Anna Deveare Smith won’t be mounting a full production of her new one-woman show On Grace at the Festival of the Arts Boca. But she will be offering the one thing that might be better — a chance for the audience to become co-creators of the play. “I’m going to be doing excerpts from On Grace,” Smith said recently by phone. “This is a presentation, not a production. It’s still … [Read more...]
2013-14 arts preview: The season in books
Except perhaps for New York City, that capital of world literary culture, South Florida is blessed with an unexcelled literary calendar, starting more or less the moment you read this, and continuing deep into next spring. Three signature book events celebrate landmark anniversaries this season. Miami Book Fair, marking its 30th year, is among the oldest, while the Palm Beach … [Read more...]
For Kingston, in the beginning was the word
Maxine Hong Kingston first became aware of the importance of language when she went to kindergarten in Stockton, Calif., where she grew up the child of Chinese immigrants. “I spoke Chinese only until I started school,” Kingston says by phone from her home in Oakland, Calif. “I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying. I couldn’t communicate.” That first experience of … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2012-13: South Florida hard to beat for book festivals
South Florida, believe it or not, has now been a leading literary region for nearly 30 years. Yes, publishing remains centered in New York, and Los Angeles may have its charms for authors and their fans. But we boast four of the best book festivals in the nation, beginning with the biggest, Miami Book Fair International in November, and ending with perhaps the most original, … [Read more...]
Journalist Wright tells Miami hit man’s story on Byliner site
Even though he uncovered the story, journalist Evan Wright never expected to write a full account of the drug cartel hit man from Miami who ― allegedly, as they say ― became a top CIA officer and a leading figure in the clandestine war against terror. On the contrary, Wright thought this story, which resembles The Departed, but on a bigger, more important stage, would be … [Read more...]
The 2011-12 season in books: PB Poetry Fest now a prestige draw
It’s amusing now to think that a mere generation ago South Florida was considered a cultural wasteland were people did not read. Today the region is blessed with several of the most influential – and fun! – book festivals in the nation, if not the world. Take the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, for example. The youngest of the region’s literary events, in only eight years it has … [Read more...]
Pinsky brings message of poetry’s endurance to Delray festival
As America’s only three-time poet laureate, Robert Pinsky would appear perfectly suited to deliver a “State of the Nation”-style disquisition. Who better to survey the role of poetry in contemporary life -- the challenges (and opportunities) presented by the digital revolution, the rise of spoken-word and hip-hop, the advent of the amazing shrinking attention span? Pinsky, … [Read more...]
Lippman’s latest busts through genre to literature
I doubt Laura Lippman would want me to say this out loud, but she’s not a mystery writer anymore. Oh, sure, the talented Ms. Lippman, a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun, is a mystery writer when she’s producing the popular, award-winning series featuring private eye Tess Monahan. But her stand-alones – there are five of them now – are something else again. Her latest, … [Read more...]
ArtsPreview 2010-11: The season in books
The economy may still look scary, but for South Florida’s four major literary festivals, there will be no double-dip recession. Learning from last year’s challenges, each plans robust programs for the serious and casual book lover over the coming season. Take Miami Book Fair International (Nov. 14-21), the region’s oldest and biggest literary festival, and the first one on … [Read more...]
Alert the Squid Squad! The kraken is (lamely) on the loose!
Why is it that genre writers, just when they are about to step onto a wider stage of literature, tend to lose heart – or nerve? I first noticed this in 1998 when Stephen King, after almost a decade of increasing critical acceptance, retreated to the comforts of Bag of Bones, an overlong, overstuffed supernatural thriller of the kind that made him famous earlier in his career. … [Read more...]