Tag: charlottesville author

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Pick: Leah ‘n’ Lulu’s Virtual Picnic

Former Charlottesville resident Lulu Miller discusses her new book, "Why Fish Don't Exist," Thursday at noon. Publicity photo

Outside chances: The environment is getting a healthy respite right now thanks to less human activity around the globe. Is it possible to get back out there with intention and a newfound respect? Two area authors consider the role of nature in our lives during Leah ‘n’ Lulu’s Virtual Picnic, an immersion in “environmental writing in your own backyard.” Poet Leah Naomi Green (The More Extravagant Feast) and author Lulu Miller (Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life) will read and discuss their work, then offer writing prompts to the audience. Outdoor seating is recommended.

Thursday, May 28. Free, noon. Zoom registration required. virginiahumanities.org.

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Culture

Pick: Publishing pivot

Saturday, April 4, graphic novelist Laura Lee Gulledge discusses her new book, The Dark Matter of Mona Starr, alongside fellow local author M.K. England. Image courtesy Laura Lee Gulledge

It goes without saying that the coronavirus pandemic has altered life as usual, but for area creatives the show must go on. Taking the place of her scheduled book release appearances, local author Laura Lee Gulledge is hopping on Facebook Live to discuss The Dark Matter of Mona Starr, a YA graphic novel that explores anxiety, depression, the hurdles of high school, and creativity through evocative and sometimes surreal imagery. Gulledge will be joined in the discussion by fellow YA author M.K. England.

Saturday, April 4. 1pm. Facebook.com/lauraleegulledge.

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Culture

Many angles: Lisa Speidel’s new book talks about happy sex and more

In her book The Edge of Sex, UVA’s Lisa Speidel hopes to encourage more comfortable conversations about sex. Photo by Dan Addison

When Lisa Speidel joined the Sexual Assault Resource Agency in the early 1990s, she had no idea her work in sexual assault prevention would lead to a career in sex education. But one graduate program, one assistant professorship, and 27 years teaching women’s self-defense later, she’s become an advocate for sexual awareness as a path to agency. 

“Sex is such a big part of who we are, but we’re socialized with so much shame, and not understanding that pleasure can be okay,” says Speidel, who is C-VILLE Weekly’s new sex columnist. “If we can’t talk about happy sex, how are we supposed to talk about sexual violation?”

As an assistant professor in the women, gender and sexuality department at the University of Virginia, Speidel’s background in sexual assault education lends a unique perspective to her work in the classroom.

“[At SARA], I started examining the role of masculinity and how that plays a role in violence against women in particular,” she says. “We’ve expanded in that language (now we call it gender-based violence) because it’s not just about violence against women.” 

Since then, Speidel says there’s been a movement to talk about sexual assault prevention not only through reactionary measures like self-defense and bystander intervention, but also through primary prevention—promoting healthy sexuality and healthy masculinity to stop assault from happening to begin with. 

“I really feel strongly that if we were able to have conversations around this more openly, a lot of damage could be avoided,” she says.

Today, Speidel teaches four courses at UVA: human sexualities, men and masculinities, gender-based violence, and gender and sexuality studies. She sees each subject as interconnected, a necessary educational offering for students who’ve been failed by traditional sex education.

“There’s no consistency for how sex education happens in this country, she says. “We don’t have a national curriculum, it’s really state-based, and a large percentage of the federal funding goes towards abstinence-only. So a lot of people aren’t getting any information at all, but then they go to college and start becoming sexually active, and it’s not a particularly great experience for a lot of people.”

Speidel hears it directly from her students. “I do a lot of reflective writing in my classes, and people are very open and honest,” she says. 

Ultimately, her students were the reason she began teaching about the pleasurable side of sex. During one of her intro classes on gender and sexuality studies, she remembers a student who raised his hand after she shared the statistic that only 25 percent of women can have an orgasm with penetrative intercourse. “He asked, ‘But I don’t understand why that would happen for someone with a vagina.’ For me, that was a pivotal moment. I realized I needed to be teaching a human sexuality class.”

Speidel points out that most people are terrified of having these conversations. In a dynamic where “people feel isolated based on sexual orientations or gender identities, women feel like they don’t have a voice, [and] men feel socialized that they’re supposed to have all the answers,” our lack of safe spaces to have open conversations about sex is a real problem. 

The world of academia offers a solution, she says, if educators work to create brave spaces for people to be courageous. “If you can create an environment where it’s like, ‘Okay, I have to read about this,’ and there’s research and books written about it, it’s a tool to get those conversations going. You know, the conversations we don’t do very well in our everyday lives.”

