First Draft: A Dialogue On Writing W/ Ben Fountain
First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
W/ BEN FOUNTAIN
June 16 @ 6:30 pm – 11:59 pm
FREE W/ RSVP
SEATED SHOW / ALL AGES (Under 18 must be accompanied by a legal guardian)
LIMIT OF 4 RSVP PER PERSON
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ABOUT FIRST DRAFT: A DIALOGUE ON WRITING
Genre: PANEL
First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing is a literary podcast produced and hosted by Mitzi Rapkin. Each week the podcast features an in-depth interview with a fiction, non-fiction, essay, or poetry writer. The show is equal parts investigation into the craft of writing and conversation about the topics of an author’s work.
ABOUT RASPUTIN SWIMS THE POTOMAC
Rasputin Swims the Potomac is a biting satire of American politics and a searingly intelligent novel about the cruel absurdities of contemporary life, centering on a world champion professional wrestler with presidential ambitions. Reporter Clarence Thomas Jr. is looking for a great story, former country music teen star Faith Spack has parlayed her fame into a job at the White House, and the two-term incumbent president is campaigning for a constitutionally dubious third term. After an outbreak at a campaign rally, a mysterious new pandemic of “weeping sickness” sweeps the nation, threatening the president’s hold on the Oval Office. Desperate to retain power, he enlists the mystical pro wrestler Rasputin to help ensure his reelection and guarantee additional seasons of his presidential reality TV show, The Real West Wing. But as Rasputin’s appeal threatens to exceed the president’s, and the wrestler’s supposedly supernatural powers start to seem like the real thing, the campaign finds itself trapped in a spandex-clad destiny no number of executive orders can control, one in which both Clarence and Faith are compelled to play increasingly large parts. Hilarious, compelling, and tragically relevant, the novel is both an escape and a warning, a scathing satire that explores the twists and turns of American democracy as it hurtles toward authoritarianism.
ABOUT BEN FOUNTAIN
Ben Fountain is the author of several works of fiction and nonfiction including the award winning Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, which won the National Book Critic’ Circle Award for Fiction. Some of his other work include Brief Encounters with Che Guevera, Beautiful Country Burn Again, and Devil Makes Three. His work has received the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Los Angeles Book Prize for Fiction, and a Whiting Writers Award, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He lives in North Carolina.
Learn more about Ben Fountain: WEBSITE
ABOUT MITZI RAPKIN
Mitzi Rapkin is the founder, host and producer of the literary podcast, “First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing,” which features a new author interview each week. She has interviewed more than 500 contemporary writers of fiction, nonfiction, essays, and poetry over the past eleven years. Her conversations explore essential questions about what it means to be human alongside the craft of writing and the themes of the writers’ works. Rapkin is also a journalist, fiction writer, certified integral coach, facilitator, and fiction-writing instructor.
Learn more about / Listen to First Draft: WEBSITE
DETAILS
- EVENT @ 6:30 pm / DOORS @ 5:30 pm
- SEATED SHOW / ALL AGES (Under 18 must be accompanied by a legal guardian)
- Limit of 4 tickets per purchaser
Presented By: The Arts Campus At Willits