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Rain Taxi’s BANneD BOOKS spring fling on Friday, May 3, 2024, was a great success, with 100 people enjoying the riveting musical performances by The Muatas, Zak Sally, and Willie Wisely, and spellbinding literary readings by Dessa, Klecko, and special guest Carolyn Kuebler, amid the beautiful Granada Theater backdrop. Thank you to all who made this fundraiser a smashing success: the Rain Taxi Board, the talented artists, our sponsors, and everyone who attended! Click on the photos below for a fun slide show:
— FEATURED ARTISTS —
THE MUATAS, Ayanna and Cam Muata, create an original blend of post-punk, trip hop, dark wave, shoe gaze, and electronic music. The Muatas have released three albums since 2020, most recently Battle Weary. With a sound that mixes sampled and programmed beats layered with synthesizer, guitar, bass guitar, ambient strings, and vocals that often range between the melodic and spoken, they desire to share a bit of their story through their music, and to connect with others through that experience.
ZAK SALLY has been making comics and art (Recidivist, SammyThe Mouse), creating music (Low, The Hand, solo work), publishing books (via his small press La Mano), and otherwise engaging in various creative WTF’s for 35 years (and counting); he recently published a prose memoir titled Folrath. He lives and works in Minneapolis.
photo by Mathias Fau
WILLIE WISELY is equal parts Minnesota music scene veteran and Laurel Canyon devotee. Wisely remains that rare bird mixing profound power pop with vaudevillian showmanship, a troubadour on an all-night rave, a cold Komboucha on a hot California day, a McCartney-ite taking a break from his Japanese import of Ram for a quick canyon run listening to João Gilberto. Singer, Guitarist, Producer, Composer, and sometimes Clothes Horse, he has released over a dozen albums, the latest of which is Face the Sun.
DESSA is a singer, rapper, and writer who has made a career of bucking genres and defying expectations. As a musician she has performed at Lollapalooza and Glastonbury, collaborated with the Minnesota Orchestra, and had entries on the Billboard charts. As a writer, she’s been published by The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler, penned the acclaimed memoir-in-essays My Own Devices, and has had two chapbooks of poetry published by Rain Taxi, A Pound of Steam and Tits on the Moon. Also a noted public speaker on topics from art to entrepreneurship (including a TED Talk about her science experiment on falling out of love), Dessa is the host of the podcast Deeply Human. When not on the road, she calls both Minneapolis and NYC home.
photo by Sam Gehrke
KLECKO studied breadmaking at Dunwoody Technical College in Minneapolis and the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas. He spent the first decade of his 45-year career running ovens on the night shift; often, while waiting for the loaves to bake, he wrote poems. He has since written several books, including the Midwest Book Award-winning collection Hitman-Baker-Casket Maker and the memoir A Bakeable Feast; his work has also been featured in the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Times. An ardent fan of “all things 651,” Klecko lives in a St. Paul mansion across the street from where F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his first novel.
CAROLYN KUEBLER co-founded the literary magazine Rain Taxi and has been the editor of the award-winning journal New England Review for the past 10 years. Her short stories and essays have been published in numerous venues including The Common and Colorado Review; her piece “Wildflower Season” won the 2022 John Burroughs Award for Nature Essay. She has published scores of book reviews, small-press profiles, and author interviews in Publishers Weekly, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi, City Pages, and other venues. Now residing in Middlebury, Vermont, Kuebler returns to Minneapolis to launch her debut novel, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable, described by Michael Collier as “A true-to-life, richly detailed American tale in the tradition of Sherwood Anderson, Willa Cather, and Thornton Wilder” and named one of Oprah Daily’s Most Anticipated Books of 2024.
photo by Karen Pike
A note to help you find your way and park in Uptown:
The Granada Theater is located at 3022 Hennepin Ave in Minneapolis, but since Hennepin Ave. is currently under reconstruction, the road between Lake Street and 31st, including in front of the Granada, is closed to drivers. This means people can’t get dropped off directly in front of the theater—so you’ll get to take the scenic route there after you disembark or park!
For parking, the closest, easiest is in the Seven Points (formerly Calhoun Square) pay ramp across the street from the theater — from there simply exit to 31st St., head west to Hennepin, and then north on Hennepin to the Granada. Free street parking is also an option on residential cross streets (Holmes, Humboldt, Irving, etc.). Further navigational directions and a detailed map of street closures and parking availability is available from our official event bookseller Magers & Quinn, whose store is just a few doors down from the Granada: https://www.magersandquinn.com/directions
No matter how you’re getting to the Granada, you will be ready for a drink, a bite to eat, and a show. We have all three areas covered with our celebration of books, bands, and lively fun at BANneD BOOKS!