To help facilitate these conversations both in and outside the classroom, Speidel and her former student Micah Jones have co-authored a book titled The Edge of Sex: Navigating a Sexually Confusing Culture From the Margins. The anthology includes work from 37 writers, half of whom are former students of Speidel’s, as they discuss their experiences of sex and sex education in America. 

The Edge of Sex appeals not only to clinicians working on issues of gender identity and sexuality, but also to casual readers who want to immerse themselves in education outside the classroom. 

“It’s all about marginalized or unheard voices, and how exclusion, and exclusionary practices in sex education, really affects people’s identity and developing,” Speidel says. “If you’re going to have conversations with your own children, or if you’re having conversations with each other, there’s some skill building and understanding available.”

As Speidel has experienced firsthand in her career, exposure to a variety of voices and perspectives is the first step in creating positive change. The Edge of Sex not only sheds light for readers, it empowers them to realize they’re not alone, and community and resources exist to help them.

“I think a lot of people will find themselves in this book,” she says. “The first chapter is [by someone writing] about faking orgasms for 30 years. The next is about someone who’s trans. It’s just a huge spectrum of voices.”

Speidel says that it’s important to celebrate all the choices that people make in ways that are safe, happy, and consensual. “It’s such a cliché, but knowledge is power,” she says. “Learning how to communicate and how to decrease dynamics that make people feel shameful and bad about themselves—there’s a domino effect.”

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Arts

Magic and tech: M.K. England’s second novel blurs sci-fi and fantasy

With Spellhacker, M.K. England delivers a young adult sci-fi/fantasy mash-up. “What I really wanted was a Star Wars book with queer characters in it,” says England.

As the branch manager for the Scottsville Library and a former young adult librarian at the Crozet Library, it’s safe to say local author M.K. England knows books. And when England set out to write a YA novel, it was important that the stories held personal resonance.

“I just wanted fun adventures that had people like me,” says England, whose sophomore novel Spellhacker is out now. “I knew those were the kinds of stories I wanted to tell.”

In Spellhacker, an adventurous young adult sci-fi/fantasy mash-up set in the futuristic city of Kyrkarta, England follows Diz, a talented hacker with communication issues, and her three best friends: Ania, Remi, and Jaesin. In a world where magic—known as “maz”—was once a readily available natural resource, it’s been heavily regulated since an earthquake unleashed a toxic strain, causing a massive spellplague. The four friends combine their unique talents (Ania, a techwitch; Remi, a spellweaver; and Jaesin, brute strength) to run an illegal maz siphoning business, but it’s all coming to an end as Diz’s friends prepare to go to college and leave her behind. They agree to take on one last ultra-dangerous heist but get more than they bargain for when an explosion uncovers a conspiracy—and threatens the future of the world.

Spellhacker is an exciting romp through an artfully crafted world with fascinating technology, captivating magic, and a delightfully diverse cast of characters. And, believe it or not, the idea for the plot came about due to a game of Dungeons & Dragons.

“Something in the game we were playing made me think ‘magic hackers’—but that is not a book,” England says. “That is just the tiniest seed of an idea.”

Yet, it was a seed that would grow into an entire world. England began the work by asking questions to establish the necessary truths that would make these characters and this setting come to life. “I started poking at the idea and all the inherent assumptions,” England said. “That leads me out farther and farther until I have the basic building blocks of the world.”

However, while Spellhacker takes place in a deeply creative and believable world, the novel is driven by the strength of the characters—though England admits to initial concern that audiences wouldn’t connect with Diz.

“One of the things that made me want to tell this story—and want to tell Diz’s story specifically—is that she has some rather unhealthy things in common with me as a teen and early 20s person in that I did not know how to have healthy emotions and express them,” says England. “I knew that might potentially alienate people.”

Yet, despite her frustrating inability to navigate complex emotions, Diz is an acutely relatable narrator and, magic and futuristic technology aside, the impending transition point of her friends leaving for college is one with which many young readers will identify. After all, isn’t that why we’re drawn to fiction: to see reflections of ourselves in the plight of characters? England had this same desire as a young reader of science fiction—and a lack of queer representation helped inspire the types of stories they would go on to write.

“What I really wanted was a Star Wars book with queer characters in it,” England says.

And Spellhacker lives up to this goal. Unlike many other young adult books with queer characters, the story is not defined by queerness. While there is a love story between Diz and Remi, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, neither character’s sexuality or gender identity is ever discussed or utilized as a plot point—a choice that was intentional on England’s behalf.

“The world that I created is extremely queer normalized,” they say. “It is just not a big deal. It’s just part of the world that we don’t need to talk about because it’s not an issue.”

