BookWoman is please to pleased to announce that Wishing Chair is returning for another incredible evening of music!

Wishing Chair is the award winning folk and roll duo of songwriter Kiya Heartwood and multi instrumentalist Miriam Davidson. Since 1995, multi-instrumentalist Miriam Davidson and songwriter Kiya Heartwood have made an art of inspiring performances and award winning songs. A Wishing Chair concert is a passionate mix of intelligent lyrics, spell-binding storytelling and breathtaking harmony over a full folk and roll sound.

Unspeakable Violence addresses the epistemic and physical violence inflicted on racialized and gendered subjects in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands from the mid-nineteenth century through the early twentieth. Arguing that this violence was fundamental to U.S., Mexican, and Chicana/o nationalisms, Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández examines the lynching of a Mexican woman in California in 1851, the Camp Grant Indian Massacre of 1871, the racism evident in the work of the anthropologist Jovita González, and the attempted genocide, between 1876 and 1907, of the Yaqui Indians in the Arizona–Sonora borderlands. Guidotti-Hernández shows that these events have been told and retold in ways that have produced particular versions of nationhood and effaced other issues. Scrutinizing stories of victimization and resistance, and celebratory narratives of mestizaje and hybridity in Chicana/o, Latina/o, and borderlands studies, she contends that by not acknowledging the racialized violence perpetrated by Mexicans, Chicanas/os, and indigenous peoples, as well as Anglos, narratives of mestizaje and resistance inadvertently privilege certain brown bodies over others. Unspeakable Violence calls for a new, transnational feminist approach to violence, gender, sexuality, race, and citizenship in the borderlands

Nicole Guidotti-Hernández Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also the Associate Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies. She received her doctorate degree from Cornell University in English, with a graduate minor in Latina/o Studies in 2004. and is a regular contributor to the feminist magazine Ms.. 

On Breathing & Long Distance is a compilation of Beth’s previously published and never-before-seen poems spanning from 2003 to 2011. Provocative photography by Carla Vargas-Frank (of the Bluebeard’s Daughters project), Alexandra Kirkilis (of ixi.photography), Arielle Lewis-Zavala, and Painter (of the Painter Project) complement almost each poem to complete a unique and inspiring work of art, poetry, and passion.

On Breathing & Long Distance includes poems on sex and sarcasm, temerity and tenderness. The words within are both personal and universal, both intimate and brazen. 

Presented in eight different sections, the poems move from the ‘becoming’ of self through joy, dreams, the different stages of relationships, the fall from grace into sin, and circle around to the re-birthing or ‘dawn’ of the self. The poems vary in style and subject, yet all hold the essential flavor of words, punctuation, pacing and imagery that is essentially Beth.  

Readers of Beth’s previously published work on haggardandhalloo.com know her style by her “trademark sex-speak” and “strong emotional symbolism.” Her work has been hailed as “the kind of sit-down, brace yourself, open your head, and let the words flow type” and a “‘bare-bones tell-all’ style that is so sensual, erotic and personal like secret feelings in confession.” Readers call her poetry “accessible,” “breathless,” “evocative,” “honest,” and “stunning.” 

This book is primarily for a mature audience. 

Beth Cortez-Neavel has lived and played in Austin for over 20 years and has been writing for almost as long. She enjoys cooking, writing, sarcasm, good art and video games set on “easy.”Beth was first published online at poetsagainstthewar.org as a teenager in 2003. Since then Beth has been published in print and online in a few anthologies and electronic magazines. She makes sporadic appearances at open mics and poetry readings around Austin. 

Her short essay “Vacation from Life” was published in Writing Austin’s Lives: A Community Portrait in 2004. She has been a regular contributor to the e-zine Haggardandhalloo.com since 2007. She was a finalist in the 2011 Austin International Poetry Festival with her poem “Stars”, which was also published in their 2011 anthology Di-verse-city. Beth is currently working toward a Master of Arts degree in Professional Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. 

The birth of the 1970s' punk movement as seen through the eyes of Chicana feminist and punk musician Alice Bag...

The proximity of the East L.A. barrio to Hollywood is as close as a short drive on the 101 freeway, but the cultural divide is enormous. Born to Mexican-born and American-naturalized parents, Alicia Armendariz migrated a few miles west to participate in the free-range birth of the 1970s punk movement. Alicia adopted the punk name Alice Bag, and became lead singer for The Bags, early punk visionaries who starred in Penelope Spheeris' documentary The Decline of Western Civilization.

Here is a life of many crossed boundaries, from East L.A.'s musica ranchera to Hollywood's punk rock; from a violent male-dominated family to female-dominated transgressive rock bands. Alice's feminist sympathies can be understood by the name of her satiric all-girl early Goth band Castration Squad.

Violence Girl takes us from a violent upbringing to an aggressive punk sensibility; this time a difficult coming-of-age memoir culminates with a satisfying conclusion, complete with a happy marriage and children. Nearly a hundred excellent photographs energize the text in remarkable ways. 

Our April pick is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the first book in her bestselling "Underland Chronicles" series delivers equal parts suspense and philosophy, adventure and romance, in a stunning novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to the present.

The BookWoman BookGroup usually meets on the 4th Tuesday of each month and we read and discuss a variety of genres. New members welcome! Come join us! 

Cyrus Cassells' fifth book commemorates the blazing integrity of young people caught in the vise of World War II. In its journey through the "anti-miracle" of Europe's embattled past, The Crossed-Out Swastika follows the lives of historical and semi-fictional characters to unearth and amplify moments of almost impossible music, bravery, beauty, and redemption, illuminating the human spirit against unspeakable tyranny.

