Puppet night at the bar
Old Tom Banjo’s on fire,
yodeling his crankies.
The sad mime finally speaks.
Cloth blob wags his tongue.
Chief Lee cocoons himself
in a roll of paper.
Last night’s event at the lamp shop, the PCP (Puppets, Crankies, and Pantomime) made me nostalgic for the massive puppetry endeavor that my sister, Nick, Stef, Ben, and I put together many years ago. Here’s a photo from that very involved spectacle:
I’m looking forward to launching my new book at Phoenix Bookstore in Burlington in May! They have ordered the books already, and I’m thrilled and honored to have a display in the store.
The event is coming up:
Reading at 7pm at Phoenix bookstore.
And, an after party with the lovely singer-songwriter Iva Mae at my studio in the Soda Plant (on Pine street, above Tomgirl Juice).
I am thrilled to have been asked to visit the MFA in Writing & Publishing program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts this upcoming February to speak about my career in writing, my experience with graphic literature, and my work with small independent publishers.
I’ll be joining a panel discussion, craft lecture, and reading on February 8th with Erin Stalcup and Justin Bigos to speak on our collective experience with being published by Gold Wake Press.
Then, I will be collaborating on a cross-genre craft lecture with Vermont poet and artist Bianca Stone on graphic literature.
In the evening, I will join several Vermont authors for a reading. (Time and place forthcoming).
Now that I have finally turned in my final grades for the three creative writing courses that I teach here in Vermont, I’m finally reaching my head above the chaos for a breath of fresh air, and I went back to re-read the marketing and publicity paperwork for MIT Press regarding my upcoming book. There, I found a very kind and thrilling description of my book among the Editor’s Picks for 2019 collection, written by the acquisitions editor who helped coach me through this process. Here is her write-up,
“Most of us are familiar with Walter Benjamin, but in revisiting him closely while doing research for this book, I was astonished to realize how persistent his influence is—and, in fact, growing.
Frances Cannon’s passion for Benjamin is infectious. Her graphic translations charm and captivate. In the same way that Benjamin’s writing is likened to a meandering stroll, Cannon’s pen wanders, strays, digresses. She illuminates Benjamin the flâneur—allowing us, along with her, to become flâneurs ourselves, traveling through his mind.
This is a fun read, and unpredictable in the best sense of the word. As one of the endorsers notes: “we need to come up with new names for something this wonderful and brand new in the world.”
Here’s an alternate cover, which will not be the final cover, but I wanted to share it as a teaser:
The catalogue has been published, and the book will be released in April.
I recently found this handmade book that I gave to my father as a gift several years ago (given my terrible memory, it could have been three years ago, or five… who knows). He named me after the badger in Russel Hoban’s “Frances” series, most notably: Bread and Jam for Frances, so I decided to write and illustrate my own version as a tribute to my Dad.
