Final Thursday Reading Series

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FINAL THURSDAY READING SERIES

Thursday, August 28, 2008
Hearst Center for the Arts
Cedar Falls, Iowa

Featured Reader:
Grant Tracey

SEE BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS

Grant Tracey

The Final Thursday Reading Series begins its eighth season at a new location--the Hearst Center for the Arts--and a featured reading by FTRS favorite, Grant Tracey. Though all are sad to see the closing of Bought again Books and Vibe Coffee House, the Hearst Center will be a great new home for the series (and, of course, coffee will be available).

The Hearst Center is located at 304 W. Seerley Blvd. in Cedar Falls. Enjoy the art on your way back to the reading. Open mic signup begins at 7:00 p.m. Bring your best five minutes of poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction. Singer-songwriters are also welcome, and now we have access to the Hearst's grand piano. The open mic begins at 7:15, and Grant Tracey takes the stage at 8:00. There will be a short question and answer period as time allows.

Grant Tracey is the Pushcart Prize-nominated author of Playing Mac: A Novella in Two Acts and Other Scenes and the short story collection, Parallel Lines and the Hockey Universe (both published by Pocol Press). He is the Fiction Editor of North American Review and teaches fiction writing and film studies at the University of Northern Iowa. He is also the drummer for Insignia77. See below for a sample of Grant's writing.

Hearst Center for the Arts

The James & Meryl Hearst Center for the Arts is located at 304 West Seerley Blvd. in Cedar Falls. Stop by early to check out the current exhibitions.

from "Addition"
by Grant Tracey

Professor Abner Leiberman wasn’t sure when it had happened, but somewhere in the last year or so he found himself full of indifference. He didn’t enjoy reading novels for his courses. Hemingway’s prose style had become prosaic, his student’s themes failed to delve into deeper truths—they lacked the light touches of beauty he had seen before—and he was still ten years away from retirement.

When did he become thus shadowed with ennui? He glanced through his backyard and into the woods of narrow trees. He and his wife Deborah bought the house ten years ago when Abner had been promoted to full professor. They wanted to live in the country while still being in the city, and they wanted a bigger house for their two daughters Jane and Teresa. Both girls were now out of the home. Jane in graduate school on the East coast, and Teresa living in town with her husband of two years, Carl, an accountant. Teresa never finished college. Somehow she never developed Mom or Dad’s love of books. She liked movies instead and now worked for a pharmaceuticals company, selling supplies to hospitals and doctors’ offices.

“Hey, everything all right?” Deborah asked. She wore her blue kimono. The hem was broken and there were dull patches where the fabric had faded.

“Yeah.”

He wondered if she wondered if he were depressed. He was more irritable and angry than he remembered being in the past. “I just can’t read this book.”

The Fall 2008 Lineup
Final Thursday Reading Series

August 28: Fiction Writer Grant Tracey
September 25: Poet Ruaun Klassnik
October 30: Memorist Amy Nolan
November 20: Poet Jonathan Stull

Read Work By Featured Readers

Chaveevah Banks Ferguson

Eula Biss

John Bresland

Scott Cawelti
Bill Chene

Rebecca Dunham
frje Echeverria