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Fresh Ink
New work by acclaimed and emerging writers
Stephanie Kallos, January 16, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Abraham Verghese, February 20, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Mummies, Magic, and Mystery with Judy Schachner & R. L. LaFevers, March 20, 2009
Arthur Phillips, April 17, 2009
Kathleen Kent and Cristina Henríquez, May 15, 2009
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Stephanie Kallos
Friday, January 16, 2009 7:00 p.m.
Included in general admission to the Museum. Book signings take place near the Museum Store.
Stephanie Kallos’s novel Broken for You (2004) was a national best seller and was selected by author Sue Monk Kidd as a Today Show Book Club pick; Kidd said, “Essentially it’s about taking what is broken, especially our lives, and reconfiguring them into mosaics of beauty and meaning.” This dazzling debut earned the author comparisons to John Irving, Margaret Atwood, and Carol Shields.
At this event, Kallos will discuss her new novel, Sing Them Home (January 2009), a deeply moving portrait of three grown siblings who have lived in the shadow of unresolved grief since their mother’s mysterious disappearance when she was swept up by a tornado. With lyricism, wisdom, and humor, Kallos explores the consequences of protecting the ones we love, and conjures an extraordinary cast of characters teeming with quirks, strengths, blind spots, and secrets. This novel is a magnificent tapestry of lives connected and undone by tragedy, lives poised—unbeknownst to the characters themselves—for redemption. Publishers Review gave it a starred review and hailed it as “enthralling.”
Kallos spent twenty years in the theater as an actress and teacher. She currently lives in Seattle with her husband and two sons.
“I have goose bumps just thinking of how much I loved Sing Them Home. Stephanie Kallos is an original, brilliant storyteller of the highest ranking. Watch out Tyler, Irving, and Russo.”
—Sally Brewster, Park Road Books (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Abraham Verghese
Friday, February 20, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Included in general admission to the Museum. Book signings take place near the Museum Store.
Already a master of memoir and nonfiction, Dr. Abraham Verghese will read from and discuss his stunning debut novel, Cutting for Stone, a spellbinding family saga of Africa and America, fathers and sons, doctors and patients, exile and home. The novel takes the reader on an unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life and tells the epic story of the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others. Cutting for Stone is a triumph—intensely suspenseful, deeply moving, and unexpectedly funny. Author Tracy Kidder hailed it as “vastly entertaining and enlightening.” It has also garnered praise from authors Mark Salzman, Atul Gawande, and John Burnham Schwartz.
Verghese was born and raised in Ethiopia to South Indian parents. He immigrated to the United States in 1973, where he worked as an orderly. He eventually went to India for medical school but returned to the United States to practice. His first two books recounted his experiences practicing medicine. The Tennis Partner was a New York Times Notable Book and My Own Country was a National Book Critics Circle finalist.
He is currently a Professor of Internal Medicine at Stanford University and has also served on the faculty of Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in El Paso and UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, his fiction and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, and Granta.
“I like the notion of falling in love with medicine. And that’s what I’ve tried to write about: loving the mystery of it, the danger of it, the grief of it. I don’t know if I’ve succeeded, but that’s what I’d like to convey.”
—Abraham Verghese
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Special Family Late Night: Mummies, Magic, and Mayhem
A mystery-filled evening for all ages inspired by the exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs
Friday, March 20, 2009
Judy Schachner
7:00 p.m.
Recommended for ages 5 and older
Judy Schachner is the author and illustrator of the beloved Skippyjon Jones series of picture books, which follows the adventures of a Siamese cat who thinks he’s a Chihuahua.
At this event, Schachner will read and share insights about her latest book, Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble. When Skippyjon reads about cat mummies in National Leographic, his overactive imagination whisks him off to ancient Egypt via his closet. Full of Spanglish wordplay, adventurous antics, and bold illustrations, this book is sure to tickle the funny bones and warm the hearts of children and adults alike. Stay and participate in Late Night family activities and special tours inspired by Schachner’s work and the Museum’s collections.
Schachner lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, with her family, a dog, and two Siamese cats—one of whom is named Skippy. Visit the author’s Web site at judithbyronschachner.com.
“I live in a constant state of 3rd grade bliss—making up stories and drawing pictures. Isn’t that what we all did as children?” —Judy Schachner
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R. L. LaFevers
8:15 p.m.
Recommended for ages 8 and older
R. L. LaFevers has been fascinated by libraries and museums ever since she first set foot in them. LaFevers is the author of the acclaimed books Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos and Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris. Theodosia has a rather unusual life as the daughter of the curators of the Museum of Legends and Antiquities in London (circa 1900). Her parents are so immersed in their work that they never seem to notice Theo’s penchant for sleeping in the sarcophagi or her special proclivity for lifting the curses off the mysterious ancient artifacts they collect. For more information, visit theodosiathrockmorton.com.
