(downtown) omaha lit fest

CURIOUSER & CURIOUSER:
THE BOOK IN FLUX

September 10-11, 2010

“…what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversation?”

With Alice’s literary criticism in mind, we’ll examine the very concept of the book, right down to the shapes of the words and the stitch of the binding, at the sixth annual (downtown) omaha lit fest.

From the illuminated letters of the earliest printed books to the wantonly adjustable text of contemporary e-books, the visual has played an important part in our appreciation of literature. Meanwhile, characters such as the aforementioned Alice, Little Red Riding Hood (and other Grimm victims), and Gregor Samsa, have emerged from fantastical worlds and taken all sorts of shapes in the imagination, and in art, film, and literature.

Authors, poets, scholars, and visual artists will examine literature about literature, books reflecting on books, writers writing about writers. We’ll focus on fairy tales, graphic novels, the book arts, and electronic literature, and our panel discussions will explore such topics as: transformation in lit and fairy tales; the trajectory of book design; "shaping" poetry on the page; and revising and illustrating contemporary versions of classic novels.

Among our guests are Melanie Benjamin, whose historical novel Alice I Have Been imagines the troubled life of Alice Liddell, the “real” little girl who inspired Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s novel;
Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead,
Kate Bernheimer, who has explored the history of fairy tales in her own fiction as well as with the literary journal Fairy Tale Review;
Gary Frost, host of www.futureofthebook.com;
Peter Kuper, cartoonist whose illustrated books include a graphic novel adaptation of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and a Spanish edition of Alice in Wonderland;
and Katherine Walter, chair of Digital Initiatives & Special Collections in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries; and many more.

The gallery of the UNO Criss Library will host an art exhibit inspired by the anthology My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: 40 New Fairy Tales, in which contemporary authors revise classic international tales, from those of the Brothers Grimm, to tales from Japan, Mexico, and Italy, to Greek myth, and Calvino and Poe. Artists will adapt some of these fairy tales for the exhibit.

A lit fest preview event will be held at the Joslyn on Aug 26, with poets reading from original work inspired by pieces in the Joslyn collection. The lit fest will then kick off on Sept 10 at KANEKO, with an opening night discussion and reception, followed by panels, readings, and a workshop on Sept 11. Check out our schedule on the EVENTS page, as details become available.

Our partners include KANEKO, Omaha Public Library, Joslyn Art Museum, and the UNO Criss Library; This program is funded in part by the Nebraska Humanities Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.