While England recognizes the importance of stories that focus on the modern, pressing issues LGBTQ teens face, both Spellhacker and England’s debut, The Disasters, tell stories of diverse characters simply living their lives. Sure, living their lives also involves trying to save the world, but that’s all part of the fun.

“There’s been a big push in the last few years to make sure we’re also including those stories where people just are who they are—and they also fly around in spaceships and have adventures,” England says.

When it comes to having adventures, Spellhacker certainly delivers. With cheeky dialogue and character chemistry that sizzles on the page, England’s novel explores themes of greed, power, environmentalism, family, love and trust. It begs the universal questions: What makes a family? What matters most? And what’s scarier: a potentially deadly strain of magic…or opening up your heart?

But most importantly, it invites readers to see themselves —even in characters with whom, at first glance, they may not have much in common. “I hope that, as with all books everywhere, readers walk away with greater empathy,” England says.

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Arts

Dancing with disaster: Adam Nemett offers hope for the future in We Can Save Us All

Adam Nemett will read from and celebrate the launch of We Can Save Us All on Thursday at New Dominion Bookshop. Photo by Jen Fariello

After months of involvement with SURJ and Charlottesville Resistance Choir, author Adam Nemett saw the statue debate become a community catalyst during the events of August 11 and 12, 2017.

“I have tremendous respect for the anti-racist and anti-fascist heroes that were out there on the streets putting their bodies on the line to protect our community when the police refused to,” he says. “That experience showed how much needs to be improved here, but it also showed that there’s a lot of resilience in Charlottesville.”

Nemett notices how people band together in the face of potential disaster because he’s a longtime student of the subject. After graduating from high school in Baltimore, he went to college at Princeton during what he describes as a “pretty heavy” time. “1999 was Columbine, 2000 was the Bush/Gore election, 2001 was 9/11, and then the war that followed,” he says. “I feel like it was a period where we [as Americans] went from this naiveté, or feeling of pure safety and security in this country, to something a bit darker.”

Against this backdrop, Nemett took writing and religion classes while building something new on campus: a student organization that hosted parties and events showcasing diverse forms of music. “There was no one else that was going to come in and create the kind of social life that I and a lot of other people wanted,” he says. “So we all just said, ‘Well, let’s do it. Let’s us do it.’”

The group’s grassroots approach, taking one slow step after another, created a “mini-movement” with nearly 600 members at Princeton. Eighteen years later, MIMA Music has morphed into a global non-profit organization, one that provides innovative music education to kids and adults in underserved areas.

When Nemett started the Charlottesville chapter of MIMA two years ago, he drew on those same community-building skills, knowing “if you put in the hours and do the work, something cool can happen.”

His novel, We Can Save Us All, is a testament to his dedication (it took 12 years to write and publish), as well as to Nemett’s observations of how people behave during periods of upheaval. The story centers around a group of Princeton students leading a movement across college campuses while the world teeters on the brink of apocalypse: climate disasters create a global state of emergency and America is perpetually at war.

Those speculative aspects that “felt really far-fetched 12 years ago,” Nemett says, “now feel really realistic. Especially in terms of this very charismatic but very unhinged leader figure coming to power at a dangerous time, and other apocalyptic phenomenon going on around it. Unfortunately, the world caught up to the book a little bit.”

Crafting disaster while watching the world follow suit has been a jarring experience, he says. “Some of the book was based on 1930s and ’40s Germany. I’m Jewish and I’ve always been horrified and fascinated with how something like that could happen. In the beginning, it felt like light years in the past, and it was hard to imagine something like that could ever happen again.”

Writing the book became a thought experiment of sorts, a way for Nemett to challenge his own complacency around systems, institutions, and norms he felt could come crashing down at any minute. “What kind of organization might I have wanted to start if my issue hadn’t been ‘there’s not enough good music to listen to on campus,’ but ‘Oh, God, the power’s been out for three weeks’? What would happen if a new student movement rose up around this very dark period where the future was uncertain, and what would that look like?”

Officially out on November 13, We Can Save Us All has already garnered critical praise and landed on numerous top 10 lists. At a time when life imitates art—climate disasters loom large and political upheaval fuels fear—you might expect such a book to feed your anxiety. But after dancing with disaster for more than a decade, Nemett says he came away with a real sense of hope.

“We think of dystopia, the apocalypse, and the post-apocalyptic world in this very cinematic, Mad Max hellscape way,” he says. “Everything is terrible and everyone’s trying to kill each other over cans of soup.”

