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FINAL THURSDAY READING SERIES Thursday, September 30 Featured Reader: Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure |
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Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure is an associate professor of English and African American Literature in the UNI Department of English Language and Literature. He is a Fulbright alumnus and holds degrees from the National University of Rwanda and State University of New York at Buffalo. In addition to several articles and book chapters, he is the editor of West African Kingdoms, 500-1590 (World Eras) (2004) and A Casebook Study of Ishmael Reed’s Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down (2003). He recently published "Trial by Fire--A Sermon," a post-colonial/Iowan short story on the interpretation of Genocide in Rwanda, in Homo Narrans: Texts and Essays in Honor of Jerome Klinkowitz (2004). You can read a sample of his recent work below.
Before Mvuyekure’s reading, the Cedar Valley’s longest running creative writing open mic kicks off its fourth year. Signup for the open mic begins @ 7 p.m. on a first come, first served basis. Limited slots are available, so readers are encouraged to sign up early and read your best five minutes of poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction. Singer-songwriters are also welcome. The open mic begins at 7:30 p.m. The featured reader, Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure, takes the stage between 8:00 and 8:30 (depending on how many open mic readers there are).
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Now Available from Final Thursday Press
Kyrie Poetry by Jonathan Stull For poet Jonathan Stull, observing the natural world can be a means toward understanding, and that is both the beauty and terror of nature. “My poems come from actual places and events in time, and they explore what meaning the moment is revealing. To me poetry reflects the underlying music and absolute inner connectedness of all things.” Marvin Bell, the Poet Laureate of Iowa, has praised Stull’s work as “central to the midwestern circumstance, in touch with what awake people feel deep within, and bearing vigilance and compassion.” Bell finds that Stull’s poems “embody the beauty and dynamism of the natural world.” Kyrie is a signed and numbered edition limited to 500 copies. $6.00 32 pgs. 8 1/2 by 5 1/2. ISBN 0-9742764-1-3
Ghost Wars Poetry by Vince Gotera In Ghost Wars, Vince Gotera, Editor at the North American Review, brings together a career of poetic considerations about the experience of war and its aftermath in this timely chapbook. Denise Duhamel writes "The poems in Ghost Wars are the tickers off the bottom of CNN's screen pushing out of the TV and flourishing like vines in our living rooms." Allison Joseph notes "Lively, compassionate, and intelligent, the poems of Ghost Wars are a necessary balm for our uncertain national psyche." Ghost Wars is a signed and numbered edition limited to 500 copies. $5.00 32 pgs. 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 ISBN 0-9742764-0-5
Laugh. Damnit. Poetry by Ahkos
Feeling pretentious? Walk away now. The poems in this collection target poetic self-importance with humor and a bit of an edge. Formed in (and in response to) Boston's open mic scene, "Laugh. Damnit." will make you smile, or else.
$1.00 16 pgs.
Bad Men Microfiction by Jim O'Loughlin Four short short stories that made their debut at the Final Thursday Reading Series. They weren't originally intended to be part of a collection; it just happened that way. Find out what happens to the lounge lizard, the ex-con, the slacker student, and the serial monogamist. $2.00 18 pgs.
Ask for them at Bought again Books!
Check out the Final Thursday Press Website
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“A Father’s Lament” for Bwiza, Jeni, and Musoni
by Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure
Ryangombe, do not forsake me; And you, my ancestors, help me. I cannot take it anymore. The other night I heard my daughter say: “Tutsi rebels and Hutu. Children do not have water,” as if this was her song.
Hush, child, I said, stop saying that. You’ve been watching CNN again. It’s not a song; Those are your people, not killers; Your cousins may be among those dry-lipped and emaciated children; Your grandma, uncles, and aunties may be on the run again (like those you see on the screen).
Read Work by Some of Our Past Featured Readers
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