN World Voices festival of International Literature will bring together more than 160 writers from across the globe for an exciting week of cross-cultural literary exchange,  April 27–May 3, 2009.

Pennsylvania

Free Library Festival
April 18-19
Parkway Central Library
http://libwww.freelibrary.org/bookfestival/

Join us at the Parkway Central Library for two days full of stimulating talks by award-winning writers, live music, children’s entertainment, and a bustling literary marketplace thronged with booklovers and booksellers

South Carolina

Clemson Literary Festival
April 2-4
Clemson University, Clemson
http://www.myspace.com/clemsonliteraryfestival

The 2009 Clemson Literary Festival has partnered with Clemson University’s Presidential Colloquium to present a three-day festival, featuring readings by poets and fiction writers from across the country at various downtown Clemson locations, a book fair in Hendrix Student Center, panel discussions at McKissick Theater, and two children’s literature events at The Arts Center (city of Clemson).

A[ugusta] Baker's Dozen - A Celebration of Stories Festival
Columbia
April 24-25, 2008
http://www.myrcpl.com/news/augusta-baker%E2%80%99s-dozen-set-april-24-25

This event honors nationally-known author and storyteller Augusta Baker and continues her legacy of inspiring others to introduce children to the magic of literature and stories.

Tennessee

15th Biennial Conference on Southern Literature
Chattanooga
April 2-4
http://southernlitconference.org/

The AEC Conference on Southern Literature returns for its 15th biennial celebration on April 2-4, 2009, in beautiful Chattanooga, Tennessee. Recently described as "the leading literary event in the South," by literary critic Louis D. Rubin, Jr., the AEC Conference attracts over 1,000 readers and writers from all over the United States.

Texas

The International Edible Book Festival
April 1
University of Texas’ Collections Deposit Library
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~ebf/

Join local book enthusiasts and food lovers for an afternoon of fun, edible books!

Wisconsin

Fox Cities Book Festival
April 14-19
Appleton and elsewhere
http://www.focol.org/bookfest/index.asp

Read books. They are good for us. -- Natalie Goldberg