John Straley Podcast

The archived audio from John Straley’s January visit to the Juneau Public Libraries is now available as a two part podcast at JPL Podcasts.  Take a listen and don’t miss out on future library podcasts, subscribe to JPL Podcasts.

Ludlow

Ludlow, by poet David Mason is an enchanting and hypnotic retelling of the 1914 Ludlow Massacre in which striking coal workers, just beginning to organize under the guidance of the U.M.W. were attacked and slaughtered by mine guards and militia soldiers led by General John Chase.  Mason’s retelling uses narrative verse which one might find awkward at first but soon fall into it’s rhythms. In a landscape of canyons and buttes, the south Colorado coal country comes alive through the diverse cast of mine workers who work the earth.  Led by the Greek, Ilias Spantidakis, rechristened Luis Tikas, the lives of Mexican, Sicilian, Japanese, Slavic and Italian mine workers are changed forever by the courage of a few men.

If you appreciate new literary forms, be sure to check this out as I don’t believe there has been much like it since the great narrative works of Homer.

John Straley to visit JPL

John Straley, Alaska Writer Laureate from 2006-2008, will join us at the Downtown Library, Saturday January 24th at 7pm as part of a 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Downtown Library Facility. Straley will read from and discuss his two latest works, The Big Both Ways (Novel) and the poetry collection, The Rising and the Rain.  A short Q&A and book signing will follow and copies of both books will be available for purchase. For more information call Jonas: 586-0436 or Carol: 586-0434

To get a taste for what’s to come here are a few links to great podcasts available through, our sisters site; JPL Podcasts,  The University of Alaska Podcasts and the interview show, It’s A Mystery.

The Rising and the Rain: an excerpt from the title poem of Straley’s first collection of poems.

What is This Thing Called Voice?

Straley leads a panel discussion at the Kachemak Bay Writer’s Conference in Homer, AK in June 2008.

Gray Area:  Liars, Storytellers and Private Detectives

Recorded on October 17, 2008, at the Alaska Visionaries, Seekers, Leaders and Dreamers conference presented by the Alaska Historical Society and the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Elizabeth Foxwell speaks with John Straley

From the interview program It’s A Mystery, Straley talks about the influence of Theodore Roethke and other aspects of his “Alaska noir” mysteries with PI Cecil Younger. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the mp3 file.

Immigrant Tales

A sampling of stories from the literary world in celebration of those who braved the unknown, left behind beloved homes in order to seek better opportunity or at least, to survive.

Kim Masters shared a terrific essay on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday about her family’s roots in Czechoslovakia and the influence one young British man had in assuring the survival of so many Czech children in the days leading up to the Holocaust. Read and listen to her essay Finding A Hero Amid Fading Memories.

Following this moving segment by Masters, Scott Simon sat down to speak with Romanian musician, Sanda Weigl to discuss moving to East Berlin days before the Berlin Wall, her time in a forced labor factory and finally finding home in New York City. The segment features Weigl’s music, rich in Gypsy influence, which she regularly performs in cabaret’s backed by a three piece all Japanese trio, dubbed, “the band” who, insists Wiegle, “play Romanian gypsy music better than most Romanian musicians today”.

Both stories got me thinking about my Grandparents, who immigrated to New York from Lithuania in 1949 following years of hiding throughout Germany, passing as Germans. My Grandparent’s versions of history always challenged my perceptions as in their experiences, it was the kindness of the Germans in the face of a Russian invasion which allowed for their safe departure from Lithuania and eventually to the U.S. I came across a terrifc documentary, Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness, which chronicles the bravery of a Japanese consul in Lithuania in during the war, who helped many Lithuanian-Jews obtain exit visas. William Kaplan’s , One More Border: the true story of one family’s escape from war torn Europe is a beautifully illustrated (Shelley Tanaka) account of his father’s esape from Lithuania is an excellent and historically accurate telling of the story for younger readers.

For a wide sampling of the immigrant experience try a few of the following.

Crossing into America: the new literature of immigration which I tracked down in order to read Li-Young Lee’s, The Cleaving which is featured in the collection. Lee will be the keynote speaker at the 2009 Kachemak Bay Writer’s Conference and I’ve been eagerly devouring his unique brand of poetry.

In the July/August issue of Orion Magazine, Charles Bowdan and Julian Cardona’s, Exodus, a cross-border look at the latest wave of immigration from Mexico will leave you reeling in the unstoppable power of the current of this economics of survival situation.