In 2019, CJ Hauser’s Paris Review essay about calling off their wedding went about as viral as a literary essay can possibly go. Though Hauser had been primarily a fiction writer, the essay’s success resulted in a nonfiction book deal, and, happily, we now have the brilliant memoir-in-essays The Crane Wife.

I love and admire this collection. In many of the essays, Hauser deconstructs a familiar pop-culture text—Katherine Hepburn’s iconic film The Philadelphia Story, a William Carlos Williams poem, The Wizard of Oz—re-examining the myths about desire it offers. Frank and funny, the book is about love, and also, as New York Times columnist Jennifer Senior writes, “about the power of stories: The ones we are told versus the ones we tell ourselves; how they shape and misshape our expectations; how those stories can both affirm our instincts and estrange us from our deepest yearnings, sometimes at the same time.” 

CJ and I will be discussing The Crane Wife—which was a Guardian “Best Book of the Year” and a Lambda Literary Award finalist—at the Academy Art Museum on October 13. Register via AAM’s website to save your seat! 

What I’m Reading: 

Stay True by Hua Hsu. Hsu, a loner at UC Berkeley, becomes unlikely friends with Ken, a gregarious frat boy who is also Asian American, and who is senselessly killed in a carjacking. Two decades later, the New Yorker staff writer reflects on the ways Ken’s friendship and death shaped Hsu’s own identity. This exquisite memoir was in my TBR pile for almost a year before I finally got to it. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long. 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Jackson wanted this to be “the kind of novel you really can’t read alone in a dark house at night.” While I’m usually a big baby when it comes to scary stories, I was intrigued by CJ Hauser’s essay about the book. When A Public Space announced it as their October APS Together read, I signed up—and am praying I don’t get nightmares.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. My audiobook rec for the month is this 2017 best-seller, which recaps the horrifying murders of dozens of oil-rich Osage and the FBI’s hunt for their killer in 1920s Oklahoma. Grann’s book, which was a National Book Award finalist, and the much-hyped Martin Scorsese film adaptation coming out later this month have both been endorsed by the Osage community. 

 What Else I’m Looking Forward to on the Shore:

Film: “The Aunties” @ Mt. Pleasant Acres Farms, Preston

3:00-8:00 Saturday, October 14

Donation Based

The finale of the day-long We Will Be Elders Soulfest will be a screening of this short film documenting the preservation work and activism of farm owners Paulette Greene and Donna Dear. 

Art Talk: Amy Boon McCreesh @ Academy Art Museum, Easton

11:00 Saturday October 21

Free

McCreesh will discuss her current exhibition, Visual Currency, which critiques luxury through exuberant mixed-media work.

Opera: Dead Man Walking @ Avalon Theater, Easton

1:00 Saturday October 21

$25 general, $23 senior, $17 student

Based on the memoir by Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking has become the most widely performed opera of the past several decades. The Met’s first-ever staging will be live-streamed at the Avalon as part of the “Live in HD” series.

Theater: Stage Fright II: 1964 @ Avalon Theater, Easton

Thursday October 26-Sunday October 28

$40 / $135 for the 10/28 “Director’s Cut” performance

Marguerite has been haunting the Avalon Theater since 1927, when she tragically fell down the elevator shaft. How does her story end? Featuring the music of Jenny & The Teen Spirit, this mid-century sequel picks up where we were left hanging last Halloween. 

Shore Lit aims to enhance cultural offerings on the Eastern Shore with free community author events. This newsletter is written by Shore Lit Founder and Director Kerry Folan. If you see her walking her greyhound Pilot around town, stop and tell her what you’re reading!

 

Since its release in June, Tania James’s novel Loot has been at the top of “must read” lists everywhere, from NPR to O, The Oprah Magazine to the New York Times. Though generally classified as historical fiction, the novel is also a coming-of-age tale and a love story:

Seventeen-year-old Abbas is conscripted to help build a life-sized mechanical tiger for Sultan Tipu. Though he leaves his family reluctantly, at the palace he finds both a mentor who hones his gifts as a woodcarver and the girl who will capture his heart. The novel is full of delight, adventure, and charm. 

