Report on First Bibliotekos Reading - With Photos

The first Bibliotekos Reading (22 April 2010 at St. Francis College, Brooklyn) was a smashing success! Some of the contributors to the anthology Pain and Memory gathered to read their selections and talk about the process of writing – whether one writes longhand or on computer, the necessity of having a notebook at hand, the demands on one's time and yet the call to write. The open panel session after the reading was quite stimulating. The audience was alive with comments and queries. There were questions about influences and favorite authors (many cited W.B. Yeats); a discussion about the idea of truth – the importance of truth – in remembering and writing accurately; the concern about engaging readers in otherwise morbid subjects; the difficulty of reaching an interested audience who might, simply, not realize their own desire and need to read literary writing. There was ample opportunity to meet with the writers in the theater lobby, both before and after the reading; books were signed and sold; lots of connections and new literary friends were made. We hope to have a similar reading, next year, for Common Boundary: Stories of Immigration (expected June 2010).

The Program ran as follows (not counting some preliminaries by Brother Edward Wesley, Ph.D., chair of the English Department at St. Francis College, Fredericka A. Jacks, publisher, and Gregory F. Tague, Ph.D., general editor):

MITCH LEVENBERG, “Butterflies and Lepers.”

RUTH SABATH ROSENTHAL, “A Good Stiff Breeze,” “I Ate My Mother’s Hair,” “Logan Square East.”

ANNE WHITEHOUSE, “Rose’s Dream,” “After the Accident.”

LYNNE SHAPIRO, “Souvenir,” “Your Dead Mother.”

ANIQUE TAYLOR, “The Strangeness of April 1969.”

~ Here are some photographs (taken during the Q&A session):

~ Mitch Levenberg and Anne Whitehouse

~ Lynne Shapiro

~ Anique Taylor
(and her poodle, Nesha, if you look closely)

~ Ruth Sabath Rosenthal