Two weeks from today you can hear a great presentation by Solace in So Many Words contributor Joan Corwin. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this year marks the 100-year anniversary of World War I. Safe Shall Be My Going is Joan’s prize-winning novella about that war and she will be reading from it at Evanston Public Library, Sunday, December 14, at 3 pm.
Joan wrote to me about the upcoming event in an email: “As many of you know, July 28, 2014 marked the centennial of the beginning of World War I. The Evanston Public Library and the Evanston History Center have been offering programs since August in remembrance of the Great War. The library has been hosting a series of lectures, book discussions and films centered around the war.
I am scheduled to present a reading/lecture/Q&A on Sunday, December 14th at 3 p.m. at the Evanston Public Library as part of their yearlong commemoration of World War I. I will be discussing my novella Safe Shall Be My Going, which is largely set on the battlefields of the Western Front.”
I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Joan read from this book. The writing is stellar, which is probably why the novella was chosen by Roy Kesey to win the First Annual Press 53 Open Award. When Joan reads the book , it is brought to life.
Here’s how Evanston Public Library describes the event: “Corwin employs several distinct British dialects and incorporates letters in the narrative to tell the story of one remarkable English platoon on the Western Front. The soldiers of the ‘charmed platoon’ survive nearly two years of the war almost casualty-free, spectacularly defeating the terrible odds that were a consequence of the stalemate at the front. Their experience of the war grows in depth and meaning as it is registered through the eyes of their reflective sergeant Colin Pearce, whose personal journey toward understanding is at the center of the novella. As the men’s secret to evading death is revealed, their efforts to endure the unthinkable become a testament to the triumph of storytelling itself.”
Joan’s presentation will take place in the Community Meeting Room on the First Floor of the Main Library, 1703 Orrington. Here’s the Evanston Library link.
One more thing, Press 53 no longer publishes an Open Award anthology but instead sponsors various individual contests. The Short Fiction Award contest for a collection of short fiction is still open for this year. Check this link.
Peace, love, and solace
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