Jaimy Gordon
Women authors will “rock ‘n’ rule” the ninth annual Kerrytown BookFest this coming Sunday.
As if it isn’t enough that the current National Book Award Winner Jaimy Gordon (0n the left) and the current Caldecott award winner Erin Stead will be making appearances at the 2011 Kerrytown BookFest, nationally-recognized music writer and author Susan Whitall whose roots are in the seminal music magazine “Creem” will discuss their books at the one day event in downtown Ann Arbor.
Robin Agnew, proprietor of Aunt Agatha’s mystery bookstore and Kerrytown Board member said, “The further along we got in our programming this year, the clearer it became that we were featuring many unique and strong female voices throughout the day, from Margaret Noori to Jaimy Gordon to Louise Penny to Bonnie Jo Campbell. It’s a wonderful focus.”
And mystery lovers will get a double shot of love at the Kerrytown BookFest as two of the hottest mystery writers in North America will be in Ann Arbor for presentations at the ninth annual BookFest which features 15 woman authors in all genres.
You have to say “North America“ because Louise Penny hails from a small village near Montreal while her fellow author Stefanie Pintoff is from New York City. Both writers focus their mysteries in their own backyards, and Pintoff skips back to the turn-of-the last-century Gotham in her historical mystery series while Penny’s atmospheric mysteries are set in a contemporary Canadian village much like the one she currently lives in.
(Susan Whitall on the left)
Pintoff has written three mysteries featuring criminologist Alistair Sinclair and Detective Simon Ziele who use the nascent art of criminal science, including profiling, to solve their cases. In her most recent book “Secret of the White Rose” the two must face a diabolical killer who is murdering close friends of Sinclair. A chief suspect is an anarchist who was once a close friend of Ziele’s. Further complicating the investigation is it is intertwined with an anarchist movement which is threatening the roots of American democracy. The author will participate in a panel discussion on “Victorian History Mystery” along with mystery writers Tasha Alexander from Chicago and Canadian author Maureen Jennings.
Pintoff who was a lawyer in her previous career said popular belief has all the breakthroughs in criminal science coming out of the FBI’s Quantico headquarter in the 1970s.
“The reality is it was much closer to the start of the 20th century, when different disciplines began putting together their collective knowledge to solve crimes,” she said.
The Edgar Award-winning author has that time period of history down pat: the overcrowded tenements, workers bristling against vile working conditions and low pay, nativists decrying the immigrants, the smells and sounds of New York streets all portrayed against a backdrop of the anarchist movement plotting to overthrow the country one bomb at a time. (Pintoff above)
Even though, Pintoff admits “taking some liberties” she said she researches her books by reading the contemporary newspapers of the day.
Although she stresses the importance of being historically accurate, Pintoff said, “I always tried to look first at history through the character level.” As a result, her chief characters are to be relished.
Pintoff said she decided to write mysteries since she was “addicted to them”.
“They give me the most pleasure,” she said.
And Pintoff is passing that experience along to her readers. Her writing is clear, crisp and imaginative and her characters are well developed and complex, but not without flaws which make them interesting and more importantly, human.
Penny deals out similar characters in her eight book series which features Chief Inspector Armand Gamache who definitely prefers brains over brawn. In “A Trick of Light” Gamache finds himself in familiar surroundings but once again everything is not how it seems and a central character’s alcoholism and its dehabilitating impact on personal relationships make the case even more complicated.
To Gamache and his close friend and second in command, Jean Guy Beauvoir, being back in Three Pines is like a flashback since it wasn’t long ago another murder drew them there. (Louise Penny on the left)
As Gamache investigates the case the characters and the clues come in various shades and are like a painting where what you see depends on how you look at. Stand one place and you look into the painting; from another location it jumps out at you.
Also woven intricately throughout the investigation are the precepts of Alcoholics Anonymous and the importance of forgiveness and the acceptance of who you are.
Clean and sober for nearly two decades Penny knows of what she writes.
