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Book Release Party at The Loft Literary Center for Stark and Trujillo

1/15/2012

There will be a book release party for Christine Stark (Nickels: A Tale of Dissociation) and Olga Trujillo (Sum of My Parts: A Survivor's Story of Dissociative Identity Disorder) at The Loft Literary Center, 1101 Washington Ave South, Minneapolis this Wednesday, Jan. 18, at 7 p.m.

I love living in fly-over country most of the time, but sometimes I wish we didn't live a three-hour drive from the Twin Cities. I'd like to attend Christine's and Olga's book release party at The Loft. So if you live in or near the Cities, go in my place.

And if you live in or near Marshall, please plan to join us at Southwest Minnesota State University on Monday, Jan. 23, 7 p.m., CH 201, for Christine's reading from her new novel, Nickels. I met Christine in graduate school at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where we became friends. From the start, she inspired me as a writer. Now as I read her novel, told in a series of prose poems, I'm enthralled by the characters she's created, by the tale Little Miss So and So is telling, and by the heartbreaking and vivid world that has pulled me in. If you can't attend the reading, I encourage you to read the book and share it with others.

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Writer Christine Stark to Read at SMSU on Jan. 23

1/6/2012

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Here's an article below reprinted from SMSU Today. I hope you'll be able to join us for Christine's reading on the 23rd, which is being hosted by SMSU's Creative Writing Program and the New Horizons Crisis Center. It is free and open to the public. And if you're not able to attend, I urge you to read this beautiful, heartbreaking, triumphant novel (see below) and share it widely.
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Writer Christine Stark will read from her debut novel, Nickels: A Tale of Dissociation, at 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23 in Charter Hall 201.

Stark wears many hats. Besides being an award-winning writer and visual artist, she is also a public speaker and advocate for the sexually abused. Her fiction, poetry and nonfiction have been published in a variety of periodicals and anthologies, including the University of Pennsylvania Law Review; Poetry Motel; Feminist Studies; Birthed from Scorched Hearts; The Progressive Woman’s Magazine; Hawk and Handsaw; Journal of Creative Sustainability; Narratives of Modern Slavery; Woman and Earth: An Almanac in Russian and English; and many others.

She is a coauthor of the groundbreaking research entitled “Garden of Truth: The Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota.” She is also a coauthor (with Rebecca Whisnant) of Not for Sale, an international anthology about sexual violence.

Stark has won numerous awards for her writing, including a Pushcart nomination, a McKnight Award and a Loft Mentor Series in creative nonfiction. She has also won a McKnight Award for her visual art. She lives in Minneapolis with her partner and teaches writing at Metropolitan State University in the Twin Cities.

Nickels: A Tale of Dissociation follows a biracial girl named Little Miss So and So from age 4 into adulthood. Told in a series of prose poems, Nickels’ lyrical and inventive language conveys the dissociation states born of a world formed by persistent and brutal incest and homophobia. The dissociative states enable the child’s survival and, ultimately, the adult’s healing. The content is both heartbreaking and triumphant. For further information, call 507-537-7251.

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Yesterday an article by Kathleen Barry, professor emerita of Penn State University, entitled "Sexual Politics at Penn State--An Inside Look" published on The Women's Media Center website, referred to Christine's novel Nickels:

"To break through the mainstream media’s problematic language and get a sense of the depth of harm the victim experiences in sexual abuse, I suggest reading Christine Stark’s new novel, Nickels: A Tale of Dissociation. The author, also a poet and visual artist, manages to bring the experience of sexual abuse into a present moment reality through the first-person narrative of Little Miss So and So, from age five to twenty-five, from surviving her father’s sexual abuse at various ages to a world of support created by feminists and lesbians.

"Since feminism broke open this best kept secret decades ago, we have been heartbroken and angered by the testimony and memoirs of women who as children fell victim to a father, stepfather, grandfather or uncle. The effects could be so severe that memory might not contain it—until some experience in adulthood provides the trigger and floods of anguish take over. So the story, Nickels, is not new. But Christine Stark has chosen a style and genre—a stream of consciousness novel—that keeps Little Miss So and So in the present tense.

"Her reality is not segmented into sentences or paragraphs; its monologue is born in experience and expressed in a voice authentic to her heroine at various ages. Nothing could bring her reality—the abuse, the doctors, the courts, her escape, breakdown and recovery—closer to our consciousness. The author knows something about survival, about putting one foot in front of the other to move through a situation we are never meant to experience. Little Miss So and So’s present moments yield immediately to new present moments that the reader cannot escape; yet the pace is fast enough to relieve us of the need to “get through it.”

"This book and its empathetic engagement will be a treasure to anyone working with victims of sexual abuse. And if we want to truly understand the failure in the Penn State scandal, we will look closely to its victims."

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I hope to see you on Jan. 23rd for what I know will be a phenomenal evening.

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SMSU Poetry Slam on Jan. 5

1/3/2012

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Happy New Year! I hope your year is off to a bright, warm start.

My holiday break was filled to the brim with friends and family, great food, and lots of reading. Now I'm re-charged to begin the spring semester teaching writing at SMSU.

To get 2012 rolling on a creative high note, plan to stop by the SMSU Poetry Slam hosted by Nick White, a creative writing major at SMSU, this Thursday, Jan. 5, 7:30 p.m. at The Daily Grind, 316 W. Main Street, Marshall, Minnesota.

Last semester when Nick initiated the Poetry Slam nights at The Daily Grind, he packed the seats by featuring talented student slam poets and by opening the mic to student poets ready to go public with their work. I hope to see you there on Thursday either as a performer or audience member. Thank you for supporting the arts and joining the big dance!

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Book Release Party at The Loft Literary Center for Stark and Trujillo

Writer Christine Stark to Read at SMSU on Jan. 23

SMSU Poetry Slam on Jan. 5

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Book Release Party at The Loft Literary Center for Stark and Trujillo

Writer Christine Stark to Read at SMSU on Jan. 23

SMSU Poetry Slam on Jan. 5

Author

Archives

BlogrollArts BeatA Year of Being HereBearded VeganBecky's BlogBetter World BooksBirth Breasts and BeyondCarrie EtterChristine Stewart-NunezDana YostHeroic Yes! ProductionsJames A. ZarzanaLanding on Cloudy WaterNicole HelgetNo Ideas But in ThingsStory GuruThe Marsco SagaWrite Right

Categories

Blogroll
Arts Beat
A Year of Being Here
Bearded Vegan
Becky's Blog
Better World Books
Birth Breasts and Beyond
Carrie Etter
Christine Stewart-Nunez
Dana Yost
Heroic Yes! Productions
James A. Zarzana
Landing on Cloudy Water
Nicole Helget
No Ideas But in Things
Story Guru
The Marsco Saga
Write Right