To purchase issue #113 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.
INTERVIEWS
Darryl Pinckney: The Women Who Shaped Him | interviewed by William Corwin Jody Hobbs Hesler: Atonement Is Not Transactional | interviewed by Sharon Harrigan Dorothea Lasky: Why Horror | interviewed by Zachary Pace Patty Crane: Hues of Translation | interviewedby Dennis Maloney
FEATURES
Travels in Eurasia: Three Books by Erika Fatland | by Rasoul Sorkhabi The New Life | a comic by Gary Sullivan A Personal View: Poetry Lost and Found | by Dennis Barone A Look Back: Mean Spirit | Linda Hogan | by Robbie Orr
Dear Jean Pierre | David Wojnarowicz | by Patrick James Dunagan Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith | John Szwed | by Richard Kostelanetz The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality | William Egginton | by David Brizer The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters | Benjamin Moser | by Allan Vorda New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust | Howard Debs and Matthew Silverman, eds. | by Gale Hemmann
FICTION REVIEWS
The Pole | J. M. Coetzee | by Thomas Rain Crowe The Flounder and Other Stories | John Fulton | by Patti Jazanoski Natural Causes | Nina Lykke | by Jeff Bursey I Hear You’re Rich | Diane Williams | by Jon Cone Child Craft | Amy Cipolla Barnes | by Nick Hilbourn Research Randy and the Mystery of Grandma’s Half-Eaten Pie of Despair | Tom Lucas | by Jason Harris The Narrow Road Between Desires | Patrick Rothfuss | by J Johnson All the Ways We Lied | Aida Zilelian | by Mary Lannon
POETRY REVIEWS
The Collected Poems of Anselm Hollo | Anselm Hollo | by Patrick James Dunagan Disease of Kings | Anders Carlson-Wee | by Christopher Locke A Place Beyond Shame | Ed Steck | by Joseph Fritsch School of Instructions | Ishion Hutchinson | by Abby Walthausen Divination with a Human Heart Attached | Emily Stoddard | by Deborah Bacharach The Art of Bagging | Joshua Gottlieb-Miller | by Rosanna Young Oh Hell, I Love Everybody: The Essential James Tate | James Tate | by Ryan Cook Choosing To Be Simple: Collected Poems of Tao Yuanming | Tao Yuanming | by John Bradley Hope is Tanning on a Nudist Beach | Ethel Barja | by Ali Kulez
COMICS REVIEWS
Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story | Julia Wertz | by Greg Baldino
To purchase issue #113 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.
Noah Lawrence-Holder is a black, nonbinary artist from Madison WI, now based in the Twin Cities. Their work consists of illustration and animations centered around racial justice, equity, intersectionality and gender identity. They have featured work in gallery shows highlighting queer and black artists across Minneapolis and beyond. Visit their website here.
To purchase issue #112 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.
INTERVIEWS
Lynn Levin: Playthings of Chaos | interviewed by Carolyne Wright Elizabeth Metzger: In Two Separate Rooms, Breathing | interviewed by Tiffany Troy Marty Cain: Pastoral Politics | interviewed by J. B. Stone
FEATURES
If and Only If | by Scott F. Parker A Personal View: The Writer as Publisher | by David Stromberg A Look Back: Bright Lights, Big City | by Neal Lipschutz The New Life | a comic by Gary Sullivan
Radical: A Life of My Own | Xiaolu Guo | by Nancy Seidler Bruno Schulz: An Artist, A Murder, and the Hijacking of History | Benjamin Balint | by W. C. Bamberger The Bible and Poetry | Michael Edwards | by Patrick James Dunagan The Sphinx and the Milky Way: Selections from the Journals of Charles Burchfield | Charles Burchfield | by Eric Bies Wildflower | Aurora James | by Connie Mitchell
FICTION REVIEWS
Charles Portis: Collected Works | Charles Portis | by Mark Dunbar Notes from the Trauma Party | Michael Keen | by Alec Witthohn The Belan Deck | Matt Bucher | by Chris Via Maddalena and the Dark | Julia Fine | by Rachel Slotnick Retrospective | Juan Gabriel Vásquez | by Jesse Tangen-Mills What Falls Away | Karin Anderson | by Eleanor J. Bader Harboring | James Sullivan | by Allan Vorda
POETRY REVIEWS
Negro Mountain | C. S. Giscombe | by Matthew Kirby When I Reach for Your Pulse | Rushi Vyas | by Dale Cottingham Late Epistle | Anne Myles | by AE Hines Broken Glosa: An Alphabet Book of Post-Avant Glosa | Stephen Bett | by Joe Safdie The Exhalation Therapist / Breathe A Wor(l)d | Patrick Lawler | by Tara Ballard Hope as a Construction: New and Selected Poems | David Adams | by Ellen M. Taylor Until We Talk | Darrell Bourque and Bill Gingles | by D. O. Moore Standing in the Forest of Being Alive | Katie Farris | by Jeffrey Careyva Nice Nose | Buck Downs | by Simon Schuchat
MIXED GENRE REVIEWS
Poets on the Road | Maureen Owen and Barbara Henning | by Kit Robinson Poetechnics / Poetécnicas: Designs from the New World | Yaxkin Melchy | by kathy wu
COMICS REVIEWS
My Picture Diary | Fujiwara Maki | by Jeff Alford
To purchase issue #112 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.
