Author Ron Carlson read his short story "Blazo" on Sunday night at the Theater and Arts Building at UAA. The story was disturbing - a father flies to Kotzebue from the East to see the where his son died in a mysterious fire. The father has issues as do the people he meets in Kotzebue. But having a noted author read you his short story for free and being able to talk to him about it afterward is one of those great treats we get in Anchorage. And there will be speakers all week. This ADN article has the list. All free.For a taste, here's the beginning of one of Carlson's stories I found on line
The rest is at NarrativeMagazine.The NThe head nurse blocked my way and asked what exactly didn’t I understand about the word no, and I told her: the N. It is exactly what I do not understand about what she said. I’ve never understood it very well, and now it has tried to kill us, and I know that I will never ever understand that. It stands there at the beginning of a word, like what?—some guard or a wall. I mean, I think about it now, the N, the shape: up, down, up. Who can get over it? Listen: I never will. I have seen it up close, and I do not understand.
Monday night it was Chicago's Second City in Wendy Williamson Auditorium. They said no flash photography and no videotaping. This is a key Saturday Night Life farm club and the skits were well polished - even the improvised ones.These two descriptions and all the rest of the program descriptions are at the ADN link.• ZACK ROGOW has published five collections of poetry, three anthologies, four volumes of translation, a children's book and two plays. He teaches at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and has a sixth book of poems due out soon, "The Number Before Infinity."
• VALERIE MINER has written 13 novels and collections of short fiction and nonfiction, including memoir and essays. Her latest novel is "After Eden." She is a professor and artist in residence at Stanford University in California.
Seriously, you were at Ron Carlson, too? I'm going to start wearing a name tag to these kinds of things that just says, "Hi, Steve, It's Me!"
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