Download or read book Interview with the Sphinx A Play written by Jack Matthews and published by Personville Press. This book was released on with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this provocative & immensely irritating comic play, the Sphinx from ancient Greece is interviewed in modern times as though she were a celebrity pop star. The problem is, she never answers any questions -- never directly anyway. Instead she prefers just dishing the dirt on everybody. ON HOMER: "I never was exactly sure which one Homer was. I'm positive he wasn't the blind one, though; that was just a silly story they started telling a few centuries later". ON OEDIPUS: "Eddie was terribly conceited, you know … of course he was smart and handsome and, oh, just had a way of carrying himself that impressed everybody. In spite of his foot." Bit by bit the Interview learns that what happened in Greek legend didn't happen exactly the way Sophocles described it. Fortunately, the Sphinx offers the Interviewer another riddle ... if only he could figure out what exactly it is! Part Tom Stoppard, part Monty Python, part Oscar Wilde, this play by Jack Matthews combines philosophical paradoxes with fast-paced verbal pyrotechnics. It offers the perfect antidote to people who remembered ancient literature as nothing but stuffy and melodramatic characters with hard-to-pronounce names. In 2013 an audio version of this one act play was produced by Personville Press. This ebook contains the complete script used for the 2013 audio production plus another expanded two act version of the same play. This expanded two act version is titled "Dr. Freud and the Sphinx," and includes Florence Nightingale and Sigmund Freud characters (who serve as the Greek chorus). "Mr. Matthews is a master of prose conversation and deadpan charm. He is ironic, cool, and shrewd, and he writes a lucid prose." (Tom O'Brien, New York Times)
Download or read book Sphinx written by Anne Garreta and published by Deep Vellum Publishing. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A landmark literary event: the first novel by a female member of Oulipo in English, a sexy genderless love story.
Download or read book Samak the Ayyar written by and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-03 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The adventures of Samak, a trickster-warrior hero of Persia’s thousand-year-old oral storytelling tradition, are beloved in Iran. Samak is an ayyar, a warrior who comes from the common people and embodies the ideals of loyalty, selflessness, and honor—a figure that recalls samurai, ronin, and knights yet is distinctive to Persian legend. His exploits—set against an epic background of palace intrigue, battlefield heroics, and star-crossed romance between a noble prince and princess—are as deeply rooted in Persian culture as are the stories of Robin Hood and King Arthur in the West. However, this majestic tale has remained little known outside Iran. Translated from the original Persian by Freydoon Rassouli and adapted by Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner, this timeless masterwork can now be enjoyed by English-speaking readers. A thrilling and suspenseful saga, Samak the Ayyar also offers a vivid portrait of Persia a thousand years ago. Within an epic quest narrative teeming with action and supernatural forces, it sheds light on the lives of ordinary people and their social worlds. This is the first complete English-language version of a treasure of world culture. The translation is grounded in the twelfth-century Persian text while paying homage to the dynamic culture of storytelling from which it arose.
Download or read book The Phantom written by Lee Falk and published by . This book was released on 2018-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collects the complete first two years of the comic strip "The Phantom," a masked superhero who fought crime in exotic locations.
Download or read book Big Bold and Beautiful written by Kierra Sheard-Kelly and published by Zonderkidz. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this immersive and inspirational book, Grammy Award-nominated singer Kierra Sheard shares her hard-won advice on body positivity, spiritual self-care, goal setting, finding your joy, and living boldly in faith, empowering you to grab the life you’re meant to lead. Every one of us was born to make a difference. But do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the things the world prioritizes, thinking you don’t match up or you don’t fit into the mold? Or do you wish you had a more supportive family, or positive role models, or access to the things you need emotionally and spiritually to keep going? Kierra Sheard sees you and will teach you how to: Identify your goals, talents, and gifts so you can survive and thrive Deal with societal expectations and focus on what really matters Truly love yourself and find out who you really are as an individual Live your faith loud and proud Inside Big, Bold, and Beautiful you’ll find: Short and easy-to-read chapters with deep advice for teens and young women on navigating life, and insightful questions to help you find your path Illustrated feature pages containing stand-alone graphics that highlight key topics for easy reference when you need a boost An ideal gift for those who need encouragement, as well as graduates getting ready for a new phase
Download or read book Arm of the Sphinx written by Josiah Bancroft and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Senlin continues his ascent up the tower in the word-of-mouth phenomenon fantasy series about one man's dangerous journey through a labyrinthine world. "One of my favorite books of all time" -- Mark Lawrence on Senlin Ascends The Tower of Babel is proving to be as difficult to reenter as it was to break out of. Forced into a life of piracy, Senlin and his eclectic crew are struggling to survive aboard their stolen airship as the hunt to rescue Senlin's lost wife continues. Hopeless and desolate, they turn to a legend of the Tower, the mysterious Sphinx. But help from the Sphinx never comes cheaply, and as Senlin knows, debts aren't always what they seem in the Tower of Babel. Time is running out, and now Senlin must choose between his friends, his freedom, and his wife. Does anyone truly escape the Tower?
