August Book Swap

So, didn't post this until our most recent August attendee, Alexa Smith, got here with her two books.

Alexa, a fiction writer from San Francisco who lives in Manhattan, brought along Edward P. Jones' debut novel The Known World, as well as Baghdad Burning a blog that was turned into a book by an Iraqi who writes under the pseudonym Riverbend. Once a computer programmer who had lots of personal freedom after Baghdad's fall, Riverbend finds herself out of a job and largely restricted to the safety of her family's house.

Another New Yorker this month, Dean Olsher, donated his book From Square One, a book about what drives 50 million Americans to solve crossword puzzles every week. Dean also gave La Muse Mary Cantwell's collection of memoirs Manhattan Memoir, which includes American Girl, Manhattan, When I was Young and Speaking with Strangers about where he comes from.

Two attendees who were here last year, Toni Frietas and David Trujillo-Farley, also brought along books about where they live. David, who is here editing his novel, brought along The Local's Guide to Edinburgh, a word of mouth travels book, edited by Claudio Monteiro and Owen O'Leary, and Toni donated the tartan noir novel The Sacred Art of Stealing by Christopher Brookmyre.

David also donated Silverthorn by Raymond E. Feist as an example of something like what he's trying to achieve in his work. Toni is working on jewelry this retreat so she also brought along Jewels: A Secret History by Victoria Finlay. Toni also gave La Muse a great book on France and food: Traveling Naturally in France by Dorian Yates.

Another returning attendee, the novelist Robert Olmstead, brought along his great book of short stories River Dogs and his memoir Stay Here With Me. We also brought out Bob's books from last year for the other attendees to read, his novels Coal Black Horse and A Trail of Heart's Blood Wherever I Go and his book on writing Elements of the Writing Craft. Bob is here working on the third novel of the series he started with Coal Black Horse. The second novel of the series, Far Bright Star came out in May.

Eithne Nightingale, who is working on a memoir this retreat and works for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London,

brought along Sulaiman Addonia's first novel The Consequences of Love, a political romance set in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1989, and Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman, a fictional account of the Scottsboro case, in which nine black teenagers were accused of raping two white women told through the journalist character Alice Whittier.

Robin Chandler, an artist from Boston who teaches at Northeastern University in Boston, brought along The Papers of African Artists from the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian, as well as Impressos do Brasil, the catalogue of an exhibition of fine art Robin was featured in. Robin also donated Rainbow: Prints from Bob Blackburn’s (pictured above) Printmaking Workshop, a cultural presentation curated by Noah Jemisin.