But Loot also challenges readers to consider colonialism’s bloody history and its current claims of ownership. Tippoo’s Tiger is an actual object in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, made by an anonymous Indian artist during the 18th century and looted by British soldiers after the Siege of Seringapatam in 1799. 

“I’d never seen a work of art—mechanized or otherwise—that was so bold in its contempt of British power, so irreverent and anti-colonialist,” Tania told me about the object that inspired her story. 

It’s a rare book that can hold charm and subversion in equal tension, and I can’t wait to hear what else she has to say about this exceptional novel. Register here to attend the book talk at the Academy Art Museum on September 15! 

What I’m Reading:

Maybe it’s the start of the fall semester that has me feeling decidedly group-discussion oriented. This month, I’m reading books I want to discuss in community:

There, There by Tommy Orange. This novel, which focuses on the interconnected lives of  “urban Indians” in Oakland, California, earned a million awards when it came out in 2018, including a Pulitzer nomination. It’s the One Maryland, One Book selection this year, and it’s also this month’s Easton Book Group pick. All are welcome to join the conversation at TCFL’s Easton branch on 9/18. 

The Floating Opera by John Barth. People tend to love or hate Barth, and this novel is no exception. It follows Todd Andrews, “the best lawyer on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and the most determinedly eccentric citizen of Cambridge,” on the day he decides to commit suicide. Local lit nerd Sam Van Nest is leading a discussion group on the novel at Chesapeake Forum this November.

True Biz by Sara Nović. Born deaf, fifteen-year-old Charlie never learned ASL. Now thrown into a boarding school for deaf teenagers and immersed in a vibrant and functional deaf world, Charlie grapples with her feelings of isolation from both the hearing and non-hearing communities. The novel was selected as a 2022 “Best Book of the Year” by NPR, the Washington Post, Publisher’s Weekly, and Book List. Join the Talbot Equity Diversity Inclusion Book Club for a discussion on 10/12. 

What Else I’m Looking Forward to on the Shore this Month: 

There’s an abundance of great local festivals this month, including the 31st Annual Native American Festival, Frederick Douglass Day, and the Chesapeake Film Festival, as well as the inaugural event in the Spy’s new Spy Nights reading series, featuring poet Sue Ellen Thompson. I’m also planning to check out the events below:

Theater: Much Ado About Nothing @ Adkins Arboretum, Ridgely

2:00 Saturday & Sunday, September 2 & 3

$10

Shore Shakespeare’s 2023 production brings the Bard’s wittiest rom-com to a plein air venue near you: In addition to the Arboretum dates, it will be playing at the Oxford Community Center 9/8-10 and Wilmer Park in Chestertown 9/15-17.

Film: Love & Friendship @ Norman James Theater, Washington College, Chestertown

7:00 Monday, September 18  

Free

Whit Stillman, Academy Award–nominated screenwriter and beloved chronicler of the urban haute bourgeois, will be at Washington College’s Rose O’Neil Literary House as a visiting writer this month, offering a post-screening Q&A and a craft talk the following day. 

Community Conversation: Read the Room @ Talbot County Free Library, Easton

5:30 Wednesday, September 20

Free

The Needle’s Eye Academy aims to create interdisciplinary literacy programming and empowerment for the Black and Brown youth of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Co-founder Jaelon Moaney will lead a community-based discussion on the critical topic of access and equity of literary experiences on the Shore.

Book Talk: James McBride @ Cape Henlopen High School Theater, Lewes

1:00 Sunday, October 1

$28 

Perennial award-winner James McBride—whose latest novel, Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, is one of the biggest books of the summer—will close out this year’s History Book Festival, a true gem of an event featuring 20+ author presentations in a range of genres. Tickets are required for McBride’s talk and include a copy of the book; the rest of the events are free.

