Evenings with Authors: Adriana Trigiani

“Sex and the City meets Moonstruck… sly, sensual and dripping in style.” – People Magazine

What a combination: sex and romance and humor–all wrapped up in everything that bestselling author Adriana Trigiani writes. And she’s coming to Columbus as one of Thurber House’s Evenings with Authors event.

You won’t want to miss hearing and meeting Adriana on Wednesday, February 17 when she reads from her brand new novel, Brava, Valentine, the second in a trilogy that began with the huge New York Times bestseller, Very Valentine.

Brava, Valentine’s leading lady, Valentine Roncalli, is now president and designer of her grandmother’s Angelini Show Company. Though Valentine is a strong businesswoman, family and romantic relationships knock her off stride.  A trip from New York City to Buenos Aires unearths a family scandal, and places Valentine torn between a past love that nurtured her, and a new one that promises to sustain her.

Trigiani is the author of the bestselling Big Stone Gap series and New York Times bestselling novels Lucia, Lucia, The Queen of the Big Time, Rococo and Very Valentine. She has also written a young adult novel, Viola in Reel Life, the first in a series about a 14-year-old filmmaker, Viola Chesterton.

She will speak at the Columbus Performing Arts Center, Wednesday, February 17^th at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are going fast so order yours today! You can order tickets online at www.thurberhouse.org, or call (614) 464-1032 ext. 11.

Adriana Trigiani is a proud supporter of Feeding Body & Mind. For her event on Wednesday, February 17th, Thurber House will have a donation box available for you to donate your new or gently used books. For more information, please visit the Feeding Body & Mind website. Thank you for your support.

Love Adriana Trigiani? Share your favorite book, story, or recipe below!

Evenings with Authors: Lisa See

New York Times bestselling author, Lisa See, is the next author in the Winter/Spring 2010 Evenings with Authors line-up. She will read from her latest novel, Shanghai Girls.

Shanghai Girls is See’s first novel to take place in America; it is a richly woven tale about two sisters, Pearl and May, who are forced to leave their modern life in Shanghai to be faced with strict ways and rules of Los Angeles’ Chinatown in 1937.  The sisters are inseparable best friends, but like sisters everywhere, they also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries.  Through their struggle to find a new life in America, the sisters remind us of the intense love, tension, and struggle inherent in every family.

See is the author of several bestsellers including Peony in Love, and Snowflower and the Secret Fan, among others. Her widely acclaimed memoir, On Gold Mountain, documents her family’s history in Los Angeles’s China Town. See was named National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese-American Women in 2001.

She will speak at the Columbus Performing Arts Center, Thursday, February 4^h at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are going fast so order yours today! You can order tickets online at www.thurberhouse.org, or call (614) 464-1032 ext. 11.

Have you read Shanghai Girls? Share your thoughts in the comment box!

“Columbus’ Best Kept Secret”

When I woke up and glanced across my cluttered room to the calendar, I nearly choked on surprise. January 6^th, 2010!? Of course the weeks always seem to whiz by for a busy student, but realizing that today was my first internship of the New Year made me want to swoon like a black and white movie actress. As well as bringing a fresh start and warm greetings, the New Year also presents a special task to the Thurber House team; the ol’ Thurber guest count. Some might assume it would be boring to sift through stacks and stacks of sign-in sheets from 2009, all the while tallying how many visitors hail from where but the job was much more entertaining than expected. I know from experience, however, that such a job is not only fun (thanks to the occasional pranksters who signed in as “Michael Jakcson’s ghost” or “The Boss”), but is a significant way to demonstrate the international fame and attraction of “Columbus’ best kept secret”.

This year, people journeyed from 33 different states and 10 different countries to tour Thurber House. It was no shock to discover the 678 Ohio visitors that had signed in, but visitors from Norway, South Africa, and Kazakhstan? Those weren’t exactly locations that I imagined Thurber fans voyaging from. There was even a visitor from the Kyrgyz Republic, a country I had never heard of until today. (Thank you, Google.) As it turns out, it’s a pretty great feeling to be associated with something that is noteworthy on such an international level. The diverse amount of language, culture, and age-range that travels through Thurber House’s door in a year is simply amazing.

This is how I came to be smacked in the face with cold irony: Thurber House is a secret, but only in its home city.  It’s clearly a well-known institution worldwide, but, somehow, people living five miles away have no idea it exists. This is truly unfortunate, as Thurber House is a great place, full of culture, rich comedy, and enticing ghost conspiracies. Anyone who visits is sure to leave with a new appreciation for Mr. James Thurber and the creative lifestyle he lived, as well as inspiration for their own artistic masterpieces. Thurber House may be a foreign establishment to many Ohioans, but to those who do know of it, it serves not as “Columbus’ secret”, but as Columbus’ own hidden treasure.