Download or read book Not One Day written by Anne Garréta and published by Deep Vellum Publishing. This book was released on 2023-04-25 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2018 Albertine Prize Finalist for the 2018 Lamba Literary Awards Finalist for the 2018 French American Foundation Translation Prize Available in a new edition, Anne Garréta's sensual portrayal of trysts past. A tour de force of experimental queer feminist writing, Not One Day is renowned Oulipo member Anne Garréta's intimate exploration of the delicate connection between memory, fantasy, love, and desire. Garréta, author of the acclaimed genderless love story Sphinx and experimental novel In Concrete, vows to write every day about a woman from her past. With exquisite elegance, she revisits bygone loves and lusts, capturing memories of her past relationships in a captivating, erotic composition of momentary interactions and lasting impressions, of longing and of loss.
Download or read book Three Times Time written by Jack Matthews and published by Personville Press. This book was released on with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A year before he died, Jack Matthews (author of 10 story collections and over 30 books) was asked to suggest his 3 favorite stories from all his books for this story sampler. "Amos Smith, the Gunsmith" reaches into the folk tale tradition to produce a nice allegory about human labor. "A Woman of Properties" is a satirical suburban tale (reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor or Cheever) about a real estate agent with a grudge. "The Girl at the Window" is an unsettling and mysterious tale about our relationship to the past. Also included is an extended interview the author gave about the craft of writing in 2009. During his career as a writer, Mr. Matthews was distinguished professor of Fiction Writing at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio for over 4 decades. Winner of Guggenheim and several arts grants, Matthews has been anthologized widely, translated into several languages and nominated for a National Book Award. His own books have been praised by Eudora Welty, Anthony Burgess, Shirley Ann Grau, Tim O’Brien, Doris Grumbach, Walker Percy and a host of other famous and highly accomplished authors. "Mr. Matthews is a master of prose conversation and deadpan charm. He is ironic, cool, and shrewd, and he writes a lucid prose." (Tom O'Brien, New York Times) "Matthews' always graceful prose finds that precise telling detail. It's easy to fall in love with such writing." (Perry Glasser, North American Review) "Engaging wit and irony have been characteristic of Matthews's writing from the start, and both are strongly present in his latest gatherings of stories. His irony is increasingly darker, however, and his characters' obsession with memory and its distortions plays a more dominant role in this later work, much of which deals with death. For the most part, these are stories with deceptively simple and ordinary surfaces, but they are driven by powerful and ominous undercurrents, which often fuse the local and regional with the archetypal. Few can do it better. Without question, Matthews has established himself as one of America's finest storytellers." (Stanley Lindberg, editor, Georgia Review)
Download or read book Abruptions 3 Minute Stories to Awaken the Mind written by Jack Matthews and published by Personville Press. This book was released on 2017-10-11 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Matthews stories are like friends from small towns: They are honest, warm, occasionally lyrical and as strange and idiosyncratic as the rest of us." Arthur Sabatini During the last decade of his life, author Jack Matthews wrote a series of 1-2 page prose pieces (which he dubbed "Abruptions" or "very short stories that end abruptly"). Matthews had already published over 20 books of fiction with an astonishing variety of characters and plots. This last volume hints at a lot of characters and plots without trying to resolve them. Each abruption -- which rarely takes more than 5 minutes to read -- shed light on something unexpected, whether it be a character's view on life or the reader's notions of how the world ought to work. Many episodes read like contemporary fables or sketches of quirky people from small midwest towns. Two older women have a long-running feud about what flowers should go on the fence between their houses. An actor makes a living out of playing the bad Nazi in movies. An owner of a movie studio in the 1930s throws out any audience member who misbehaves during a movie. An office worker is distracted by a pretty woman washing the outside windows. Other stories sound like wild fairy tales. What if one superintelligent Siamese twin were conjoined with an idiot brother? What if a witch's curse caused every third word uttered by a person to go unsaid? What if a woman has terrifying dreams about a missing watch? Some stories simply ponder the imponderable. Why do certain memories persist or reappear? Why do elderly people become set in their ways? Why do people become blind to certain things? Matthews explains in the book's preface that abruptions "can reach down to dimensions of wonder and speculation that are commonly thought to be the proper domain of poetry." These stories are a fitting coda for Matthew's career as a storyteller. As deep and dark as these abruptions can become, they are told with simple language, flashes of humor and a sage's sense of wonder and irony.
