A big Thurber House welcome to Ed Piskor!

We’d like to welcome alternative comics artist Ed Piskor to Thurber House! Ed is the latest resident of our (slightly haunted) third floor apartment as the winner of Thurber House and the Columbus Museum of Art’s second annual Graphic Novelist Residency.

Ed began his career at the young age of 21, drawing the well-known American Splendor comics written by Harvey Pekar. He’s also published the graphic novel Wizzywig, about the history of hacking, and he’s currently working on the weekly comic The Hip Hop Family Tree on culture website boingboing.net.

Ed will be here for three weeks while he works on his latest project, and he’ll be participating in a few events while he’s here. On Wednesday, March 20, Ed will talk with our Young Writers’ Studio about his work – Young Writers’ Studio is our group of 9th through 12th graders who meet every other week to share what they’ve written, critique their peers’ writing, learn new writing techniques, and enjoy the company of their fellow writers.

The Museum of Art also has an exhibit of Ed’s art on display, which will be up until June 2. In conjunction with the exhibit, he will give a free artist’s talk and interview about his creative process on Sunday, March 24 at 2 p.m. Be sure to stop by the museum on Sunday and hear what Ed has to say!

Looking for a fantastic holiday gift?

The shopping rush is upon us – time to think about what gifts to give to everyone on your list. If you have a book lover on that list, though, look no further. Here are a few suggestions for great gifts for the literary-minded in your life!

Tickets to any of our Evenings with Authors events would be a perfect gift for fans of mysteries, historical fiction, thrillers, and any general fiction. A season subscription includes tickets to seven great author events. We also offer a mini-series subscription – you pick the three authors to make your own ticket package! Check out the line-up for the upcoming season here.

We have some new t-shirts in the Thurber Country Bookstore, as well! Take a look at the new Thurber Signature t-shirt in the bookstore here. It’s an eye-catching blue shirt with Thurber’s signature and a great Thurber dog drawing. Any Thurber fan would be proud to display their love of humor and wit on this shirt.

 

Know a football fan? Our popular Dog with Football shirt, available previously on a chocolate brown shirt, is now available on a charcoal gray shirt as well. Take a look at the brown version here, or the new gray version here.

We have other t-shirts in the store – there’s a shirt for everyone. Check them out!

Don’t miss our collection of Thurber books, a variety of prints of hilarious Thurber cartoons, adorable Thurber dog notecards, and other Thurber-themed items in the bookstore. Shop online – make your purchase by December 18 to guarantee shipping by Christmas – or stop into the store; we’re open every day from 1 – 4 p.m.

NaNoWriMo comes to Thurber House!

This past weekend, we hosted a write-in for anyone who wanted to come enjoy some coffee, and be a part of an enthusiastic atmosphere of writers climbing towards their 50,000 word goal for National Novel Writing Month. The goal of National Novel Writing Month (also coined as NaNoWriMo) is to write either 25,000 or 50,000 words by 11:59:59 on November 30^th. This past Saturday, 20-or-so brave souls joined us for a successful three hours of writing. We even had someone take their well-earned victory lap around the room as they hit their 50,000 word mark only a little over halfway through the month! It’s an intense 30 days that we have embraced here at Thurber House. With multiple staff members and over 15 members of our high school Young Writers’ Studio participating, we’re pushing ourselves to a new understanding of what it means to be a writer.

October 24^th, 2012 was this year’s National Day on Writing. This year, they posed the question “what do you write?” We asked our Young Writers’ Studio to reflect on this question and think about not only what they write, but also why they write it. In the spirit of NaNoWriMo, we would like to share with you the inspiring feedback of a former member of Young Writers’ Studio.

 

In my head, there is a universe.  Several, in fact, ranging from the fully inhabited to the barren. There are people, here, drifting through the darkness, their lives exploding into detail and interest, forming the worlds around them and giving them meaning.  Their lives intersect beautifully, weaving into a tapestry that spans the continents of memory.  But all knitters have cats, and there is not a cat that can resist a good ball of yarn, especially when it feeds into a great work.
The cat has no name.
Not now, anyways.  He unraveled it from the tapestry, and it was gone in a puddle of thread, and no one could remember it.  My cat plays with the tapestry when I’m away, pulling threads and unraveling lifetimes of story.  I could scold him, but it wouldn’t mend the tapestry.  Instead, I write.
I write, for there are worlds in my mind, and nowhere else.
I write, for they are grand things, and I will not always be here.
I write, before my cat unravels the tapestry and I forget.
This is why I write.  This is why all of us write, who hold other worlds in our minds.  