Erin and Philip Stead
“She said if you don’t experience AA it can seem a little strange.” Her writing demystifies AA and its importance in her life. She has written that if she had to choose between being sober and writing, sober would win.
Penny also is clearly at home writing about art and the artist which is another backdrop to the book.
“Until I found my husband (of 17 years) I wasn’t passionate about art.
He was absolutely drawn to art and I am to, but I can never feel as passionate about it.
I love looking at him looking at art and seeing his pleasure.”
Penny said she especially liked weaving art into her most recent book since “all people who create have the same vulnerability and insecurities.”
Although Penny worked nearly two decades as a journalist in Montreal she said when her husband retired they moved to a small village.
“We were yearning for two things: belonging and a quiet place in the bright sunshine.”
These are almost the exact lines Penny uses to describe Three Pines, except in Penny’s book deep shadows are thrown off by the bright sunshine.
The new book opens at a Montreal art exhibit featuring an old friend of Gamache from the Three Pines village. His spouse, daughter and son in law along with his second in command join him and it’s like a reunion except there are those who are not so happy to see Gamache. Not long ago Garmache and Beauvoir solved a murder in the small community, but not before Gamache’s earlier investigation had imprisoned the wrong man for the crime.
In less than a chapter Penny skillfully sets the scene for another murder in the small village and Gamache is pulled back into the maelstrom and shadows of Three Pines where nothing is as it seems.
Mystery readers will especially love Penny’s ability to weave in the style of the old mistresses and masters of English mysteries including P.D. James, Ruth Rendell and of course Arthur Conan Doyle without being heavy-handed and as a result Penny’s mysteries will caress you like a cashmere glove. A the Kerrytown BookFest, Penny will be interviewed about her writing by Robin Agnew proprietor of Aunt Agatha’s mystery book store. Read a review of “A Trick of Light” in the Ann Arbor News by Agnew.
Other women authors who will be making presentations at the event are:
Deborah Diesen, New York Times Best Selling children’s author of “Pout Pout Fish”.
Ruth McNally Barshaw, creator of the successful Ellie McDoodle series for young readers.
Susan Whitall author of “Fever: Little Willie John, A Fast Life, Mysterious Death and the Birth of Soul. Whitall, a Philadelphia native, has been writing about rock ‘n’ roll and music since the early 1970s when she was the editor of the seminal rock magazine Creem. She also has covered music for the Detroit News for more than 30 years and is the author of “The Women of Motown”. No one knows more about music in the Motor City than Whitall. She will be on a panel which will explore the Counterculture voices of Detroit.
Bonnie Jo Campbell
Community Book Award winner Margaret Noori of Ann Arbor and poet-author will be interviewed by Ari Weinzweig of Zingerman’s about her contributions and writing which is helping preserve the Anishinabe/Ojibwe language.
National Book Award Winner Jaimy Gordon author of “Lord of Misrule” will be interviewed by Doug Stanton New York Times Best Selling author of “Horse Soldiers”
National Book Award finalist Bonnie Jo Campbell will participate in a panel discussion about the “Voices of Michigan”. Her new book “Once Upon a River” is set on a Michigan river.
Erin Stead who won the 2010 Caldecott for her book “A Sick Day for Amos McGee” will make a presentation along with her husband Philip Stead who is the author of the award winning book.
Nationally recognized thriller writer Karen Dionne author of the environmental thrillers “Freezing” and “Boiling Point” will moderate a panel discussion on thrillers
Detroit author Lolita Hernandez, a contributor to “Working Words” will join a panel on writing about the working class. She is also the author of “Autopsy of an Engine” and a contributor to “On the Clock”.
Author Jaye Beeler and photographer Dianne Carroll Burdick offer both a power point and a cooking demonstration from their book “Tasting and Touring Michigan’s Homegrown Food”.
Editor Jane Shallal presents recipes from the book “Ma Baseema: Chaldean Middle Eastern Cooking with a Chaldean Flair.
