In a previous Facebook posting I mentioned that author David Shields was going to be in Atlanta on Saturday, April 1st at the Lost Southern Voices Revival discussing Barry Hannah's collection of short stories Air Ships (1971)* I "eventbrited" to the Facebook World that I was going to attend, but then discovered I had a conflict. (I have a Down & Outbound book selling booth at the Avondale Estates Rail Arts District Festival on the same day. )
But then I checked David Shields book tour page and discovered that he was also going to be speaking at Georgia State on Monday, April 3rd. According to the GSU Creative Writing Department, Shields will be on campus at 2 pm in the Troy Moore Library, which is on the 23rd floor of 25 Park Place (which used to be called the SunTrust building).
I plan on the afternoon off to see him. Will he be as witty and insightful in person as he is in his books (always a risk with author appearances)? Should I bring him a copy of my genre-busting-novel-wrapped-in political-satire Down & Outbound? Afterwards, should I offer to accompany him on MARTA to the airport as he resumes his tour? We could chat about how he influenced my book because of his quote: "Genre is a minimum security prison," which I interpreted as genre can be a prison for a writer, but it is easy to break out of. If the train breaks down, we would even have time to talk about his new book of essays, Other People: Takes and Mistakes.
According to my blog this is why I like reading David Shields:
February 23, 2011. In this posting, I look at his most well-known book Reality Hunger: A Manifesto (2010) from the perspective of a blogger. September 2, 2012. In this posting I reflect on his book Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity (2006), which I found at Books Again in Decatur. My copy was signed by the author, no less. (The scanned autograph is shown at the top of the page.) November 15, 2013. A blog posting where I was paying homage to Books Again as it closed its doors for good. I also found an advance copy of The Thing We Know About Life is One Day We'll Be Dead (2008), at Books Again for $4. The wisdom of this slim book about how we age, outweighs its depressing premise. Will this all happen? I will keep you posted, of course.
* I even bought and am just finishing the Hannah book. Raw southern stuff. More in the Walker Percy style, but the narratives are a challenge to figure out.
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