Every Month through 2008

Writers on Writing

Want to be a Writer? What does it take? What is the writer's life like? We will explore the answers to these questions with 12 professional writers over the next 12 months. A $25.00 contribution to Moonstone and pre-registration is required for each session. Seating is Limited. You will receive a copy of the author's book in addition to participation in the workshop. The format will be a 15-minute reading, a 45-minute presentation, followed by a question and answer period. We are now able to offer you the chance to listen in on this presentation on our website for only $10.00. Register online: www.robinsbookstoreonline.com or download the registration form: wow.pdf

January 23, 2008 - Samuel R. Delany - Novelist
He has won nearly every major award in the world of Science Fiction, where as a genuine prodigy, he first rose to prominence in the early 1960's. Since that time he has created a vast and acclaimed body of work that includes: literary and social criticism, pornography, mainstream fiction, adult fantasy and comics. His most well known novel, the massive Dahlgren has sold over a million copies to date. He published the first novel about AIDS (The Tale of Plagues and Carnivals) in the United States in 1984, and is also one of that very select group of recipients of The William Whitehead Memorial Award for a Lifetime's Contribution to Lesbian and Gay Literature.

February 21, 2008 - Edward Shockley - Playwright
Born in South Philadelphia, he was the son of a registered nurse and an ex-con. After a youth spent as a student and athlete, he decided to "attempt reshaping the world with words." His creation Bobos was awarded the Richard Rodgers Award and the Stephen Sondheim award for Outstanding Contributions to American Musical Theatre. Mr. Shockley has helped in the design and founding of the Rainbow Company, the Philadelphia Young Playwrights' Festival, Reality Crew, the Philadelphia Dramatists Center, and the American Concert Theatre. Mr. Shockley has a long list of published works and has had 35 plays produced. Current projects include Outlaw, a film directed by Joe Morton, starring Ruby Dee, Benjamin Bratt, and Charles Dutton; and Notes from a Practicing Writer, essays on the craft and art of playwriting.

March 26, 2008 - Trudy Rubin - Journalist
Writing the "Worldview" column for The Inquirer for more than 10 years, Rubin was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2001. Her expertise is in the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe and her travels have included Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Israel, India, Saudi Arabia and more. Previously she reported for the Christian Science Monitor, covering Israel and the Arab world and authored "Willful Blindness: The Bush Administration and Iraq".

April 17, 2008 - Eleanor Wilner - Poet
Born in Ohio in 1937, is the author of six books of poetry, including the most recent, The Girl with Bees in Her Hair (2004) and Reversing the Spell: New and Selected Poems (1998). Her work appears in many anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Poetry 1996 and Best Poems of 1990 (Collier/ Macmillan). She has won a MacArthur Award, the Juniper Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Co.

May 22, 2008 - Haki Madhubuti - Poet
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas. he served in the U.S. Army (1960-63). He taught at various colleges and universities, in 1984 becoming a faculty member at Chicago State University. His work is characterized both by anger at social and economic injustice and by rejoicing in African-American culture. His first six volumes of poetry were published in the 1960s. An advocate of independent Black institutions, Lee founded the Third World Press in 1967, and he established the Institute of Positive Education in Chicago, a school for black children, in 1969. He is the author of 19 books. Among his poetry collections published under the Swahili name Haki R. Madhubuti are Book of Life (1973), Killing Memory, Seeking Ancestors (1987), and GroundWork: New and Selected Poems from 1966-1996 (1996).

June 19, 2008 - Paul Fussell - Non-Fiction
Born March 22, 1924, Pasadena, California he is a cultural and literary historian, and professor emeritus of English literature at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of books on eighteenth-century English literature, the world wars, and social class, among others. His 1975 literary study The Great War and Modern Memory (1975) won the National Book Award for Arts and Letters, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award of Phi Beta Kappa. Fussell was one of several veterans interviewed in the Ken Burns documentary "The War" in 2007.

July 16, 2008 - L.A. Banks - Novelist
An African American writer, she has written in various genres, including African American literature, romance, women's fiction, crime suspense, dark fantasy/horror and non-fiction. Banks started her career over ten years ago. She was born and raised in Philadelphia where she currently resides. In her ever steady and increasing career, she has won several literary awards. Books one and two of The Vampire Huntress Legend Series (Minion and The Awakening), have been optioned for Hollywood films. Originally a nine book series, The Vampire Huntress Legend Series has now been expanded to twelve books.

August 20, 2008 - Michael Swanwick - Novelist
Michael Swanwick has received the Hugo, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards for his work. Stations of the Tide was honored with the Nebula Award and was also nominated for the Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke Awards. The Edge of the World was awarded the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award in 1989. It was also nominated for both the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. Radio Waves received the World Fantasy Award in 1996. The Very Pulse of the Machine received the Hugo Award in 1999, as did Scherzo with Tyrannosaur in 2000. His stories have appeared in Omni, Penthouse, Amazing, Asimov's, High Times, New Dimensions, Starlight, Universe, Full Spectrum, Triquarterly and elsewhere. Many have been reprinted in Best of the Year anthologies, and translated for Japanese, Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, French and Croatian publications. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Marianne Porter, and their son, Sean.

September 17, 2008 - George Anastasia - Journalist
George Anastasia has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and won the coveted Sigma Delta Chi Award for magazine reporting for this coverage of the Thomas Capano-Anne Marie Fahey murder. A reporter with the Philadelphia Inquirer, he is also the author of five previous books, including Blood and Honor, his acclaimed account of the Philadelphia mob and Mobfather. He lives with his wife in southern New Jersey.

October 22, 2008 - Deborah Kogan Ray - Children's
Born in 1920 in Philadelphia, Deborah Kogan Ray developed as a child with an early interest in drawing and the natural world. She graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and began illustrating in 1969, publishing her first authored work in 1981. Her many paintings and llustrations for children's books incorporate scenes from nature, the lives of children, and folktales. She lives in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania.

November 19, 2008 - Daniel Hoffman - Poet
American poet and educator whose verse is noted for its merging of history, myth, and personal experience. These concerns are also evident in his numerous critical studies. His book-length poem Brotherly Love (1981) details the life of Quaker leader William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania; it formed the basis of composer Ezra Lademan's oratorio of the same name. Middens of the Tribe, another book-length poem, was published in 1995. In addition to writing poetry, Hoffman edited several poetry anthologies. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe (1972), was nominated for a National Book Award. In 1968 Hoffman was appointed as United States Poet Laureate.

December 17, 2008 - Charles Fuller - Playwright
This celebrated American playwright wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Soldier's Play (1981), and adapted it as the 1984 feature, A Soldier's Story, earning an Oscar nomination for his efforts. Virtually all of his work has focused on African Americans and his early career set the pace. After army service and college, he joined WIP-Radio in his native Philadelphia to direct The Black Experience and also co-founded and co-directed the Afro-American Arts Theatre. Fuller's first TV work was also in Philadelphia, with the 1967 reality-based miniseries "Roots, Resistance, and Renaissance" for WHYY. The Perfect Party opened in NYC in 1968. Fuller won critical acclaim for In the Deepest Part of Sleep (1974) and The Brownsville Raid (1976), The 1980's Zooman and the Sign,earned him an OBIE Award. (Fuller later scripted the small screen adaptation for a 1995 Showtime original movie.) Fuller's other major TV credit was "A Gathering of Old Men" (CBS, 1987)