Poetry Off The Page, a symposium at the University of Arizona Poetry Center will be held on May 18 – 20. If you register before April 18 you will be eligible for an early bird discounted rate.

It looks like a multi-media extravaganza of poetic storytelling. Here’s a description of events from their website:

More visceral than conceptual, this year’s symposium will gather poets for whom the stage and all of its demands, such as voice, projection, sound effects, lighting, body movement, acting, props, and image, all help create a new syntactic breadth for the poetic voice. These poets will be pressing into new territories in theater and song and film, performing, in many cases, original never-seen-before work for the Poetry Center.

Events will take place at the Poetry Center, MOCA Tucson, and The Rogue Theatre. Art exhibits, art installations, and library exhibits will be in display concurrently with the symposium.

There’s lots more going on at this exciting Tucson arts institution. Check out their Calendar of Events to see more.

Last night I squeezed into the presentation room at the University of Arizona Poetry Center to hear a fabulous reading from the anthology My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales. It was a great turnout, there were even people standing outside in the cold during the whole reading (I’m assuming there is a speaker out there.)

The event was moderated by the book’s editor, Kate Bernheimer. Bernheimer charmed the audience with her wit and candor and talked about the genesis of the book before she read her piece from the anthology. She was followed by authors Kathryn Davis, Lydia Millet, and Joy Williams each reading a work of their own including an original interpretation of the Russian classic Baba Yaga and an update of the Grimm Borthers’ Snow White and Red Rose. During the Q&A Bernheimer defined a fairy tale by saying, “when you hear it you know.”

The audience was asked what their favorite fairy tales were.  One person answered the Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde.  I didn’t know he wrote any so I looked up them up and you can read some at Art Passions.

The fairy tale lives again in these forty new stories by some of the biggest names in contemporary fiction:

Indibound (a website for independent bookstores) says, “Fairy tales are our oldest literary tradition, and yet they chart the imaginative frontiers of the twenty-first century as powerfully as they evoke our earliest encounters with literature. This exhilarating collection restores their place in the literary canon.”

Book readings, discussions, groups, meet-the-author events, Tucson is teeming with them. From Green Valley to Oro Valley, there are always lots of literary events for everyone.

Here’s a list gleaned from some online calendars (Examiner.com, Tucson Weekly, AZ Starnet). Make sure to get on the email lists for some or all of these venues so you don’t miss anything!

November 17, 2010

• 1 pm at Mission Library – Winter Reads: This month’s book is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout.
• 3 pm at Kirk-Bear Canyon Library – Dragonfly Book Club: This is a book club for ages 8 to 12.
• 6 pm Poetry Goes for a Hike and workshop with poets Wendy Burk and Eric Magrane at UA Poetry Center. Visit poetry.arizona.edu for more info.
• 7pm at Barnes & Noble Broadway – Contemporary Fiction Book Group: This month’s book is Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink.
• 7:30 at Casa Libre – The Edge Reading Series with Marianne Dissard, Kristi Maxwell and Lucy Simpson.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

• 9 am at UA Bookstore – UA Reads Kickoff Celebration
• 10 am at Oro Valley Library – Great Literature of All Times: This month’s book is The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• 12 pm at Joel D Valdez Main Library – This month’s book is The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.
• 2 pm at Tucson Medical Center Senior Services El Dorado Campus – I Love Books Book Club: This month’s book is The Shack by William P. Young.
• 2 pm at Nanini Library – Northwest Readers Book Club: This month’s book is Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.
• 4:30 pm at UA Bookstore – Meet author Dian Katz, PhD: This is an author event related to Win at Work!

Friday, November 19, 2010

• 8 am to 8 pm at UA Library Special Collections – 13th Annual Milton Marathon: This is a marathon reading of the book Paradise Lost by John Milton.
• 7 pm at Antigone Books – Gloria Feldt will read from and sign her book, No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power.

Saturday, November 20

• 10 am at El Parador restaurant – Saguaro Romance Writers featuring literary agent Susan Ginsburg.  Visit www.tucsonrwa.org for more info.
• 11 am at Bookmans Grant – Arlene Weintraub: author of Selling the Fountain of Youth, a book about the anti-aging industry.
• 1 pm at Mostly Books – This month’s fiction book discussion of The White Tiger.
• 2 pm at Mostly Books – Chris O’Dell author of Miss O’Dell: Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton.
• 5 pm at The Source Salon and Spa – Dawn Kulesa signs her new book Fitness Goddess Secrets: Real Women Share Tips for Healthy Living.
• 7:30 pm at 4133 E. Pima Street, Gallery of the Unexpected, poetry readings, film and multimedia performances plus food and drink.  480-390-1063 for more info.

Sunday, November 21

• 12 pm at Bookmans Grant – Nancy Rossman: A signing of her book First Love, Last Dance.
• 12 to 4:30 pm at Clues Unlimited – Mistletoe and Mystery: Three panels featuring different mystery writers including Susan Cummins Miller, Graham Brown, Jennifer Lee Carrell, Tony Hays, Betsy Thronton, Betty Webb, J.M. Hayes and Elizabeth Gunn.

Monday, November 22

• 3 pm at Joyner-Green Valley library, Yoga Book Group: yoga combined with book discussions