On the ground in Buffalo, New York, or on the web at
www.tleavesbooks.com 3158 Main Street 14214 (716) 837-8554 951
Elmwood Avenue 14222 (716) 884-9524independent bookstores nourish
independent mindsFor immediate releaseaward-winning writers Sarah
Yaw and Laura Donnelly to read together at Talking Leaves,
Thursday, April 2Especially for beginning writers, finishing the
book is just the beginning of the workfinding the reading public is
the next great challenge. Contests in which the winning manuscript
is awarded publication have been a trend in the independent press
literary world for the past couple of decades. Talking
Leaves..Books is pleased to announce that on Thursday, April 2, at
7 pm, we will host a reading by two young writers from Central New
York, both of whom recently published work in this manner. In
addition to reading from their work, fiction writer Sarah Yaw and
poet Laura Donnelly will lead a discussion about publication
contests in the contemporary literary landscape. We hope to have
representatives of local small press publishing houses Starcherone
and White Pineboth run publication contestsand local writers who
have submitted work to and/or won such contests, join the
conversation. The event is free and open to the public. Anyone
wishing to have books signed by the authors is expected to purchase
them from Talking Leaves, as an act of support and respect for the
authors, their publishers, and the bookstore hosting the
event.Sarah Yaw's debut novel You Are Free to Go (Engine Books)
looks closely at the intersection between life on the inside and
outside of a prison in central New York. In You Are Free to Go, an
old prisoners death reverberates, both within and outside the
prison walls. The novel examines the forbidden crossroads between a
prison and the town that surrounds it. You Are Free to Go as
selected by Robin Black (Life Drawing) as the winner of the 2013
Engine Books Novel Prize, and Kirkus called it an "intriguing
debut" that explores "regret and anguish and separation in all
their forms." Sarah Yaw received an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College
and is an assistant professor at Cayuga Community College.
Donnellys poetry collection Watershed (Cider Press Review)
focuses on small moments and gestures, exploring the speakers
coming of age and the depictions of women in art and culture.
Watershed won the 2013 Cider Press Review Editors prize and was a
finalist for the University of Wisconsin Press Brittigham and
Pollak Prizes. Nancy Eimers (Oz) calls Watershed, a book of
crossings and encounters, observer with painting, musician with
elusive notes, cloud shadow with wharf, lover with lover.an
exquisite debut collection. Laura Donnelly holds an MFA from Purdue
University and a PhD from Western Michigan University, where she
was editor of the literary magazine Third Coast. She is an
assistant professor at SUNY-Oswego.
Talking LeavesBooks has been an active supporter and promoter of
work from literary small presses since it was founded 40 years ago,
and has been actively engaged in national conversations about the
economics and politics of independent press publishing as well.
For more information please contact Jonathon Welch at Talking
LeavesBooks, 716.837.8554, or e-mail [email protected] .
