Good Thunder Reading Series announces its 2009-2010 season
Cited by the Minnesota Humanities Commission as "the premier small-town reading series in the country," Minnesota State University Mankato's Good Thunder Reading Series will host sixteen writers for eight residencies during its 28th year of continuous programming. Aimed at reflecting the diversity and vitality of contemporary writing, the series invites both emerging and established writers to Mankato to meet with community writers, be interviewed on public radio, lead discussions on the craft of writing, and read from their published works.
Fall semester kicks off September 17 with Ohio fiction and creative nonfiction writer Dinty W. Moore, to be followed in October by a poetry/jazz collaboration between St. Peter poet Philip Bryant and Boston-based composer and vocalist Carolyn Wilkins. Wisconsin fiction writer David McGlynn follows that visit, and in November MSU alumni poets Edward Micus, Connie Colwell Miller, and Christina Olson wrap up the fall offerings. Spring semester features MSU faculty writers Candace Black, Richard Robbins, and Roger Sheffer in January, and a four-day visit follows in February with Montana fiction writer Aryn Kyle. Eminent American poet Lucille Clifton is featured with poet Jorge Evans in March, and the series finishes off in April with a visit by Minnesota writers Alicia L. Conroy, George Rabasa, and Ka Vang.
All events except the evening event with Bryant and Wilkins are open to the public and will be held on the MSU campus in the Centennial Student Union. Most series guests will be interviewed on KMSU-FM 89.7 and have their discussions broadcast as part of the "Authors in Transit" series at 1:00 p.m. on the day of the event and 11:00 p.m. the Friday immediately following. Most talks, readings, and interviews will be archived on the series web site.
For more information about the series, go to www.english2.mnsu.edu/gt/.
Featured upcoming writer: Dinty W. Moore
Dinty W. Moore |
Thursday, September 17
Dinty W. Moore is the author of the memoir Between Panic & Desire and four other books. He has published essays and stories in The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, Harpers, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Gettysburg Review, Utne Reader, and CrazyHorse, and teaches in the creative nonfiction PhD program at Ohio University.
An interview with Moore, part of the “Authors in Transit” series on public-radio station KMSU 89.7 FM, will air on Thursday, September 17, at 1 p.m. and on Friday, September 18, at 11 a.m. |
Transparent Eyeball By Dinty W. Moore
TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) —Japanese scientists have succeeded in growing artificial eyeballs for the first time, Kyodo news agency said on Saturday.
Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, Makato Asashima cups a tadpole in his uncertain hands.
Just an hour earlier, the biologist determined that an artificial eyeball had indeed connected itself to this tadpole’s optic nerve, and now Asashima rushes blindly through his own front door, to show this odd miracle to his American wife.
"Ta da i ma," he announces. "I am home."
He blurts out the good news, forgetting to offer his wife a polite bow.
Emmie, holding a thick white towel, looks into her husband’s cupped hands, and after a moment asks, "Where is the other eye?"
"Here." Asashima, careful not to spill any of the small puddle of water that sustains the tadpole’s life, must point with his white-bearded chin. "Here it is."
"No," Emmie scolds. "The one he was born with?"
"We removed it." Asashima’s voice drops in volume. "For science."
"And where did this eye come from?"
"An embryo." His voice grows even softer. "From the cells of an embryo."
"And why did you do that?"
Now Asashima can barely speak. "I have created an eyeball, out of cells, Emmie. Embryonic cells. No one else has ever managed such a feat."
"Why would they?"
Asashima winces, then brushes past his wife, hurries to the back of the house, drops the creature and the remaining water into a small lacquered bowl.
Emmie follows, uses her towel to wipe a minor spill.
"The tadpole can see," Asashima pleads. "Do you understand? This tadpole with the artificial eye can see as well as you or I."
"Yes, love," Emmie answers. "You have blinded the tadpole, and now he can see. Are you happy now? Dinner is ready." |
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