As of last week, Arizona was one of eight states without a State Poet Laureate, a position established in states and countries around the world, in which a local established poet educates students and residents about poetry and literature. For the last 18 months, members of the Arizona Commission on…
Maurice Sendak was a giant in the children’s literature world whose titles include Seven Little Monsters, Fantasy Sketches, Outside Over There and Where the Wild Things Are. He said his love for books developed when he was young and had health complications that confined him to his bed. And for…
On Saturday, May 5, The The Poisoned Pen Bookstore and the Phoenix Public Library are teaming up to present CozyCon, a mystery-writing conference with a dozen favorite mystery authors. Jenn McKinlay, author of both the Cupcake Bakery series (Sprinkle With Murder, Buttercream Bump Off, Death by the Dozen) and the Library…
Art Spiegelman (Maus) calls teachers and librarians today’s foremost allies of the graphic novel. Sounds right to me. Last summer, there were more than a few high school teachers learning alongside me at the Center for Cartoon Studies. An amazing bonus to being at CCS was browsing and borrowing from…
The Internet has changed a lot of the ways we do business. You can pay bills online, buy cars online, meet friends online, and maybe, if you’re lucky, live out your dream job online. Author and artist Austin Kleon believes he owes his career to the web. Across blogs and…
It’s not an easy time to be a resident of Arizona. The jokes our politicians try to pass off as laws are making us the butt of comedy writers everywhere. (Guns on campus? Seriously? Who thinks that’s a good idea? Comedy writers, that’s who.) But there ARE good things about…
Bestselling author Sarah Vowell will be giving a reading and book signing at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, April 28, at 8 p.m..You may know her wise cracking, dry-humored voice from the radio show, This American Life, or from appearances on The Daily Show With Jon…
If all goes as planned in the next 60 days, uptown Phoenix could get its own Changing Hands Bookstore. According to Cindy Dach, co-owner and general manager of the Tempe-based independent bookstore, an offer made by Jon Kitchell and Lorenzo Perez of Venue Projects was accepted for the long-gone Beef…
Honey badger doesn’t give a shit, but Randall, the badass-fabulous voice behind “The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger” (more than 42 million hits since it was uploaded to YouTube in January of last year), definitely does. The son of a cameraman for the granddaddy of all nature shows, Mutual of Omaha’s…
Legal writing can be dry and characterless, but a moment in state history (such as the disbarment of a county attorney) is occasionally of such gravity that a judge may feel compelled to aim for the rhetorical heights when issuing an opinion that will stand with the force of the…
If National Poetry Month had its own celebrity spokesperson, you couldn’t do better than Rita Dove. She has the kind of musical voice that makes everything she says sound like poetry, and she is frequently photographed wearing bright lipstick. She also has a laundry list of major credentials, like the…
For the special release of the (not-so) critically acclaimed song book Rolling Words by rapper Snoop Dog, San Francisco agency Pereira & O’Dell created a smokable version. Yes, you can officially smoke this book. The binding doubles as a strikeable match surface and each perforated, hemp-seed page can be torn out and…
Cassandra Powers, baker at Lux Coffeebar and creative writing student at ASU, always has a book (or two or three) close at hand. She confidently recommends poetry and the books in her living room are as warm and inviting as a hearth. What are you reading? I always have too…
There’s a time in everyone’s lifespan when they must buck up, journey from the nest, and make their way in the world. It’s one of the hallmarks of growing up and is at the very heart of Yeti Leaves Home, a new children’s book being developed by local artists Jennifer…
I am not one of Rush’s feminazis. Really. Putting aside that I would never claim to be one of Rush’s anythings, I do admit to a little female bias: I browse a list or a bookshelf of graphic novels by first checking out the ones written by women. It’s a…
Note: Here be spoilers! If you haven’t absorbed the first season/book of Game of Thrones, you might want to consider waiting on this. If you don’t care, read on. If you’re an unabashed fantasy fan like me, you’ve probably seen the first season of George RR Martin’s celebrated Game of…
Care to Make Love in That Gross Little Space Between Cars? isn’t the sexiest of offerings, but it makes for a cringe/chuckle-inducing title for The Believer’s new book of collected answers to burning questions from writers, funny people, musicians, other notables, and readers. To be clear: This read isn’t full…
You might want to pull the plug on your weekend craft plan with your scalpels and latest editions of Encyclopedia Britannica. The brains behind the box set of information says its ceasing print production. The 2010 edition will be the last. The company cites the increased sourcing of information online,…
Take note, book nerds. The literary world is descending on Tucson this weekend, and it’s bringing more than 400 writers and 250 exhibitors with it. The fourth annual UA-sponsored Tucson Festival of Books is completely free (donations benefit literacy groups in southern Arizona) — and completely overwhelming, offering a sprawling…
SMoCA Lounge will host best-selling author Josh Bazell on Tuesday, March 6, where he’ll be reading and signing his new book, Wild Thing! a sequel to 2009’s bestselling Beat the Reaper, published earlier this month. Bazell’s first book was a gore-y, funny, turbo-paced page-turner with mobsters and goons. (There’s a scene with…
Welcome to Explicitly Graphic, a column from Cynthia Clark Harvey (who’s working on a graphic novel of her own). From time to time, Harvey will review graphic novels, talk to artists, and dive into the scene of all things explicitly graphic. I have a confession: until yesterday, I’d never, ever been…
Local artists Michelle Ponce and Damian Jim have collaborated on small works and projects since they met a couple years ago, but when the two connected over the concept of a simple, stapled art zine, they knew they’d started something longterm. This month, they launched Ziindi, a full-color zine dedicated…