Cyrus Cassells grew up in the Mojave Desert. He graduated from Stanford University and has worked as a translator, film critic, and actor; he currently teaches poetry in the MFA program at Texas State University–San Marcos. Cyrus' poetry has been widely praised and he has received numerous accolades including a Pushcart Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, the National Poetry Series Prize, and the William Carlos Williams Award, as well as fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Austin, Texas. 

In the 1950s, Yale University Press published a number of Gertrude Stein's posthumous works, among them her incomparable Stanzas in Meditation. Since that time, scholars have discovered that Stein's poem exists in several versions: a manuscript that Stein wrote and two typescripts that her partner Alice B. Toklas prepared. Toklas’s work on the second typescript changed the poem when, enraged upon detecting in it references to a former lover, she not only adjusted the typescript but insisted that Stein make revisions in the original manuscript.

This edition of Stanzas in Meditation is the first to confront the complicated story of its composition and revision. Through meticulous archival work, the editors present a reliable reading text of Stein's original manuscript, as well as an appendix with the textual variants among the poem's several versions. This record of Stein's multi-layered revisions enables readers to engage more fully with the author's radically experimental poem and also to detect the literary impact of Stein's relationship with Toklas. The editors’ preface and poet Joan Retallack’s introduction offer insight into the complexities of reading Stein's poetry and the innovative modes of reading that her works require and generate. Students and admirers of Stein will welcome this illuminating new contribution to Stein’s oeuvre.

Susannah Hollister is ACLS New Faculty Fellow, University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Austin, TX. Emily Setina is an assistant professor of English at Baylor University. She lives in Waco, TX. 

A nomad writer finds herself roughnecking it on a wildcat drilling operation in a meth-ridden former boom town in San Joaquin Valley. When a coworker turns up dead, she suspects foul play and sets out to solve a murder mystery - but will she be the next victim?  Knode brings the edgy, colorful, and dangerous world of oil and gas drilling to life and hers leuth Ann Whitehead is an original.

Helen Knode put her experiences as a staff writer and film critic for the "L.A. Weekly" into her first novel, The Ticket Out. She was born in Calgary, Alberta, heart of the Canadian oil business, and Knodes have worked in oil since the nineteenth century, a history that inspired Wildcat Play. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Review Quotes:

"This book is a blast -- a gutsy, funny heroine and a story that's a pulse-pounding thrill ride."-Janet Evanovich

Ed Madden will be reading from his latest book of poetry, Prodigal: Variations. Reading and book signing.

The poems in Ed Madden's second collection of poetry, Prodigal: Variations, explore relations between men--fathers, sons, brothers, lovers--as well as questions of home and exile, memory and longing, and the promises and compromises of any return. In poems that are at once both mythical and deeply personal, Madden asks how we define home, what stories impel us, what rituals and relationships sustain us in a world shaped by loss

Madden's first book of poetry, Signals, won the 2007 South Carolina Poetry Book Prize. His work also appears in Best New Poets 2007, Collective Brightness, and Notre Dame's The Book of Irish American Poetry from the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Madden is an associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina, where he teaches Irish literature, creative writing, and gender studies. Madden received his MA and PhD from the University of Texas.

Venus Illuminated: Diaries from the Underworld

Lover, Avenger, Avatar – trickster Venus is always changing form.  From innocent Persephone blithely picking narcissus to grieving Isis seeking her lost love to enraged Inanna banishing her beloved -- in ancient times the goddess’ travels in the Underworld were a source mystery and magic far removed from our modern saccharine image of Venus.

Astronomically speaking, shining Venus disappears from the night sky every 18 months on her voyage between the Earth and Sun. Viewed through the lens of mythology, this 40-day retrograde represents the Goddess’ descent into the Underworld.  But 2012 marks a rare celestial event that occurs in pairs once in a lifetime. Venus’ Underworld journey is illuminated: on June 5, Venus will be visible traveling across the face of the solar disk.

What does the uncloaking of Venus’ secret sojourn herald for us? Astrologer Donna Woodwell will explore Venus’ rich archetypal history, as well as reflect on the faces of Venus as she manifests in your life, and collectively in our changing word. 

A true Renaissance woman, Donna Woodwell is an astrologer, writer, hypnotist, and Internet entrepreneur. Her mission: to live creatively with passion, purpose, abundance and joy, and empower others to do the same. An active member of the astrological community, Donna teaches at Kepler College and serves as board member of the International Society for Astrological Research (ISAR). She lives in Austin, Texas. Catch up on her latest projects at www.fourmoonsastrology.com.

Poet and novelist Ken Fontenot hails originally from New Orleans. He won the Austin Book Award for his collection of poems "All My Animals and Stars," and has just published a new book of poetry, "In A Kingdom of Birds." Ken holds an M. A. in German Language, and was awarded a DADD fellowship to study in Germany. His novel, "For Mr. Raindrinker," is set in 1970s New Orleans.

Cindy Huyser is co-editor of the Texas Poetry Calendar. Her poetry can be found in The Comstock Review, Borderlands, and Wild Plum, as well as numerous anthologies.

Every second Thursday. Bring some poems to share or just come and enjoy!  

Join host Liz Belile in a rollicking reading by moms, for moms, on the Secret Lives of Mothers...the Sex, Politics, and Religion edition! Tales from the dark side of mothering...and of course, movement toward the light. Etc. Refreshments and entertainment to treat yourself. It's a Spa Day...for the MIND and HEART.