Shore Lit aims to enhance cultural offerings on the Eastern Shore with free community author events. This newsletter is written by Shore Lit Founder and Director Kerry Folan. If you see her walking her greyhound Pilot around town, stop and tell her what you’re reading!

Tania James’s fourth book is a spellbinding coming-of-age tale. Abbas is just 17 when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan and he is commanded to help build a life-sized mechanical tiger. But when it is stolen by British forces looting the palace, his fate becomes entwined with the wooden tiger he helped create, mirroring the vicissitudes of colonialism across countries, people, and decades. James chats with Academy Magazine about the novel, a “Most Anticipated Book of Summer 2023.”  

Kerry Folan: The automaton in Loot is based on an actual mechanical tiger on view at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. How did you first come across this work of art, and when did you know you wanted to write about it?

Tania James: I can’t remember where I first came across the image of Tipu’s Tiger, but I do know that I found it captivating from the moment I saw it. For context, Tipu’s Tiger is a spectacular 18th century automaton composed of a six-foot long wooden tiger that’s mauling the throat of a prone English soldier. Back in the day, you could turn the hand-crank, and the tiger would grunt while the soldier groaned, all while organ music played from within. I’d never seen a work of art—mechanized or otherwise—that was so bold in its contempt of British power, so irreverent and anti-colonialist. So I knew I wanted to write about Tipu’s Tiger, but it took me a while to realize that the novel would focus more on the makers of the automaton than the automaton itself.

KF: This novel is epic, spanning wars, continents, decades. Of all the characters we meet in this saga, why did you decide to focus on Abbas’s perspective?

TJ: I originally thought Loot would be a heist novel that would take place in an English country house. I’d thought it would follow two people in their attempt to swindle a wealthy Englishwoman out of Tipu’s Tiger, which is part of her art collection. But a question that kept nagging at me was: what would motivate someone to want this object so badly that they’d be willing to risk their reputation, their life, their freedom for it? And so I kept coming back to the artist who made it. And as I was exploring that character, I traced his journey back to India, to the time when he was first assigned this task of constructing Tipu’s Tiger. And I discovered what it meant to him, to be apprenticed to a French clockmaker who believed in his gifts, and to find a sense of purpose through art.

KF: How did you land on the title Loot?

TJ: Early in my research I happened upon a thrilling discovery, that the word loot has Sanskritic roots. (Lutna means “to plunder.”) The word “loot” entered the English language somewhere around the time of the novel, when the British Empire was pivoting toward a more aggressive form of conquest. It was great to happen upon a single word that suggests theft and migration, not only of objects but of language itself.

KF: The novel engages difficult questions about colonialism, property, and stolen artifacts. Does it argue for a specific position on those issues?

TJ: Primarily I wanted to write a novel that was full of delight and adventure but that also posed the sorts of difficult questions that museums are facing right now, questions like: to whom does a prize of war really belong and how do we contend with its bloody history? In the novel, I don’t land on clear answers, as I’m most interested in following these characters on their difficult journeys, in finding humor amidst their hardship, and in trying to inhabit the wonder that accompanies an act of creation.

James will visit AAM on September 15 to discuss Loot, an NPR “Most Anticipated Book of Summer 2023,” with Shore Lit Founder Kerry Folan. Visit the AAM website to register for this free program. 

Tania James is the author of four works of fiction, all published by Knopf: The Tusk That Did the Damage, which was a finalist for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Financial Times Oppenheimer Award; Aerogrammes and Other Stories, named a Best Book of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and The San Francisco Chronicle; and the novel Atlas of Unknowns, which was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a finalist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. 

Kerry Folan is an Assistant Professor of writing and literature at George Mason University, and the founder of Shore Lit, an organization that brings free literary author events to the Eastern Shore. 

On Saturday June 17, the town of Easton will host the second annual Delmarva Pride Festival, and I’m thrilled to announce that Shore Lit will be participating with a Pride Pop-Up Bookshop celebrating queer stories for everyone. 