John Schuerman is a self-taught artist and independent curator. His artwork reflects his deep interest in nature both human and nonhuman. His aesthetic style and social consciousness formed as he grew up on a dairy farm in southern Wisconsin. Schuerman is an environmental, and documentary artist, exploring the physical, social, and psychic landscapes through drawing, video, photography, and walking-based art forms. His artwork has been presented in numerous exhibitions locally and nationally.
His curatorial projects engage viewers on today’s most pressing issues: empathy, human overpopulation, gun violence, money, time, nationalism, identity, conflict, environmentalism, and abuses of power. See more of his work online at www.schuermanfineart.com.
To purchase issue #111 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.
INTERVIEWS
Ronnie Pontiac and American Metaphysical Religion | by Zack Kopp Grant Maierhofer: Keeping the Circulating Happening | by Alex Kies Amanda Gunn: Black Pleasure vs. Black Joy | by Eileen G’Sell
FEATURES
If and Only If: Imaginary books reviewed | by Scott F. Parker The New Life | a comic by Gary Sullivan Remembering Brian O’Doherty (1928–2022) | by Richard Kostelanetz
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Thinking, Inquiry, and Hope | Sarah Bakewell | by John Toren Quantum Criminals:Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, And Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan | Alex Pappedemas and Joan LeMay | by Angelo Gentile The Tribe:Portraits of Cuba | Carlos Manuel Álvarez | by Jesus Francisco Sierra Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City: A Memoir | Jane Wong | by Genevieve Hartman Soundwriting: A Guide to Making Audio Projects | Tanya K. Rodrigue and Kyle D. Stedman | by Cam Miller Jean Conner: Collage | Rory Padeken, ed. Mina Loy: Strangeness is Inevitable | Jennifer R. Gross, Ann Lauterbach, Roger L. Conover, & Dawn Ades, eds. Betye Saar: Heart of a Wanderer | Diana Seave Greenwald | by Patrick James Dunagan
FICTION REVIEWS
Solenoid | Mircea Cărtărescu | by Garin Cycholl Design Flaw | Hugh Sheehy | by Justin Courter Opium and Other Stories | Géza Csáth | by Zoe Berkovitz The English Experience | Julie Schumacher | by Eleanor J. Bader Welcome Me To The Kingdom | Mai Nardone | by Nick Hilbourn Nothing Special | Nicole Flattery | by Neil Serven As Far As You Can Go Before You Have To Come Back | Alle C. Hall | by Sandra Hager Eliason
POETRY REVIEWS
The Loveliest Vowel Empties: Collected Poems | Meret Oppenheim | by John Bradley Gala | Lynne Shapiro | by Patrick Pritchett Roadmap: A Choreopoem | Monica Prince | by Alex Carrigan The Dragonfly | Amelia Rosselli | by Greg Bem 40 Weeks | Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach | by Gale Hemmann Whatever’s Forbidden the Wise | Anthony Madrid | by David Brazil Diaries of a Terrorist | Christopher Soto | by Walter Holland Good Grief, The Ground | Margaret Ray | by Joanna Acevedo
COMICS REVIEW
The Planetoid and Other Stories | Joe Orlando and Al Feldstein | by Paul Buhle
To purchase issue #111 using Paypal, click here. To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.
At the time this was a final piece, but it actually created the space and thought process to begin Indiscernible Elements: Calcium. The painting is an exploration of the next life, after the process of grieving the planet. Bringing the question, after grieving is the future of the planet only a fairytale? Visit Korynn Newville at: www.newvillekorynn.com.
