As a poet, CAConrad is cosmic, their work unrestrained by the page, poems existing as art objects, ecological elegies, ancient technologies. In 2022, they received the PEN Josephine Miles Award for Poetry as well as the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. We recently interviewed them about their new collection of poems, Listen to the Golden Boomerang […]
As a poet, CAConrad is cosmic, their work unrestrained by the page, poems existing as art objects, ecological elegies, ancient technologies. In 2022, they received the PEN Josephine Miles Award for Poetry as well as the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. We recently interviewed them about their new collection of poems, Listen to the Golden Boomerang […]
If Kat Maier were a plant, you could say she has released her seeds all around Charlottesville. She’s been here since 2005, teaching and practicing herbalism, so at this point she has many former students and clients in and around town. Her Belmont home, also the site of her apothecary, classroom, and garden, is a […]
Don’t look back in anger: What does it mean to be nostalgic for the American past? To be sentimental for your own family history? Jennifer Niesslein tackles these questions and more with humor and charisma in her new collection of essays, Dreadful Sorry, from the perspective of a liberal white woman. She reflects on her […]
Longing for home: As a 21-year-old, Golara Haghtalab immigrated to the United States from Iran after her family was randomly selected to receive diversity visas. They settled in Charlottesville, and Haghtalab went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and studio arts from the University of Virginia. Inspired by social justice movements and the […]
Stickered past: For author Henry Hoke, stickers do more than just stick—they have the power to recall a variety of emotions and memories. In his memoir, Sticker, Hoke uses several styles (including pink, glittery Lisa Frank, Mr. Yuk, and the bumper favorite “coexist”) to explore queer boyhood, parental disability, ancestral violence, and Charlottesville’s history with […]
Healing words: Doctor and medical ethicist Laura Kolbe’s debut poetry collection Little Pharma is an intimate journey through the cold and impersonal side of medicine, but one that ultimately crescendos to a celebration of ongoing life, human connection, and the body. During a release party and audience Q&A, Kolbe will read from her book, in […]
Poe knows: Darkly funny with a dash of the macabre, Catherine Baab-Muguira’s debut book, Poe for Your Problems, depicts Edgar Allan Poe as a self-help guru. Baab-Muguira walks readers through Poe’s life, in tandem with self-reflection that allows you to say “nevermore” to your problems, and discover the difference between positive and poe-sitive thinking. Saturday […]
Family business: In her debut novel, Etiquette for Runaways, local resident Liza Nash Taylor sets the action in her own backyard. Inspired by true events, Taylor’s Jazz-Age story follows the fate of May Marshall who, after being expelled from Mary Baldwin College, settles at her father’s Keswick farm and stumbles upon a moonshine enterprise. Taylor […]
In the past few days, outbreaks of COVID-19 have led to mass cancellations and postponements of events around the country, from the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament to Coachella. Though Charlottesville’s first presumptive positive case was just announced on March 16, efforts to contain the virus spread as much as possible led organizers to call off one […]
While rehearsing songs for this Saturday’s show at New Dominion Bookshop, Chris Campanelli’s been thinking about his audience. But he says he hasn’t envisioned playing for the people who might fill the seats, or the passersby who may wander in from the December evening chill. He’s been thinking instead about performing for the books, for […]