Katie Biggs

Columbus Alternative High School

Evenings with Authors: Jayne Anne Phillips

It might be cold outside, but the Thurber House Winter/Spring 2010 Evenings with Authors series is sue to warm you up! Join us for evenings of value-packed entertainment with great authors, lively conversations, coffee, cookies and fun!

The season begins on Tuesday, January 19 with one of America’s most beloved authors, Jayne Anne Phillips. The author of the acclaimed bestseller, Machine Dreams, Phillips is back with her first novel in nine years, Lark & Termite. A New York Times bestseller and Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the National Book Award, Lark & Termite was hailed as best book of the year by The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune.Lark & Termite is a rich, wonderfully moving story of loss and love.  Lark, a teenage girl, spends her time caring for her half-brother Termite, a boy unable to walk or talk, but is blessed with sight and feeling. The novel links the past with the present, moving between the Korean War in 1950, where Termite’s father dies under friendly fire, and Winfield, West Virginia, in 1959, where Lark and Termite are being raised by their Aunt Nonie.  In Lark & Termite, Phillips intertwines family secrets, dreams, ghosts, and the love that unites us all.

A special dinner with Phillips is available before the event at 6 p.m. at the Thurber Center. For more information, call Anne at (614) 464-1032 ext. 10.

Phillips will speak at the Columbus Performing Arts Center, Tuesday, January 19^th at 7:30 p.m. Order tickets online at www.thurberhouse.org, or call (614) 464-1032 ext. 11.

Closed for the Holidays

Thurber House will be closed December 24 through January 1. We will be open on Saturday, January 2, and Sunday, January 3, from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Want to enjoy Thurber over the holidays? Here are some suggested Thurber Writings:

VISIT FROM SAINT NICHOLAS [IN THE ERNEST HEMINGWAY MANNER].  New Yorker, (December 24, 1927), pg. 29-30.

FAREWELL TO SANTA CLAUS; OR, VIOLINS ARE FOR NICE BOYS WITH CHINS. New Yorker, (December 31, 1932), pg 25, 28-29.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL. New Yorker, (December 26, 1936), pgs 16-17.

JOYEUX NOEL, MR. DURNING. New Yorker, (July 2, 1949), pg. 26-30.  Also appears in Thurber Country and Vintage Thurber.

THERE’S A TIME FOR FLAGS (NOTES OF A MAN WHO BOUGHT A CURIOUS CHRISTMAS GIFT).  New Yorker, (January 14, 1950), pgs. 23-25.  Also appears in Thurber Country, Alarms and Diversions, and Vintage Thurber.

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR. New Yorker, (January 8, 1955), pg. 24-25.  Also appears in Alarms and Diversions under the title  “Merry Christmas”.

Get your tickets for Evenings with Authors! The Perfect Holiday Gift!

Thurber House is pleased to present the biggest line-up of authors in the history of Evenings with Authors! The Winter/Spring 2010 Evenings with Authors series brings 7 great authors to Thurber House.

Unless noted, all events will take place at the Columbus Performing Arts Center. The Evenings with Authors schedule is as follows:

• Tuesday, January 19: Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark & Termite
• Thursday, February 4: Lisa See, Shanghai Girls
• Wednesday, February 17: Adriana Trigiani, Brava, Valentine, (Not available for Author’s Table dinner)
• Monday, March 15: Carol Goodman, Arcadia Falls, at the Columbus School for Girls
• Thursday, April 1: Christopher Moore, Bite Me: A Love Story
• Thursday, April 15: Laurie Notaro, Spooky Little Girl
• Thursday, May 25: Lee Child, 61 Hours

All Evenings with Authors start at 7:30 p.m. Tickets purchased in advance are $18 general admission, $15 students and senior citizens. A series subscription of six events is $100 –and you get the seventh event for free! A mini-series of 3 events is also available for $50. Tickets can be purchased either online at www.thurberhouse.org, or calling (614) 464-1032. Tickets will be available at the door, $20 general admission, $18 students and senior citizens.

Author’s Table dinners are available and open to all. Tickets for the Author’s Table are $40, which includes dinner with the author at Thurber Center, reserved seating at the event, and a chance to get your book signed ahead of time. Seating is limited! Call Anne Touvell at (614) 464-1032 x10.

Tickets for Evenings with Authors are the perfect holiday gifts for the book lovers in your life!

Check out our website and our blog for more information about each event.

A Typical Night at the Thurber House Young Writers’ Studio

It is a twenty-minute drive from my house in the suburbs to James Thurber’s in the city. I want to drive alone but my mother doesn’t let me. On Wednesday night it is raining, and I can barely make out the lane lines on the road; Mom tells me about the book that she has brought with her to read in the upstairs bedrooms of the Thurber House while I participate in the workshop. The windshield wipers swish quickly, back and forth, back and forth.