“[An] Indiana Jones for girls and a perfect blend of mystery and humor.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review of Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos)
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Arthur Phillips
Friday, April 17, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Included in general admission to the Museum. Book signings take place near the Museum Store.
Arthur Phillips is the author of the international best-seller The Egyptologist, which was named to over a dozen Best Book of the Year lists in 2006. He is also the author of Prague, the recipient of the Los Angeles Times/Art Seidenbaum Award for Best First Novel, and Angelica, which “cements this young novelist’s reputation as one of the best writers in America, a storyteller who combines Nabokovian wit and subtlety with a narrative urgency that rivals Stephen King’s” (Washington Post).
In honor of the exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, Phillips will discuss The Egyptologist; he will also talk about his latest work, The Song Is You, a stunning novel of loss, love, and second chances. Wandering through Brooklyn on a snowy night, Julian Donohue steps into a bar and becomes enchanted with a beautiful Irish singer, Cait O’Dwyer. Julian leaves her clues to his admiration, and Cait’s voice guides him (through his iPod) to reconcile heartbreaks and mistakes of his past. Although they have still never met, their relationship deepens and culminates in an inevitable meeting with vast consequences.
Arthur Phillips has been a child actor, a jazz musician, a speechwriter, an entrepreneur, and a five-time Jeopardy! champion. He currently lives in Brooklyn.
After the Event
Stay and enjoy an interactive trivia contest hosted by Arthur Phillips. The questions will be based on songs mentioned in his latest novel and on King Tut trivia inspired by The Egyptologist and the exhibition.
“I went to a lot of trouble to blur fact and fiction. Isn’t the fun of fiction—especially fiction that is laid over historical fact—having a seamless finished product?”
—Arthur Phillips on The Egyptologist
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Cristina Henríquez and Kathleen Kent
Texas-connected authors on family, love, and sacrifice
Friday, May 15, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Cristina Henríquez’s short stories have been published in many journals, including the New Yorker and the Atlantic Monthly, and showcased in many Texas Bound programs. She was featured in the Virginia Quarterly Review as one of “Fiction’s New Luminaries,” and she is a recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award, a grant started by Sandra Cisneros in honor of her father. Henríquez earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lived in Dallas for many years and now resides in Chicago.
At this event, she’ll discuss her mesmerizing debut novel, The World in Half, the story of a young woman reconciling an existence between two cultures and confronting a life of hardship with an endless capacity to learn, love, and forgive. Miraflores has never known her father, and until now she’s never thought that he wanted to know her. She’s long been aware that her mother had an affair with him while she was stationed with her then husband in Panama, and she’s always assumed that her pregnant mother came back to the United States alone with his consent. But when Miraflores returns to the Chicago suburb where she grew up, to care for her mother at a time of illness, she discovers that her mother and father had a greater love than she ever thought possible, and that her father had wanted her more than she could have ever imagined. In secret, Miraflores plots a trip to Panama in search of the man whose love she hopes can heal her mother—and whose presence she believes can help her find the pieces of her own identity that she thought were irretrievably lost. What she finds is unexpected and exhilarating, and holds the power to change the course of her life completely.
“These stories, told in a direct and sparse style, are truly unforgettable. Cristina Henríquez’s young female protagonists are as haunting as the setting of Panama. I could not put aside this book.”
—Isabel Allende on Henríquez’s story collection Come Together, Fall Apart
Kathleen Kent is the author of the New York Times best-seller The Heretic’s Daughter, hailed by Booklist as “an illuminating literary debut” and touted at the Editors’ Bookbuzz panel at BookExpo America 2008. Kent lives in Dallas and grew up listening to stories passed down through the generations about her ancestor Martha Carrier, one of the first women to be accused, tried, and hanged as a witch in 1692 during the infamous trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Based on five years of research into trial transcripts, sermons, letters, and family lore, The Heretic’s Daughter is the story of Martha’s courageous defiance and death as told by the daughter who survived.
In the tradition of Tracy Chevalier, Sarah Dunant, and Lisa See, Kent weaves together a deftly told tale with deep roots in history. Author Anita Shreve dubbed it “raw, honest, and completely captivating. Kathleen Kent takes what would seem to be a familiar subject and gives it a fresh, new perspective—moving us through a wrenching gamut of emotions as she does so.”
“A powerful coming-of-age tale in which tragedy is trumped by an unsinkable faith in human nature.”
—The New York Times
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Open mic
Aspiring and accomplished writers: come and read your own work as part of the open mic readings at 10:30 p.m. on every Late Night year-round.
Orientation Theater
Fresh Ink tickets are included in the price of general admission to the Museum. Reserve your Fresh Ink tickets in advance to guarantee a seat by calling 214-922-1818 or Click here. Remaining tickets are available at the door.
Dallas Museum of Art Admission:
Members Free
Adults $10
Senior citizens (65+) $7
Students $5
Children under 12 Free
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