We’re partnering with our friends at The Ivy, the cherished Baltimore bookstore, whose brilliant booksellers have put together a stellar collection of titles with queer and trans themes for you to browse and shop. There is truly something for everyone: romance, sci-fi, memoir, children’s, YA, poetry, literary fiction… you name it. 

We’re especially excited that award-winning author and illustrator Elizabeth Lilly will be joining us in the afternoon to chat and sign books! Elizabeth’s work for children deals with the difficulty of understanding and loving yourself: Geraldine is about a lonely giraffe navigating life in a human school, while Let Me Fix You a Plate is about the food and love in her dual Colombian and American cultures. Elizabeth finds pride and joy in her identity as a lesbian, bi-racial, Colombian Latina, and she’s put together a curated capsule featuring some of her own favorite inspiring YA and picture books. Stop by and say hi!  

What Else I’m Reading

Book-ban attempts aimed at LGBTQ+ content are soaring: seven out of the American Library Association’s top thirteen most challenged books feature queer stories. Shore Lit stands in defense of literary freedom with PEN America and the ALA, who remind us that banning books is “an attack on every person’s constitutionally protected right to freely choose what books to read and what ideas to explore.” 

Free people read freely, y’all. So this month I’m making a point to read some of these frequently banned titles (descriptions pulled from the internet): 

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe. ALA Alex Award winner and Stonewall-Israel Fishman Non-fiction Award Honor Book. “Started as a way to explain to the author’s family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity–what it means and how to think about it–for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.”

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. New York Times bestseller. “In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores their childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia.”

Flamer by Mike Curato. Lambda Literary Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. “It’s the summer between middle school and high school, and Aiden Navarro is away at camp. Everyone’s going through changes―but for Aiden, the stakes feel higher. ​Award-winning author and artist Mike Curato draws on his own experiences in his debut graphic novel.”

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison. ALA Alex Award winner. “For Mike Muñoz, life has been a whole lot of waiting for something to happen. Not too many years out of high school and still doing menial work–and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew–he’s smart enough to know that he’s got to be the one to shake things up if he’s ever going to change his life.”

This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson. Guardian Best Book of the Year. Garden State Teen Book Award Winner. “There’s a long-running joke that after ‘coming out’, a lesbian, gay guy, bisexual, or trans person should receive a membership card and instruction manual. This book is that instruction manual. This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it’s like to grow up LGBT also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums.”

What Else I’m Looking Forward To on the Shore This Month: 

Film: Sky Hopinka @ Academy Art Museum, Easton

6:00 Tuesday, June 6

Free

The Native filmmaker and MacArthur Genius will present several of his experimental shorts, followed by a Q&A with Salisbury University professor Dr. Ryan Conrath. 

Theater: Alice in Wonderland @ Dorchester Center for the Arts, Cambridge

June 8–11

$15 adults; $10 students, Free for children under 5

Produced and performed entirely by local students, Groove Theater’s Student Lab production of Lewis Carrol’s classic is a family-friendly romp through Wonderland.

Lecture & Concert: Maryland Spirituals Initiative Gospel Concert @ The Avalon Theater, Easton

6:00 Saturday, June 17

$10

This unique Juneteenth celebration will feature artist Ruth Starr Rose’s illustrated collection of African American spirituals, which was lost for nearly a century and just recently rediscovered, with lectures from the Water’s Edge Museum scholars and a gospel choir performance. 

Book Fair: Chesapeake Children’s Book Festival @ Talbot County Free Library, Easton

10:00-2:00 Saturday, June 24

Free 

More than 20 children’s book authors and illustrators will be at the library to kick off the 2023 Summer Reading Program. The best part: any kiddo who signs up gets a voucher good for one free book from the attending author of their choice.

 

 

Shore Lit aims to enhance cultural offerings on the Eastern Shore with free community author events. This newsletter is written by Shore Lit Founder and Director Kerry Folan.