Events This Week: Michael Heald & Richard Swift
This week (May 19th to 25th) there are two events at the Argo:
(#1)
Michael Heald launches
Goodbye to the Nervous Apprehension with Jacob Wren
May 22nd @ 7PM
Tomorrow, we’ll be hosting the final stop in the Portland publicist/author Michael Heald’s debut book tour. Goodbye to the Nervous Apprehension (Perfect Day Publishing) is Heald’s debut essay collection, receiving praise from numerous sources, including The Oregonian (“Sneaky deep”), The Baltimore City Paper (“Truly brilliant”) and an ex-girlfriend (“Embarrassing”). “Across eleven essays, Michael Heald compulsively measure himself against men like Eli Manning, Ryan Gosling, and Stephen Malkmus, and always comes up short. After a decade of failed relationships, estranged siblings, and abandoned hopes, he may or may not have learned his lesson. Goodbye to the Nervous Apprehension is not nearly as depressing as any of this sounds” (from Perfect Day Publishing).
If you want to get a sense of the book before coming out to the reading, check out an interview with Michael Heald on Oregon Public Broadcasting here. Details for the reading are available on Facebook, if you’re into that sort of thing.
“The very first — and the very last — pages of Michael Heald’s new book of essays have the same four words: “My twenties are ending.” They’re fitting bookends for what’s inside.
Goodbye to the Nervous Apprehension is made up of eleven autobiographical essays. Together, they’re a kind of field guide to Heald’s 20s. In his telling, this is a decade of self-definition and self-discovery — a time that’s both painful and thrilling. He writes about a strained relationship with his older brother and about doomed romantic entanglements. He captures the special place that music holds in those years, and what it means to be five foot four… (courtesy of Dave Miller, OPB)”
(#2)
Lectures at the Argo:
Richard Swift launches The Great Revenue Robbery: How to Stop the Tax Cut Scam and Save Canada
May 23rd @ 7PM
“For decades, the right has flooded the airwaves and taken over the political podiums with its anti-tax hysteria. But Canadians are waking up to the simple truth that taxes are the price we pay for civilization, and that scrimping on taxes means scrimping on civilization.” – Linda McQuaig, author and journalist
Edited by Richard Swift for Canadians for Tax Fairness, The Great Revnue Robbery is a collection of essays surrounding “the misinformation spewing out of right-wing think tanks and media outlets” over tax cuts (McQuaig). “This is a welcome critique of conventional economic wisdom,” says Toronto Star political columnist Thomas Walkom. “If you thought tax cuts would solve all of your problems, read The Great Revenue Robbery and think again.”
Join us as Richard Swift and other contributors launch this new book from Between the Lines Books!
As a denouement to National Poetry Month, six poets from three indie presses—Montreal’s Vehicule Press, Toronto’s Coach House Books and Fredericton’s Goose Lane Editions—will be reading together in one fell swoop at The Sparrow, a beautiful bar on St. Laurent on May 5th. The six-fold launch will include debut books and long-awaited collections from Adrienne Barrett, Andrew Faulkner, Carmelita McGrath, Robert Moore, Deena Kara Shaffer and David Seymour. Furthermore, guests are encouraged to wear black and white in honor of the Harper government’s love for the bamboo-chewing bear. Hope you can make it, as we’ll be handling the book table.
“I am beginning to realize that taking the self out of our essays is a form of repression. Taking the self out feels like obeying a gag order–pretending an objectivity where there is nothing objective about the experience of confronting and engaging with and swooning over literature.” – Heroines
“ Snow has been falling on the village all winter long. It covers windows and piles up in front of doors. The sun rises late and sets early, and even during the day there is little to do but trade tales. This year everybody’s talking about Katri Kling and Anna Aemelin. Katri is a yellow-eyed outcast who lives with her simpleminded brother and a dog she refuses to name. She has no use for the white lies that smooth social intercourse, and she can see straight to the core of any problem. Anna, an elderly children’s book illustrator, appears to be Katri’s opposite: a respected member of the village, if an aloof one. Anna lives in a large empty house, venturing out in the spring to paint exquisitely detailed forest scenes. But Anna has something Katri wants, and to get it Katri will take control of Anna’s life and livelihood. By the time spring arrives, the two women are caught in a conflict of ideals that threatens to strip them of their most cherished illusions. ” (