Events

 Rebecca Ellis and gaye gambell-peterson will read poetry, showcase books and art on thenight of the full moon, Wednesday,December 2, 2009.  RebeccaEllis will read her own work and from the various chapbooks in the MidwestWomen Poets Series from Cherry Pie Press. gaye gambell-peterson will read from two recently published chapbooks,and provide a peek at original artwork used as illustrations.

Rebecca Ellis lives in southern Illinois.  She has poems published in So to Speak, Natural Bridge, qarrtsiluni.com,Quiddity, RHINO, and Sweet (sweetlit.com).  Recently, she won first place in a 48-hourpoem-writing contest by Contemporary Verse 2.  Through Cherry Pie Press, she edits andpublishes poetry chapbooks by midwestern women poets.  She also writes reviews of poetry chapbooksby other small presses.

Cherry Pie Press is anindependent press that has produced nine chapbooks.  It began five years ago, fueled in part bythe work of the women’s poetry collective LooselyIdentified to produce an anthology of their work, andfrom discussions with women writers about the relative absence of women makingeditorial decisions about local poetry. Cherry Pie Press is a venue for both new and well-published womenwriters, with the goal of increasing the audience for their work andencouraging more women writers to showcase their poetry.

gaye gambell-peterson is a degreed visual artist and self-taughtpoet.  Two chapbooks were published in2009, both featuring her poems and her collages.
Cherry Pie Press published pale leaf  floating, the most recent chapbook in its Midwest Women PoetsSeries.  Her own imprint, Agog Press, hasjust released
MYnd mAp.

Her art has been juriedinto national art shows, and has graced covers for several literarypublications.  Her poems have beenawarded in contests sponsored by
St. Louis Poetry Center,St. Louis Writers Guild, and Cherry Pie Press. Poems have appeared in Mid Rivers Review (art, too) and UntamedInk.  Her poetry and cover art werepart of Loosely Identified’santhology: Breathing Out.

Agog Press serves twopurposes.  Established in memory ofgaye’s mother (A grand
ole girlwho always believed a book was possible), the press is unique because a
full-color illustration companions each and every poem.

The subtitle says it all. Larry's Kidney (or) How I Found Myself in China with My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail Order Bride, Breaking Chinese Law to Get Him a Transplant--and Save His Life is a best-selling memoir from Daniel Asa Rose. The Washington Post called it "an enjoyable testament to the lengths we sometimes go to help family." Byron Kerman, an Arts and Entertainment writer for Sauce and St. Louis Magazine will introduce Daniel Asa Rose at the event. A portion of the proceeds from each sale of Larry's Kidney goes to Donate Life America for educating the public about the essential steps to becoming an organ donor. 

Do you have a habit you really want to change, but still can't? Maybe you know how dangerous smoking is but can't put down the pack, or have mmassive credit card debt but can't help making another purchase. With St. Louis author Meg Selig's new book, move beyond willpower and succeed with changepower--the synergy that comes from combining willpower with other resources, useful outside supports, and wise strategies. Changepower! is organized around the step-by-step stages proven to accomplish successful change. Lively and engaging true stories will offer humor and support as you pick and choose from 37 secrets in Changepower! to find the strategies that work best for you. 

Join us for this special KMOX/Fontbonne University Book Club with Charlie Brennan event for featured author Tim Page. Page, a Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic, describes living with Asperger's syndrome in his new book Parallel Play. A poignant portrait of a lifelong search for answers, Parallel Play provides a unique perspective on Asperger's and the well of creativity that can spring forth as a result of the condition. The book has had stunning reviews all around, and The New York Times calls it, "An improbably lovely memoir… In fascinatingly precise detail and often to pricelessly funny effect [Page] describes ways in whixch his efforts to feign normalcy have backfired." Tim Page has long been a supporter of Left Bank Books, so we hope you'll come support him with us!

KMOX radio personality John Carney brings it back up to a boil with John Carney's Another Taste of Restaurant Tuesday, his second collection of assorted recipes from St. Louis-area restaurants. The cookbook encompasses a multitude of options to sample some of the cities' best dishes, while offering delicious meal ideas for different budgets, palates, culinary talents and agaes. For the past 18 years, Carney has acquired hundreds of recipes from restauant interviews on his weekly radio talk show, Restaurant Tuesday. He also shares some of his personal recipes in the chapter called "Carney Classics." A portion of the proceeds from Another Taste of Restaurant Tuesday will be donated to the not-for-profit Carney's Kids Foundation. 

It Shined is an exposes of the life and times of the band, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, in and out of the spotlight, and on and off of the stage. Follow the path of the band from its beginnings at the New Bijou Theater in 1971 to their gig on the stage of the Shrine Mosque in 2004. In between those dates, you'll find a cornucopia of stories--some good, some bad, some ugly, all entertaining. St. Louis native Michael Supe Granda has had his songs recorded by luminaries, such as Chet Atkins, Augie Meyers, Walter Egan, and Billy Brenner, and his essays about music, politics, and baseball have appeared in newspapers, periodicals, magazines, and other books. He helped form the Daredevels at the end of the 1960s and continues to write and record songs in Nashville.

Do you have a habit you really want to change, but still can't? Maybe you know how dangerous smoking is but can't put down the pack, or have mmassive credit card debt but can't help making another purchase. With St. Louis author Meg Selig's new book, move beyond willpower and succeed with changepower--the synergy that comes from combining willpower with other resources, useful outside supports, and wise strategies. Changepower! is organized around the step-by-step stages proven to accomplish successful change. Lively and engaging true stories will offer humor and support as you pick and choose from 37 secrets in Changepower! to find the strategies that work best for you. Plus, enjoy coffee and light snacks, courtesy of the author. 

Join Left Bank Books and Maryville University for this special Medart Lecture Series event with Terry Teachout! Louis Armstrong was the greatest jazz musicianof the twentieth century and a giant of modern American culture. He knocked theBeatles off the top of the charts, wrote the finest of all jazzautobiographies--without a collaborator--and created colalges that have beencompared to the art of Romare Bearden. The ranks of his admirers includedJohnny Cash, Jackson Pollock and Orson Welles. Offstage he was witty,introspective and unexpectedly complex, a beloved collegue with an explosivetemper whose larger-than-life personality was tougher and more sharp-edged thanhis worshipping fans ever knew. Wall Street Journal arts columnist TerryTeachout has drawn on a cache of important new sources unavailable to previousArmstrong biographers, including hundreds of private recordings of backstageand after-hours conversations that Armstrong made throughout the second half ofhis life, to craft a sweeping new narrative biography of this towering figurethat shares full, acurate versions of such stories events as Armstrong'sdecision to break up his big band and his quarrel with President Eisenhower forthe first time.