April 2
Award-winning authors at this weekend’s DNA Litfest make a prize-winning bracket
The children’s book authors at this weekend’s DNA Litfest know there are more things going on this weekend than college basketball.
April 1
A KC writer takes the stuffiness out of those old rules for writing
Novelist and Park University professor Brian Shawver takes down pedants and romantics alike in his new book “The Language of Fiction: a Writer’s Stylebook.”
March 31
Caroline Kennedy to discuss poetry’s power Tuesday in KC
Caroline Kennedy, who will be at Unity Temple on the Plaza to discuss her new book, “Poems to Learn by Heart,” has known poetry for its potent and persuasive effects on family and country. Now she sees its power to change the lives of students in the New York City public schools.
March 30
A mashup of comedic styles weaves through ‘Woke Up Lonely’
Part screwball comedy, part political thriller and part family dramedy, the plot of “Woke Up Lonely” sounds a bit like the movie “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” as told by a tag-team of Kurt Vonnegut and Lemony Snicket.
March 30
An appreciation: Chinua Achebe, the voice of modern Africa
There are many legacies to Chinua Achebe’s remarkable career — as a novelist, as an activist, as a teacher, as a critic — but most important, he offered permission to half a century of writers, Africans and others, declaring forcefully and without apology that literature can encompass any and all stories.
March 30
Professor who compiled abolitionist writings speaking in KC
James Basker’s selections range from a 1688 anti-slavery petition submitted by Quakers in Germantown, Pa., to the text of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, ratified in 1865.
March 23
Imagination & Place anthology will be read March 29
If you need to Mapquest it, the address of the Writers Place is 3607 Pennsylvania Ave.
March 19
John Mark Eberhart, who promoted literature, dies at age 52
John Mark Eberhart, who shepherded The Kansas City Star’s books coverage for more than eight years and made a mark on the city’s literary community, died early Tuesday after a long bout with cancer.
March 17
Author Hugh Howey gets richer by giving away his work
Hugh Howey, author of the post-apocalyptic series “Wool,” self-published and gave away his work digitally before a big publisher put him in print. He doesn’t see piracy as the sales-killing threat that many in the entertainment industry do: To him, it’s another form of promotion.
March 16
‘A Thousand Pardons’ brings authenticity, laughs to suburban fiction
Readers bored by the manufactured problems of wealthy suburbanites will nevertheless want to make an exception for Dee’s sixth novel. It’s a complex and self-aware portrait of a New York family more interested in accepting blame than avoiding it.
March 16
‘The Book of My Lives’ told in gleaming prose
Aleksandar Hemon’s book of essays captures the variegated and diffuse lives of a writer whose life has been burnished by war, death and constant flux. Hemon’s stunning ability to merge the personal and the political, the existential with the banal is one of his most remarkable traits, and this collection is a compelling argument for his emergence as a vitally important writer.
March 16
‘Tiger Rag’ catches the rhythms of jazz
Novelist Nicholas Christopher uses that quintessentially American story to lay out an almost exhaustive version of the jazz lifestyle: how good musicians lived, and the bad ones, too; how they dressed when they were successful and when they were not; the kinds of food they ate 100 years ago and what constitutes luxury to them now; and their distinctive marks of poverty.
March 16
Mystery tour: Three new and notable international thrillers
In addition to page-turning mysteries, these new books offer literary trips to European destinations.
March 15
Author readings honor late poet Thomas Zvi Wilson
The reading series, on the third Tuesday of each month at Johnson County Central Resource Library, has included poets and prose writers from across the area and the country. This Tuesday, Phong Nguyen and Kathryn Nuernberger will read.
March 9
William Gass’ ‘Middle C’ has operatic beauty and dense complexity
St. Louis writer William H. Gass dazzles with language in “Middle C,” a difficult new novel of immigration, identity and decline.
March 9
‘American Isis’ is an eloquent bio of Sylvia Plath
Carl Rollyson’s refreshingly judicious biography of the poet arrives 50 years after her suicide and at a time when her confessional style is on the wane.
March 9
Hedrick Smith to speak in KC on theft of American Dream
In “Who Stole the American Dream?” veteran journalist Hedrick Smith argues that many members of the middle-class helped steal the dream from themselves with encouragement from their alleged financial betters.
March 1
U.S. booksellers, meeting in KC, express optimism
Hundreds of the nation’s independent booksellers met in KC last weekend, and, contrary to the perceived notion, they’re feeling optimistic.
March 1
Novelist weaves ‘Mary Coin’ from famous Depression photo
Marisa Silver’s novel takes an elegant path through intersecting lives and the power of photography.
March 1
A double dose of Heat-Moon on ‘Blue Highways’ anniversary
“Blue Highways: A Journey Into America,” William Least Heat-Moon’s best-selling 1983 book about wandering and desire, has been reissued in paperback. Accompanying that is a new hardbound collection of articles and essays published over the years, “Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories From the Road.”
March 1
Kent Haruf’s novel ‘Benediction’ searches for grace
The award-winning author of ‘Plainsong’ returns to a Colorado setting to create a mournful and understated tale of life and death.
March 2
‘Unusual Uses for Olive Oil’ is lightweight entertainment
Alexander McCall Smith checks back in with pompous professor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld in a new collection of stories.
February 24
FYI Book Club | Lure of the outlaw life fascinates readers of ‘Live by Night’
Dennis Lehane’s characters intrigue readers who appreciate the story’s historic line.
April 22
How to join the club, and the books we've read so far
March 19
John Mark Eberhart, former Star reporter and editor, dies at 52
John Mark Eberhart, who shepherded The Kansas City Star’s books coverage for more than eight years and made a mark on the city’s literary community, died early Tuesday after a long bout with cancer.
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