But, he says, the mob riot mentality doesn’t bear out in real life. “Historically, all the way up to Hurricane Katrina, the people on the ground do an amazing, beautiful job of banding together and creating these improvisational, mutual aid societies. The danger comes when the state or the elites or the media just want to portray it as a dog-eat-dog scenario.”

Which leads Nemett to another thought experiment. “What if it wasn’t dog-eat-dog?” he asks. “What if this destructive period is building something very progressive and evolved—a model for how civilization and communities can and should exist in the future? Maybe it looks very different. Maybe it’s simpler, harder, and there’s less comfort involved. But it might just be more human, more spiritually satisfying, and more uplifting in the long run. If we can keep our heads during these tough periods and work to help each other.”

Adam Nemett will read from and celebrate the launch of We Can Save Us All on Thursday at New Dominion Bookshop.

Categories
Arts

Book marks: A year of reading local authors

There’s no denying it: Charlottesville is a wordsmith-rich town. Whether you’re looking for a page-turner for the beach, autumnal meditations in the form of poetry, or a fireside companion for a winter’s night, there are enough local writers publishing books each year to keep your shelves well-stocked. Here are some of the titles published by area authors in 2017.

Fiction

Corban Addison, A Harvest of Thorns

A journalist seeks to expose an American retailer’s culpability in a factory fire in Bangladesh that killed hundreds of workers.

Hannah Barnaby, Garcia & Collette Go Exploring

Two friends go on separate adventures, one into space, one under the sea.

Rita Mae Brown, A Hiss Before Dying

Set in Crozet, two present-day murders point to a mystery dating from the American Revolution.

John Grisham

Camino Island

Diverging from his legal thrillers, Grisham spins a literary mystery, beginning with the disappearance of some F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts.

The Rooster Bar

A return to form, this legal thriller finds three law school friends confronting a moral dilemma as they discover their professional future is in jeopardy.

Jan Karon, To Be Where You Are: A Mitford Novel

Fourteenth in the series, this Mitford novel sees Father Kavanagh into retirement.

BettyJoyce Nash and Deirdra McAfee, Lock & Load: Armed Fiction

This edited anthology centers on the gun in contemporary American short stories.

Anne Marie Pace, Groundhug Day

A groundhog is invited to a Valentine’s Day party but is afraid he’ll see his shadow.

Caroline Preston, The War Bride’s Scrapbook

Through vintage postcards, photographs and historic headlines, Preston weaves a story of love and shifting gender roles during World War II.

Erika Raskin, Best Intentions

This medical thriller, which takes place in Richmond, raises questions about medical practice and social justice.

Sean Rubin, Bolivar

In this beautifully illustrated graphic novel, a dinosaur lives in New York City undetected, mostly.

Shelley Sackier, The Freemason’s Daughter

Told through the eyes of a Scottish lass, this YA historical novel tells the story of the Jacobites.

Non-fiction

Kathryn Erskine, Mama Africa!

This book illustrates the life of a South African singer who challenged apartheid.

Khizr Khan, An American Family

Khizr Khan recounts his life as a Muslim American immigrant, Harvard Law School graduate, and husband and father whose son, Humayun, died in the Iraq War in 2004.

Donna M. Lucey, Sargent’s Women

The author reveals the lives of four women who sat for American portraitist John Singer Sargent.

Stefan Bechtel and Laurence Roy Stains, Through a Glass, Darkly

This work explores Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s role in spiritualism and his communications with the dead.

Sharon Harrigan, Playing with Dynamite

A daughter seeks answers to questions surrounding her father’s mysterious death.

Elizabeth Meade Howard, Aging Famously

In this collection of short essays, Howard discusses aging with locals and celebrities.

Lisa Jakub, Not Just Me

Through her own experience and interviews with others, Jakub explores treatment for anxiety.

Joe Junod, INK: A Life in Letters

This memoir recounts the author’s career and experiences in journalism.

Jeff Kamen with Leslie Stone-Kamen, Warrior Pups: True Stories of America’s K9 Heroes

With color photographs, this book tells the stories of the humans and canines in the U.S. Military Working Dog Program.

Beatrix Ost, More Than Everything: My Voyage with the Gods of Love

Beginning in Munich at the end of World War II, this memoir follows the author into a marriage inevitably impacted by war.

Lisa Russ Spaar, Orexia

Spaar explores late-middle age desire in this collection of poetry.

Lynn Thorne, Who Am I, If You’re Not You?

This love story chronicles Jennifer and Marika, and Marika’s decision to transition from female to male.

Brendan Wolfe, Mr. Jefferson’s Telescope

An overdue library book from dropout Edgar Allan Poe and a key in the hands of a freed slave are among the objects that tell the history of the University of Virginia.