Tayari's Blog: Up South
Posted by TayariJones on August 29, 2008 10:09 AM
Filed under
Living For The City
Last night, I went to Housing Works to celebrate the publication of the 2008 edition of New Stories from the South, edited by ZZ Packer. What a fun time was had by all.
Did you know that ZZ Packer is a southern writer? Well she is. A Georgia Peach, to be exact. She explained that she was drawn to stories that were southern, with a small "s". To demonstrate this, Brett Anthony Johnson and Stephanie Dickneson read their short stories to show us how it's done.
There was a trivia quiz-- to which I knew hardly any of the answers. (It's what ZZ writes about it introduction-- there is more than one south. I'm from the other one.) There was also food. "Crawfish Cheesecake" is so much yummier than it sounds. Imagine a cross between the cornbread dressing and macaroni and cheese. Add a pinch a cayenne pepper and some crawfish tails. I know. It sounds crazy, but it was delish. (Kind of like shrimp and grits-- tasty in the mouth, but crazy sounding when you see it on a menu.)
Such a fun party. Algonquin books is such a fantastic host and Maud Newton MCed it just right and got us all out in time to get home to watch the Democratic convention.. The bloggers-- Nichelle & Nichelle were in the house, as well as short-story goddess, Julie Orringer. The highlight, of course, was meeting Isabel, a member of our blog community. Keep writing, Miss Lady.
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There are 3 comments on "Up South". If you'd like to leave a comment, click here to jump down to the comments entry form.
Comment #1, by Nichelle ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.tayarijones.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
I had a nice time and it was great meeting you Tayari!
I am still dreaming about that crawfish cheesecake...
August 29, 2008 04:34 PM
Comment #2, by naysue
Glad to hear about this book. Unfortunately, I can't find any excerpts online! I am also curious as to how many African American authors are featured in this "Best" work, but haven't found much.
I did want to tell your loyal readers that there is a website that is giving away free copies (for broke folks who are book groupies like me) of this book:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3340530.New_Stories_from_the_South_2008
I am not affiliated. Just wanted to post what my search results revealed.
September 3, 2008 09:18 AM
Comment #3, by james3neal
Tayari,
Great post and great photos! I had the privilege of seeing/hearing ZZ Packer read at Brookline Booksmith in Boston several years ago and I was impressed with her "chops". I was very happy to see this post today.
September 4, 2008 03:58 PM