We coast the loop in front of our destination, headlights glossing the rain in yellow, splattering across the windshield. There is a notebook tucked under my arm and I sprint from the car, whimpering in the frigid downpour, towards the safety of Thurber’s front porch. When I twist the doorknob it rattles in its socket, but the door pushes open and, at last, I am dry.

“Hey!” Kelli is sitting in the living room and she hands me a Sharpie, pushing a sheet of blank nametags in my direction across the table. We talk about our lives, and the weather, and I tread across the creaky floorboards into the parlor, where everyone else waits.

It is loud, and warm. People are laughing, hugging notebooks to their chests, the lines of their faces fold into blithe, easy smiles. I stop worrying about my chemistry test, the book report that I need to do for tomorrow. The relief is total and immediate.

When I sit down a garland from the mantle dangles into my lap and I guide it back into position, wrapping its edges around the wooden frame of the mirror. We talk, loudly, all of us, until Kelli comes into the room with a stack of papers to hand out.

We dive in; one person is reading her work and everyone else is silent, intent. We love what she’s done – we tell her this, and she smiles. For half an hour we analyze her work, every facet, every dip and dive and curve of the language and the plot. We write her notes and offer advice and, when we are done, we clap. She blushes.

We eat cookies and chocolate in the dining room; we drink water, or juice, or soda. En masse, we pile back into our seats and pull out pens, setting them to paper for the next hour where we will bear our souls to the ink. It is silent but the air is thick with creative voice, and when I look around people seem happy, here, doing what it is that they love.

It is still raining outside, two hours later. I thrust my notebook into my mother’s lap so that she can read what I’ve just written, something that I am always, always proud of. She lets me drive home.

By Ellen Waddell, New Albany High School Student

Registration for the Winter/Spring Young Writers’ Studio session is available at www.thurberhouse.org

It was a Not-Quite Dark and Stormy Night…

It was a dark and stormy Friday the 13^th and the Thurber House Young Docents were creeping around graves in hopes of luring out James Thurber’s ghost. Ok, so it was actually a gorgeous, sunny and almost 70 degree Friday the 13^th and the docents were actually on a field trip to Greenlawn Cemetery to visit James Thurber’s gravesite, but that doesn’t sound as ominous.

As we raced against the setting sun, the docents and their families toured around famous graves and antique mausoleums, some dating back to the late 1800s! Cemetery volunteer, Sandy Latimer, was kind enough to stay till dark and give our Thurber loving group a tour and some very interesting behind the scenes information and gossip!

Of course the night wasn’t complete until we visited James Thurber’s grave. Eerily we were not alone…We looked down to discover his grave stone was covered in pennies. Who left all the pennies? And what was the significance? As the night grew darker, Sandy quickly explained that visitors often leave mementos on graves they visit. Who do you think left behind their piggy bank remnants on Thurber’s grave?

We ended the night back at Thurber House for cookies and hot chocolate but sadly, no ghosts joined us. Perhaps the magic day is November 17^th, the night the ghost got in?!

For more information about our Young Docent program, please contact Meg Brown at megbrown@thurberhouse.org.

Put it in Writing!

‘Tis the season to be…writing. Grab your pencils and imaginations because it’s time for our Writing Academy! This year our Writing Academy morphed into Writing Wizards, but don’t worry, we’re still offering amazing classes with phenomenal teachers.  We have comics and manga, creative nonfiction, sci fi and more!  If you’ve taken our Writing Academy classes in the past, love our summer camps, or just want some fun writing programs, then check out our Writing Wizards!

Taking a cue from James Thurber’s book, Many Moons, our wizards will be challenged to stretch their imaginations, problem-solve, explore new worlds, and put it in writing. Our Writing Wizards workshops for grades 2-8 will meet each Saturday from January 23 through February 27, and are limited to 15 students per workshop. Our brand new preschool child/adult workshops will meet for two Saturdays and are limited to eight child/adult pairs. Check out our website, www.thurberhouse.org, for full class descriptions, times and teachers. Don’t wait too long because the deadline for registration is Monday, January 11th.

Join us as our Wizards put pencil to page, and whip up stories that would take on Harry and Hermoine, any day!

Kick off 2010 with Thurber House’s Winter Adult Writing Workshops!

Have you been working on a novel or short stories and want some critical attention from a pro? Or maybe you’re deep into a memoir and need that little extra something to finish it? Then the 2010 Winter Adult Writing Workshops may be the answer to your New Year wishes!

Beginning February 1 and running six consecutive Mondays until March 8, there are two new Adult Writing Workshops:

Personal Memoir Writing taught by bestselling author D.G. Fulford
Intermediate Fiction Workshop taught by Ohioana Book Award winner, Terri Paul.

These classes are not for beginners. They’re intensive workshops for adults 18 and up, and classes are limited to guarantee personal attention to your work.

Deadline for registration is Monday, January 25, 2010.

For details about time, cost, class content and teachers, and to download a registration form, go to: wwew.thurberhouse.org.

Start your New Year write!