Download or read book A Worker s Writebook How Language Makes Stories written by Jack Matthews and published by Personville Press. This book was released on 2011-04-12 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This quirky writing guide by Jack Matthews (author of 20 literary works) offers insight about how successful writers mold raw experiences into a story and how language helps you to do that. Erudite, witty, idiosyncratic, serendipitous, mischievous, sesquipedalian, entertaining, introspective and colorful: these are adjectives which come to mind when reading this book. Less For several decades Jack Matthews distributed a photocopied version of this guide to students in his fiction writing classes at Ohio University. A Worker's Writebook offers insight about how successful writers mold raw experiences into a story and how language helps you to do that. It offers good examples and practical advice for getting a story idea off the ground; it analyzes several stories (including one of Matthews’ own) and offers paradigms for understanding how stories work. Erudite, witty, idiosyncratic, serendipitous, mischievous, sesquipedalian, entertaining, introspective and colorful: these are adjectives which come to mind when reading this book. The book consists of essays and dialogue (called interludes). These interludes punch holes in the rules and pronouncements made in the essays; they also help the book avoid seeming too dogmatic. The two voices in the interludes are not exactly "characters" but the author and a contrarian voice within the author. The comparison to Platonic dialogues is apt; Matthews received his undergraduate degree in classical Greek literature and has always found echoes of the classical age in contemporary art and life. Still, the "poetics" of Writebook is grounded less in Aristotle than Aristophanes. Although Writebook touches upon practical aspects of writing fiction (such as naming characters and writing speech cues), it focuses on helping the writer to write more boldly and with more attention to the linguistic vehicles of thought. For Matthews, most stories fail through under-invention, not because the rules of narrative have been disregarded. Chapter 2 (Taxonomies) and 3 (Structural Matters) cover paradigms for plot and character development. These are worthy subjects and Matthews has interesting things to say (especially when he tries to analyze his story Funeral Plots with these same paradigms). At the same time Matthews recognizes that there is no magic paradigm or archetype capable of explaining what makes all stories successful – these are just guides. At some point you just have to trust writerly intuition. Writebook helps the potential storyteller to cultivate this intuition and be flexible enough to bend rules when necessary. Matthews writes, "Anything can be done if it's done in the right way: with style, panache and cunning." At another time, he wrote, "Literature is the least pure of all the arts, and that is its richness and power. It's a temporal art like a symphony; it has periodicities, it has rhythms - prose itself has sound, it evokes visual imagery like painting...." Many writing books include a chapter or two listing literary cliches to avoid. For the most part, Writebook doesn't do that. Instead it goes deeper and analyzes why some metaphors succeed and others do not. The funny "Parable of the Indifferent Ear" provides a good case study about how linguistic inventiveness doesn't always translate into effective writing. Literary insights from Writebook can be applied to drama, novels and poetry; but they are especially applicable to smaller forms like the short story (though Matthews' claim that a short story of more than 10,000 words rarely succeeds is sure to be controversial). Writebook introduces lots of new ideas and terminology: the non-sequential time opening, the Swamps of Antecedence, pointedness (which is how stories gain enough momentum to escape the gravitational pull of the author), linguistic vehicles (the actual words which transport the thought) and why flat characters aren't always bad. "Mr. Matthews is a master of prose conversation and deadpan charm. He is ironic, cool, and shrewd, and he writes a lucid prose." (Tom O'Brien, NEW YORK TIMES) "Matthews' always graceful prose finds that precise telling detail. It's easy to fall in love with such writing." (Perry Glasser, NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW)
Download or read book Soldier Boys Tales of the Civil War written by Jack Matthews and published by Personville Press. This book was released on 2016-04-04 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the decades, Jack Matthews collected memoirs and personal correspondence by actual U.S. Civil War soldiers. Eventually this interest led him to write a group of stories from the vantage point of teenage soldiers. The stories are less about specific Civil War battles or the horrors of war than about ordinary adventures and heartbreaks of young soldiers. One soldier constantly composes new epitaphs for himself (much to the irritation of his comrades). A wounded soldier finds himself abandoned by his regiment and accidentally strikes up a friendship with a soldier from the other side. One soldier starts seeing ghostly visions of his dead brother and wants to know why. In the opening story, a courier is sent by headquarters to deliver an urgent (and tragic) message only to learn that the local commander has forbidden him to deliver it. In the final story, two soldiers have to hunt down and stop a hidden sharpshooter nicknamed “Old Mortality” and in so doing have to face (and understand) their fears. Told in an accessible, humorous and even old-fashioned way, these stories have a philosophical bent and give readers a sense of how 19th century young Americans must have pondered their world. This 8th story collection (published posthumously) is the first Jack Matthews story collection to be published in 23 years. This special ebook edition is illustrated by Barbiel Matthews-Sanders (the author’s daughter) and includes two introductory essays by Personville editor Robert Nagle. The author’s website (www.ghostlypopulations.com ) also contains a study guide for teachers and an annotated bibliography of Civil War fiction prepared especially for this ebook.
