| Apr ’11 |
| 29 |
| 7:00 pm |
Larry O. Dean reads from his just-released chapbooks, About the Author (Mindmade Books) and abbrev (Beard of Bees), as well as new and collected works. He was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, where he worked with Academy Award-winning filmmaker, Michael Moore. He attended the University of Michigan, where he won three Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing, and Murray State University’s low-residency MFA program. He teaches literature and composition, and is a Poet-in-Residence in the Chicago Public Schools through the Poetry Center of Chicago’s Hands on Stanzas program. Dean was a recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Award for teaching excellence in 2004. Selected magazine publications include Berkeley Poetry Review, Passages North, Big Bridge, Keyhole, OCHO, Dinosaur Bees, and Used Furniture Review. His work has been widely anthologized, and translated into Chinese, Italian, and Spanish.
“In About the Author, Larry O. Dean’s anti-author’s note poems do what the author’s note never sets out to do, that is tell us what really makes the most sense. These funny and elegant poems about assertion and negation, give us a poet pushing the edges of his own new genre. The reader is in for an enjoyable and revelatory ride.” –Mark Statman, Tourist at a Miracle (poems) and co-translator, Poet in New York (Federico Garcia Lorca)
“When the author is Larry O. Dean, the odds are the book is very, very good indeed. Like his books that preceded it, About the Author is funny and insightful and has a sneaky way of making serious sense through all the cleverness. Reading this book is smiling with the author while he gives you something new to think about. And, serious though he may be, he never lets you lose the grin. Outstanding!” –Charlie Newman, author of deadmachinecity
In addition, Dean is a singer-songwriter, working both solo as well as with several ‘hard pop’ bands. His numerous critically-acclaimed albums include Throw the Lions to the Christians (1997) and Sir Slob (2001); Public Displays of Affection (1998) and Fables in Slang (2001), with Post Office; Gentrification Is Theft (2002), with The Me Decade; and Fun with a Purpose (2009), with The Injured Parties. He is currently working with producer, Chris Stamey (of The dB’s) on his third solo album, titled Good Grief. Since 2001 he has hosted and performed at the monthly songwriter showcase he created, Folk You!
Dean will be joined by fellow Flint expat, Sarah Carson, associate editor at RHINO and the Communications Specialist at Switchback Books. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Barrow Street, Diagram, Epiphany, Limestone, Poet Lore, Strange Machine, and Slipstream, among others. She is the author of two chapbooks: Before Onstar (Etched Press, 2010) and Twenty-Two (Finishing Line Press, 2011).
Copies of the poets’ most recent works will be available for purchase and for signing at this event.
For more info: contact larry@larryodean.com or info@mindmadebooks.com
Fri, Apr 29th, 7PM
