Will you be oneof the 5000 writers at the AWP conference in Chicago next week? If so, and you have the chance, please come by to see me during one of my events. There's an unconfirmed rumor that there may be Polish vodka at the Friday afternoon reading....
Thursday, February 12, 2009
1:30 pm – 2:30 p.m.
Book signing
Book Fair, AWP conference
Converse College table
Update: Table #731, Southwest Hall, Lower Level
Hilton Chicago
720 South Michigan Avenue
Come say hi during my book signing—I’ll entertain you with more stories of the wonderful Converse College dining hall food!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
The Polish Museum of America
The Great Hall
984 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL
There is free parking to the west of the building. The Museum can also be reached by the 56 Milwaukee Ave. bus (Augusta stop) or the blue line (three long blocks from either the Division or Chicago Avenue stops. A small donation is requested.
Five Polish-American writers (see below) read and discuss how they have been shaped by the culture of the midwest and the culture of Poland.
Friday, February 13, 2009
4:30 pm-5:45 pm
Hilton Chicago
720 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605
Ontario Room, 8th Floor
The Country They Come From: Polish-American Writers Read about the Midwest and Poland. (John Guzlowski, Anthony Bukoski, Linda Foster, John Minczeski, Leslie Pietrzyk) Polish-American writers have been writing in and about the Midwest for a 150 years. They have written novels, travel narratives, poems, songs and memoirs that commemorate the Midwest while memorializing the country these writers or their ancestors came from. Five recent Polish-American writers will demonstrate that this tradition is very much alive and vital. Free.
Sponsored by the AWP Writing Conference.
And here is some additional information about my distinguished co-panelists:
Poet Linda Nemec Foster writes about the search for Polish roots and her travels to Poland to discover what parts of her identity were formed there. Short story writer Anthony Bukoski writes about the disappearing communities of Poles in northern Wisconsin, and their interaction with successive waves of post WWII and post Soviet Poles. Poet John Minczeski’s most recent book tries to put the essentials of Polish identity within the context of Western culture. Novelist Leslie Pietrzyk (Iowa) writes about the tension between older immigrants and their children and grandchildren growing up. Poet John Guzlowski, a Polish immigrant writes about what brought his family to America and how his Polish parents struggled to maintain their Polish identity within a melting-pot culture.