FINAL THURSDAY READING SERIES

Thursday, September 30

Featured Reader: Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure

 

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).

 


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

 


  Vibe is located at 909 W. 23rd St. in Cedar Falls on the second floor of Bought again Books.  Persons needing access accommodation should call 266-7115 by the day before the event.  For more information, contact Jim O'Loughlin.

 

 


 

 

“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

 

Jonathan Stull

 

 

Ann Struthers

 

 

Nate McKeen

 

 

Ron Sandvik

 

 

Susan Rochette-Crawley

 

 

Harvey Hess

 

 

Karris Golden

 

 

James P. Roberts

 

 

Grant Tracey

 

 

Ray A. Young Bear

 

 

Vince Gotera

 

 

Paul Hedeen

 

 

Kathleen Kelly

 

 

Scott Cawelti

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1