Maya Story Presents at Music & Imagery Conference
Maya Story, music therapy faculty, will give a presentation on guided imagery and music at the Association for Music and Imagery in June 2013.
Natalie Serber Featured in New York Times Book Review
Natalie Serber, faculty in the English literature and writing department, was featured in Sunday's New York Times Book Review.
Serber will read from her critically acclaimed book, Shout Her Lovely Name, at Moonstruck Chocolate Café in Lake Oswego on September 16, 2012. In October, she'll appear at LitQuake in San Francisco and at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Celebration in Tacoma. Details on those and other upcoming appearances are available on her website.
Excerpt from an article by Robin Romm, New York Times Book Review, September 9, 2012.
When 14-year-old Nora gets a pair of diamond earrings in the mail from the father she's never met, her mother, Ruby, looks at them and dryly remarks, "They're the size of birth control pills."
It's an excellent line, rich with subtext, the kind Natalie Serber delivers again and again in Shout Her Lovely Name, her nuanced and smart collection of stories. Nora ignores the birth control remark; her silence is as powerful a retort as any. Proud that she had to sign for the special delivery herself, she enjoys the "fractured light" the diamonds reflect on her face. The pleasure, however, will prove fleeting. When she finally meets her father in Chicago (in a gripping set of scenes), the fractures eclipse the shine.
Diamonds, Ruby — in these stories, women are subject to appraisals from men and one another, and questions arise about the random and suspect ways women attain personal and social value. As it happens, Nora's father turns out to be in the jewelry business.
