This Land Press » Book Smart Tulsa

Jonathan Safran Foer at The Synagogue

This Land — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:41:17 +0000

Last night, the audience crowded the synagogue of B’nai Emunah for Book Smart Tulsa’s evening with Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated. Foer offered a lucid and compelling argument for going vegetarian, using stories and research from his recent book Eating Animals.

About the pic: as an homage to Eddie Chuculate’s “foot portrait,” photographer Michael Cooper snapped this shot of Foer’s feet while he spoke from the podium. Look for our upcoming interview with Foer in the October issue of This Land.

Author Eddie Chuculate Takes on Tulsa

This Land — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:01:59 +0000

With a new book of gritty, Okie-based fiction from none other than Black Sparrow Press, native Oklahoman author Eddie Chuculate is poised to become our state’s Charles Bukowski.

Last night, Book Smart Tulsa sponsored Chuculate’s reading at the Ambassador hotel, which was peppered with plenty of audience interaction. From here, Chuculate is heading to the famed Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where a number of major American authors have launched legendary careers.

Audrey Niffenegger at Philbrook

Jeff Martin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:16:33 +0000

Last night, Book Smart Tulsa hosted a special reading from bestselling author Audrey Niffenegger at Philbrook Museum. After the reading, she delighted the standing-room audience with details about the graveyard research she conducted for her most recent book, Her Fearful Symmetry.

Click here to learn about the other authors lined up to visit Tulsa.

Book Smart Tulsa Rides Literary Zeitgeist

Jeff Martin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:48:50 +0000

Yesterday the New York Times broke the news that the New Yorker was announcing its list of the 20 best writers under 40.

We were thrilled to see that out of the 20 listed authors, 3 have already been to Tulsa and one is coming this September. One of our initial goals was to expose the Tulsa audience to new, emerging and important voices in contemporary literature. This list, for what it’s worth, shows that maybe we’re doing just that.

The list is as follows:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Chris Adrian – Daniel Alarcon – David Bezmozgis – Sarah Shun-lien Bynum – Joshua Ferris (coming Sept 27) – Jonathan Safran Foer – Nell Freudenberger – Rivka Galchen – Nicole Krauss – Yiyun Li – Dinaw Mengestu – Philipp Meyer – C. E. Morgan – Tea Obreht – Z Z Packer – Karen Russell – Salvatore Scibona – Gary Shteyngart – Wells Tower

While it’s an honor to have hosted 20% of this list, we will do our best in the coming year or two to bring even more of these fine, young writers to our fair city.

Check out the video to hear our interview with writer Rivka Galchen, or click here to catch a glimpse of author Wells Tower speaking at the Hotel Ambassador.

Reif Larsen Reads at Garden Deva

Jeff Martin — Mon, 10 May 2010 20:33:07 +0000

At Garden Deva Sculpture Studio last week, writer Reif Larsen captivated the audience with a curious presentation about mapmaking and other wonders.

Larson is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. The debut novel is a heavily annotated and illustrated story about a 12-year-old mapmaker.

Booksmart Bringing Big Authors

Jeff Martin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 03:34:07 +0000

Last Saturday night, Dwelling Spaces hosted the one-year anniversary party for Booksmart Tulsa. Dozens of people came out to chat, drink wine, eat cake and most importantly, swap books. The night was a celebration of the past year, but some of the most exciting news to come out was about the year to come:

Booksmart Tulsa will host authors including humorist David Rakoff, Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife), mystery writer Jeffrey Deaver, and Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club).

Photo: Bookswappers, by Dennis Leech

Booksmart Tulsa Turns One!

Jeff Martin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:23:13 +0000

This Saturday is the one year anniversary party for Booksmart Tulsa. Last April we started with an idea and not a clue of how to achieve it. Here we are, just a year later, and we have turned that idea into something special. To celebrate, we will be partying at Dwelling Spaces from 7-9 on Saturday. There will be food, drinks and our first ever book swap. Bring a book, take a book. You get the picture. Come out and show your love for Tulsa’s literary scene (oh yeay, we have one). We will also be telling you about some of the great things coming for the rest of 2010. Don’t miss it!

Photo by: Pierre Metivier

Molly Wizenberg at the Community Food Bank

Jeff Martin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 11:38:29 +0000

On Thursday, April 1, popular food writer, blogger and fellow Oklahoman, Molly Wizenberg took part in a VIP dinner and public lecture/signing at the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. A crowd of around 40 people took part in the four-course pre-event dinner prepared by local chef, Tuck Curren of Biga
and The Local Table. Local blogging star, Natasha Ball (Tasha Does Tulsa) introduced Wizenberg with a crowd-pleasing story about prunes, children and what can go wrong when the two collide. Wizenberg, who now owns a pizza joint in Seattle, showed her Okie roots when she became giddy at the mention of Braum’s chocolate malts. This was the second Book Smart Tulsa event at the food bank following last year’s successful event with Julie Powell.

Alex Lemon at Joseph Gierek

Jeff Martin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:29:56 +0000

Tuesday night at Joseph Gierek Fine Art, Book Smart Tulsa hosted an evening with acclaimed poet and author, Alex Lemon, whose memoir Happy, was hailed by Esquire as “One of our time’s most compelling memoirs.”

Wells Tower at The Ambassador

Jeff Martin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:31:21 +0000

Last night, Book Smart Tulsa, along with TU’s Nimrod Literary Journal, hosted an evening with author Wells Tower, whose short story collection Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, has received critical raves.

Wade Rouse at Equality Center

Michael Mason — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:41:51 +0000

Wade Rouse, author of the comedic book At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream, poses for the camera prior to his reading at the Dennis R. Neilly Equality Center in Tulsa.