Wednesday, September 13, 2 pm Central Free Virtual Event (registration required)
Rain Taxi proudly presents Anne Enright, one of Ireland’s greatest living writers, to celebrate the U.S. publication of her newest book, The Wren, The Wren—a searing story about the ravages of love across three generations of women that will both break and warm your heart. At this unique event, Enright will be in conversation with acclaimed American author Francine Prose. Join us for an exploration of literary fiction at its finest!
Book Purchasing Information: The Wren, The Wren, other books by Anne Enright, and a selection of titles by Francine Prose, are available from Magers & Quinn Booksellers at the link below. Don’t forget, when you buy books at an event, you support not only the authors and their publishers, but a great independent bookstore and the event host.
Nell McDaragh never knew her grandfather, famed Irish poet Phil McDaragh. But his love poems seem to speak directly to her. Restless, Nell leaves her mother Carmel’s home to find her voice as a writer and live a life of her choosing. Carmel, too, knows the magic of her Daddo’s poetry—and the broken promises within its verses. When Phil abandons the family, Carmel struggles to reconcile “the poet” with the man whose desertion scars Carmel, her sister, and their cancer-ridden mother. The Wren, The Wren brings to life three generations of women who contend with inheritances of both abandonment and a sustaining love that is “more than a strand of DNA, but a rope thrown from the past, a fat twisted rope, full of blood.” In sharp prose studded with crystalline poetry, Enright masterfully braids a family story of longing, betrayal, and hope.
"These pages practically crackle with intelligence, compassion and wit. Phil McDaragh is so real I almost googled him. The Wren, The Wren might just be Anne Enright’s best yet."
“A true masterpiece by one of our greatest novelists. Rich, emotional and brilliantly observed, Anne Enright’s eighth novel, The Wren, The Wren, may even beat her Booker-winner, The Gathering."
“A novel where shards of brilliance flash in every direction.”
About the Authors:
Anne Enright is the author of seven previous novels, most recently Actress, as well as story collections and nonfiction. She has won numerous awards for her writing, including the Man Booker Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Book Awards. She lives in Dublin.
Francine Prose is a novelist and critic whose most recently published book is CLEOPATRA: Her History, Her Myth. Coming up next is a memoir titled 1974: A Personal History, to be published by Harper next year. Her previous books include the novels The Vixen, Goldengrove, A Changed Man, and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award, and the New York Times nonfiction bestseller Reading Like A Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them. She writes frequently for the New York Times Book Review and the New York Review of Books and lives in New York City.
Holy Profane / Permitted Forbidden Gouache, ink and pencil on watercolor paper, 9” X 11” / 2018
Raised amidst Yiddish endearments, I learned how to draw very young. Political activism in high school, including Ban the Bomb, Civil Rights, and Anti-War demonstrations, led to a few years on Magic Forest Farm, a leaderless, egalitarian, West Coast commune. My drawings of country hippie life, (under the name Judith St. Soleil) were published in several books, including Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Epilogue. Thus I became a professional artist before I even graduated college.
Along with raising three children, I studied Art and Psychology at Cooper Union, Lone Mountain College and USC, all the while drawing, painting, making collages, publishing artist’s books, teaching art in colleges and writing for ARTweek Magazine (1986-1991), and since 2000, as Art Editor of NASHIM, Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Issues (U.of Indiana Press).
Since 1993 I have been designing and publishing limited edition and unique books, under the imprint Bright Idea Books. These have been acquired by numerous public and private collections, including Yale U, The New York Public Library, UCLA, U. of WA, U. of Denver, U. of Michigan, Arthur Jaffe Center for Book Arts, and UC, Berkeley.
My book Life Support Invitation to Prayer, (Penn State Press Graphic Medicine Series, 2019) was reviewed by Julie Stein for the Winter Issue 2020 of Rain Taxi.
In February 2022, an online interview with Rain Taxi’s Eric Lorberer, was conducted with myself and CS Giscombe about our book Train Music Writing and Pictures, (Omnidawn Publishing/ Oakland, 2021)
I worked on this book, which was originally called Praise Emptiness, all during the Covid pandemic, with Philip in LA and me in Jerusalem. Considering art from every era of my adult life, he chose to include so many, that Philip eventually changed the title to Praise Emptiness Essays Verbal and Visual.
I would like to mention how I came to use hand-drawn letter forms for the book cover and chapter titles. I was at a friend’s house and a book cover with a hand-drawn font caught my eye. It was Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I loved how it looked and tracked down the designer, Jon Gray (who goes by 318.gray). I was inspired by his work to hand draw the words on the book cover and all the chapter titles. This gives, I think, the weighty content of the book a bit of a cheering up, “Unhappiness,” on page 33, being the best example.
