Tonight it was standing room only --- some 150 people packed into Washington DC's premier literary venue, Politics & Prose. Richard Peabody presented his second splendid anthology of writing by 43 Washington area women: Enhanced Gravity. Yours truly played MC for a panel of ten of the writers: Meena Arora Nayak; Susan Coll; Sibbie O'Sullivan; Rose Solari; Robin Ferrier; Wendi Kaufman; Liz Poliner; Kate Blackwell; Sally Steenland, and Venus Thrash. Several more of the writers were in the audience: Lisa Boylan, CMDupre, M.H. Johnson, Susan Land, Michele Orwin, and Julie Wakeman-Linn, among others. Wow. I'm just going to repeat one of the blurbs, by Mollie Best Tinsley, because she says it best: "What do women write? These stories about, Everything, from as many points of view. Think potluck of pungent diversity. Think rough-edged visions, as opposed to neatly hemmed samplers from Culture, Inc. Enhanced Gravity surprises and entertains; it horrifies and hurts. And it enlightens, by modeling a rich, inclusive world." As at the launch of the first anthology, Grace and Gravity, Richard was asked, why an anthology of women writers? He answered, because he thought of it, and no one had done it before. News is, he's assembling a third anthology, Electric Grace, due in 2007. Stay tuned!
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Enhanced Gravity: The Marvelous Monster Celebration at Politics & Prose
Tonight it was standing room only --- some 150 people packed into Washington DC's premier literary venue, Politics & Prose. Richard Peabody presented his second splendid anthology of writing by 43 Washington area women: Enhanced Gravity. Yours truly played MC for a panel of ten of the writers: Meena Arora Nayak; Susan Coll; Sibbie O'Sullivan; Rose Solari; Robin Ferrier; Wendi Kaufman; Liz Poliner; Kate Blackwell; Sally Steenland, and Venus Thrash. Several more of the writers were in the audience: Lisa Boylan, CMDupre, M.H. Johnson, Susan Land, Michele Orwin, and Julie Wakeman-Linn, among others. Wow. I'm just going to repeat one of the blurbs, by Mollie Best Tinsley, because she says it best: "What do women write? These stories about, Everything, from as many points of view. Think potluck of pungent diversity. Think rough-edged visions, as opposed to neatly hemmed samplers from Culture, Inc. Enhanced Gravity surprises and entertains; it horrifies and hurts. And it enlightens, by modeling a rich, inclusive world." As at the launch of the first anthology, Grace and Gravity, Richard was asked, why an anthology of women writers? He answered, because he thought of it, and no one had done it before. News is, he's assembling a third anthology, Electric Grace, due in 2007. Stay tuned!
