Mini Fest
Thursday, February 20
10:30 a.m.
TJ Butler’s debut short story collection, Dating Silky Maxwell, contends with down-to-earth women grappling with difficult circumstances. The stories focus on each characters’ agency as they take their power back. Author Amber Sparks says, “There’s so much to love about these stories, but it’s the characters who’ve been haunting me, vivid and flawed and human and as beautifully written as any I’ve met in life.”
Location: Fenwick Reading Room, 2001, Fenwick Library, George Mason University
12 p.m.
Daniel Bedrosian, the keyboardist for the band George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, discusses The Authorized P-Funk Song Reference: Official Canon of Parliament-Funkadelic, 1956-2023. Bedrosian compiles almost seventy years of information about this band’s long history, ranging from albums, songs, anecdotes, and rare photographs. Bandleader George Clinton says, “Daniel Bedrosian has done a wonderful job of a seemingly impossible task of reconstructing this history—finding everybody who’s been a part of, involved with, or in any way left their fingerprint on what has become the P-Funk. I’m still trying to figure out when he had time to do this; he ain’t ever missed a show!”
Location: Fenwick Reading Room, 2001, Fenwick Library, George Mason University
1:30 p.m.
Matthew Gabriele’s book Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe chronicles the Carolingian Civil War, which was a dramatic episode in history–simultaneously personal and political. The Chicago Review of Books says it does “an excellent job of detailing a complex story of shifting alliances and bitter conflict, creating an intricate portrait of Medieval strife that rivals any episode of Game of Thrones.”
Location: Fenwick Reading Room, 2001, Fenwick Library, George Mason University
4:30 p.m.
Samuel Kọ́láwọlé’s debut novel, The Road to the Salt Sea, depicts the journey of Able God, an ordinary Nigerian man who gets caught up in a web of danger and must flee for his own survival. Author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai says, “Heart-breaking and educational, The Road to the Salt Sea is an unforgettable and moving tale of what it takes to survive with dignity and to make this tumultuous, unfair world our home.”
Location: Fenwick Reading Room, 2001, Fenwick Library, George Mason University
6 p.m.
Steve Almond’s Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow: A DIY Manual for the Construction of Stories challenges the myths of writing as a means to open up the joy of writing. Almond uses irreverence and humor, as well as his decades-long experiences as both a writer and a teacher to change the way people think about storytelling. Author Cheryl Strayed says the book is “an insightful and delightful book about how we hone the craft and embolden the heart in order to write well.”
Location: Fenwick Reading Room, 2001, Fenwick Library, George Mason University
Thank you to Virginia Humanities for making this programming possible
