‘Wanderings’ writer Meyer opens GU visiting author series
Kimberly Meyer, nonfiction writer and contributor to the radio program “This American Life,” will be in Spokane this week as the first author in the Gonzaga University Visiting Writers Series for 2015-16.
Meyer’s most recent work, “The Book of Wanderings,” centers on her own real-life travels with her eldest daughter as they followed the route of medieval friar Felix Fabri through Italy, Greece, Israel and Egypt. It’s a book getting much good buzz. As USA Today said in its review back in March: “The arduousness and soul-baring nature of the long journey seems to have stripped her down to her essence, and she is able to confidently experience and tell the story in her own words, excellently, compellingly.”
Meyer, who teaches in the Honors College at the University of Houston in Texas, also has had her works appear in “The Best American Travel Writing 2012,” the Southern Review, the Kenyon Review, Ecotone, Third Coast and Ploughshares, among other journals.
She will be speaking at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Globe Room of Cataldo Hall on the GU campus. Admission is free.
Hear her radio essay for “The American Life,” called “Scrapbook, the Verb,” on her website, www.kimberlyerinmeyer.com/ audiodocumentary/.
Mark your calendars
Bedtime Stories, the annual fall fundraiser for Humanities Washington, has set its lineup for 2015.
This year, Spokane novelists Sam Ligon, Kris Dinnison, Jess Walter and Sharma Shields will read original short works of fiction inspired by the theme “A Hard Day’s Night.” KSPS Public Television general manager Gary Stokes will serve as the evening’s emcee.
Dinnison is a first-time author; her debut young adult novel “You and Me and Him” came out this summer. Shields’ debut novel, “The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac,” was released in early 2015. Ligon, who teaches in the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University, has a new novel, “Among the Dead and Dreaming,” set to come out next year. Walter, a National Book Award finalist for “The Zero,” has published six novels, a short story collection and a book of nonfiction. He co-hosts the podcast “A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment” with his friend, Sherman Alexie.
The event, held at the Spokane Club, 1002 W. Riverside Ave., will be on Oct. 23. Individual tickets are $75, available at humanities.org/BTSspokane. Hosted and sponsored tables are available, too. Call (206) 682-1770, ext. 104, for details.
Mark your calendars, the sequel
Shann Ray will celebrate the launch of his debut novel, “American Copper” with a reading on Nov. 10 at the Bing Crosby Theater. Joining him will be his friend, Sherman Alexie.
Ray, who teaches at Gonzaga University under his given name, Shann Ferch, is the author of the award-winning short story collection “American Masculine.”
“American Copper,” set to be released by Unbridled Books, centers on Eve, the daughter of one of Montana’s copper kings. Her story intertwines with that of a Cheyenne Indian man descended from Black Kettle, chief of the Cheyenne at the time of the Sand Creek Massacre, and a taciturn behemoth named Zion, who is better with horses than he is with women.
The reading will be free and beings at 7 p.m. For details, visit the event page on Facebook.