We write because we must.

Henry Kempker
Student
Wittenberg University

Happy Writing!

One of the Ten Best in Columbus

Thurber House was just named one of the ten best Columbus attractions and activities by 10best.com. We are so proud to be included in such a great list with other fantastic Columbus attractions! Check out the list here.

Thurber House Receives Grant From the National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts awarded a $15,000 grant to Thurber House, the non-profit literary center and museum in downtown Columbus. The grant, the first Thurber House has received from the NEA in its 27-year history, will support select writing programs and the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

The NEA grant will support the Children’s Summer Writing Camps, Young Writers’ Studios, Adult Writing Workshops and the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

Through these programs, Thurber House works to fulfill its mission: To celebrate the written word for the education and entertainment of the broadest possible audience, and to continue the legacy of James Thurber.

Did you know…?

Since 2001, the JPMorgan Chase Foundation has been the sole corporate sponsor of one of Thurber House’s signature programs: The Children’s Writer-in-Residence. Unique in the country, this program offers a children’s book writer/illustrator a month-long residency in the furnished third floor apartment of Thurber House. And thanks to JPMorgan Chase’s commitment to education, the authors who have been in residence have been able to reach out in the community and share their experience and expertise with youngsters in a variety of environments while having time to develop their own works.

In fact, the 2008 resident, Alan Silberberg, just won the 2011 Sid Fleischman Award for Humor for his book, Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze, which he wrote and illustrated while in residence at Thurber House.

It is rare that a corporation is as steadfast and loyal in its philanthropic endeavors as the JPMorgan Chase Foundation has been with this program, and we wanted to give a ‘shout out’ of thanks and praise.

OSU Read-a-thon this Friday!

What a way to spend a Friday!

Can you think of a better way to spend a day than reading for hours on end and raising money for Thurber House? Apparently neither could the Sigma Tau Delta English honors fraternity at Ohio State. This Friday they will be reading at the OSU Union from 9 a.m.-midnight and all the student raised pledges and donations collected at the door, will be donated to Thurber House to be used for scholarships.  We are excited to be a recipient of this fundraiser and if you time it just right, you might catch staffers Pat Shannon and Meg Brown perform a Thurber reading (specific time is yet to be determined)! So take a coffee break, lunch break or just a Friday break, and support Sigma Tau Delta and Thurber House! If you’re lucky, maybe you can sneak in a few chapters yourself.

Support Sigma Tau Delta’s Read-a-thon and Thurber House!

WHO: Sigma Tau Delta, The International English Honor Society (Ohio State Branch)
WHERE: The New Ohio Union (1739 N. High St.)
WHEN: 9am-12am on Friday, February 18th 2011
Donations welcome

Website Temporarily Down

We are sorry for the inconvenience, but our website, http://www.thurberhouse.org, is temporarily unavailable.

To order tickets, and to find our more information about Thurber House, our programs, and events, please call 614-464-1032 ext. 11.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. We are in the process of resolving this issue.

Thurber House on Ghost Hunters!

Air date change: Get the popcorn ready! Thurber House will be appearing on THIS weeks episode of Ghost Hunters on the SyFy Channel. Tune in to see what Jason, Grant and the rest of the TAPS team uncover when they spent the night at Thurber House this past summer!

The show will air on the SyFy Channel this Wednesday, October 13 at 9:00 p.m.  Visit SyFy.com for more details and to catch a sneak peak!

Thurber House Launches a New Website!

Thurber House is pleased to announce the launch of our brand new website!

This new and improved format is easier to navigate and offers one-click service to everything Thurber House does. You’ll be able to buy your tickets to our literary events, keep up with all of our adult and children’s programming, learn more about James Thurber and Thurber House- the museum, and much, much more.

Go to http://www.thurberhouse.org and check it out!