Download or read book British Theatre Companies 1980 1994 written by Graham Saunders and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-02-26 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This series of three volumes provides a groundbreaking study of the work of many of the most innovative and important British theatre companies from 1965 to the present. Each volume provides a survey of the political and cultural context, an extensive survey of the variety of theatre companies from the period, and detailed case studies of six of the major companies. Volume Two, 1980–1994, covers the period when cuts under Margaret Thatcher's Tory government changed the landscape for British theatre. Yet it also saw an expansion of companies that made feminism and gender central to their work, and the establishment of new black and Asian companies. Leading academics provide case studies of six of the most important companies, including: * Monstrous Regiment, by Kate Dorney (The Victoria & Albert Museum) *Forced Entertainment, by Sarah Gorman (University of Roehampton, London, UK) * Gay Sweatshop, by Sara Freeman (University of Puget Sound, USA) * Joint Stock, by Jaqueline Bolton (University of Lincoln, UK) * Theatre de Complicite, by Michael Fry * Talawa, by Kene Igweonu (Canterbury Christ Church University, UK)
Download or read book Complete Catalog of Plays Musicals written by Dramatic Publishing Company and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Boxes of Time Stories written by Jack Matthews and published by Personville Press. This book was released on 2024-01-12 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories about messy emotions, troubled families and damaged personalities. 11th Story Collection. Over his lifetime Jack Matthews (1925-2013) wrote over 200 stories, many of which were published in literary journals. Although stories varied widely in subject and style, they often could be described as urbane, philosophical, poetic and sardonic. Stories in Boxes of Time were mostly published between 1961 and 1981; they feature characters who are troubled or unsure of themselves trying to deal with life's usual disappointments. Stylistically, these stories are polished and carefully written, but they deal with messy emotions, troubled families and damaged personalities. The characters may not be as educated or self-assured as the people in his other collections, but they still manage to figure out interesting things about themselves and the people around them. Stories from this period focus especially on the emotional stresses that separate parents from their children. This ebook contains 24 stories by Jack Matthews which have never been collected, making it the author's largest story collection. _______ "Matthews stories are like friends from small towns: They are honest, warm, occasionally lyrical and as strange and idiosyncratic as the rest of us." (Arthur Sabatini, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) "Mr. Matthews is a master of prose conversation and deadpan charm. He is ironic, cool, and shrewd, and he writes a lucid prose." (Tom O'Brien, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW)
Download or read book Catalog of Copyright Entries written by Library of Congress. Copyright Office and published by . This book was released on 1957 with total page 744 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Feminist Views on the English Stage written by Elaine Aston and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-11-24 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feminist Views on the English Stage, first published in 2003, is an exciting and insightful study on drama from a feminist perspective, one that challenges an idea of the 1990s as a 'post-feminist' decade and pays attention to women's playwriting marginalized by a 'renaissance' of angry young men. Working through a generational mix of writers, from Sarah Kane, the iconoclastic 'bad girl' of the stage, to the 'canonical' Caryl Churchill, Elaine Aston charts the significant political and aesthetic changes in women's playwriting at the century's end. Aston also explores writing for the 1990s in theatre by Sarah Daniels, Bryony Lavery, Phyllis Nagy, Winsome Pinnock, Rebecca Prichard, Judy Upton and Timberlake Wertenbaker.
Download or read book Feminist Stages written by Lizbeth Goodman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a collection of interviews that spans feminist views from 1968 to the 1990s. Including over eight years of research. Part of the Comtemporary Theatre Studies series, it will be of special interest to everyone involved in theatre and useful to students and those who oare interested in women's theatre.
