Happy Autumn! Videos, books, & a spooky story
Life has been a whirlwind since my last newsletter! After teaching two summer courses for Guerilla Opera’s Libretto Labs, I had time in August to work on libretti and one of my scholarly projects, a monograph on gender and race in silent film music. In September I began teaching again for Guerilla Opera, this time leading the 9-month Writers’ Collective, and I also attended the West Coast premiere of MARIE CURIE LEARNS TO SWIM by New Wave Opera in Portland, Oregon. NWO did a spectacular job and we got great reviews! You can watch the a performance (with ASL interpretation) here.
In November, I’ll be heading to Salt Lake City for the workshop and workshop performances of Act 2 of PROTECTRESS by Opera Contempo on November 22. If you’re in the area, click here to get free tickets.
Other works in progress continue apace! Angela Elizabeth Salter and I are working on THIS IS JANE, and I hope to have more news on that in my next newsletter.
If you’re a singer and want to support abortion rights, you can download my and Jessica Rudman’s song “Where It’s Safe” for free and perform it anywhere, any time. Let me know if you want it transposed.
Wisp had a cancerous tumor removed and spent two weeks in a cone, which she quickly learned how to use as a weapon in hunting (but not actually catching) lizards and pushing everyone around the house. She’s fine now; no recurrences are expected.
BOOKS
I’ve reviewed so many books since my last missive that I’m just going to list the 5/5s and send you to my website for the details.
FICTION
The Entirely True Story of the Fantastical Mesmerist Nora Grey by Kathleen Kaufman.
The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey.
Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley.
The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Takehiko Fukunaga; Yoshie Hotta; Shin'ichiro Nakamura; trans. by Jeffrey Angles.
Needle Lake by Justine Champine.
The Ferryman and His Wife by Frode Grytten.
Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards.
Strange Animals by Jarod K. Anderson.
Helm by Sarah Hall.
The Salvage by Anbara Salam.
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan.
NONFICTION
Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez.
Motherland by Julia Ioffe.
A Flower Traveled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland.
Chinese Songs in a French Key by Pauline Yu.
POETRY
Natural History by Brandon Kilbourne.
New Cemetery by Simon Armitage.
How About Now by Kate Baer.
GRAPHIC NOVELS
Heaven, West Virginia by Ravi Teixeira.
A BOAT ON THE NILE
Over the summer I presented at two conferences on music and sound in M.R. James’s stories and so for Halloween I’ve written my own sequel-prequel of sorts to his famous story “O Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,” and you can read it here for free!
Happy Halloween, Blessed Samhain, and Happy Autumn!
