Library to Host Author Reading, Writing Workshop

Tompkins County Public Library will host authors Anthony DiRenzo and Andrei Guruianu for a reading from their recent release, “Dead Reckoning: Transatlantic Passages on Europe and America,” and “Word and Image: Art and Creative Writing in the Age of Hybrid Narratives,” a free, companion writing workshop, Saturday, July 23 at 2 p.m. in the BorgWarner Community Room.

A lyrical look at whether Western culture will successfully navigate the difficult waters of the new millennium or shipwreck itself on the mistakes of the past two centuries, Dead Reckoning explores--through the eyes of Italian American essayist DiRenzo and Romanian American poet Guruianu—the limitations of memory, the transience of existence, the futility of history, and the difficulties of making art and meaning in the 21^st Century.

DiRenzo and Guruianu will read from the book before facilitating the Word and Image workshop.  During Word and Image, participants will explore the intersection of image and text by looking at various forms of traditional and digital collage and discussing their link to creative writing as a means of idea generation for poetry, lyric and personal essays, and flash fiction.

Workshop attendees will have the opportunity to construct their own narrative collages--using old magazines, books and photographs--and then compose an original piece of writing to go along with it. All materials will be provided. 

Guruianu teaches in the Expository Writing Program at New York University. His previous books include the poetry collections “Made in the Image of Stones” and “Portrait without a Mouth.”

DiRenzo is an associate professor of writing at Ithaca College and the author of many books, including “Bitter Greens: Essays on Food, Politics, and Ethnicity from the Imperial Kitchen.”

Both the reading and writing workshop are free and open to the public. To register, contact Carrie Wheeler-Carmenatty at cwheeler@tcpl.org or (607) 272-4557 extension 248.

Funding for this program has been provided by Poets and Writers.