T Cooper will read and discuss his latest book, “Real Man Adventures,” at the Knoxville Writers’ Guild’s Thursday, March 7 meeting.
The event, which will be open to the public, begins at 7 p.m., at the Laurel Theater, at the corner of Laurel Avenue and 16th Street in Fort Sanders. A $2 donation is requested at the door. The building is handicapped accessible. Additional parking is available at Redeemer Church of Knoxville, 1642 Highland Ave.
“Real Man Adventures” (McSweeney’s 2012) is a brash, inventive and comic exploration of the paradoxes and pleasures of masculinity. A collage of letters, essays, artwork and interviews, this book will change what readers believe it means to be a man.
The book is “a mixture of a variety of styles, from journalism to interviews to artwork,” Cooper said. Readers can expect poetry, a 6-word memoir, transcripts, artwork by Cooper and professional artists and more. His website, www.t-cooper.com, describes the book as personal and original, and his appearance at the KWG meeting is likely to be the same. Cooper plans to incorporate multimedia and some “special guests” into the evening.
“I’m going to bring a musician with me,” he said, referring to Peggy Hambright, owner of MagPies and former member of the band Judybats. “We have a CD that came out with the book that I produced. I’ll probably have some people read with me.”
He added, “It’ll be a fun night.”
In addition to “Real Man Adventures,” Cooper has also written “The Beaufort Diaries” (Melville House 2010), “Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes” (Plume 2007) and numerous features, articles and essays. His short story, “Swimming,” was one of 100 Distinguished Stories in “The Best American Short Stories 2008,” edited by Salman Rushdie. He is the editor of an anthology titled “A Fictional History of the United States with Huge Chunks Missing” (Akashic Books 2006).
He has been awarded residencies to The MacDowell Colony, Ledig House International and The Millay Colony, where he was “The New York Times” Foundation Fellow. Recently, he was a visiting faculty member at Middlebury College.
A true multimedia author, Cooper adapted and produced a short film based on his graphic novel “The Beaufort Diaries.” The animated short, directed by the book’s illustrator Alex Petrowsky and starring actor David Duchovny, was an official selection at several film festivals, including Tribeca Film Festival, South by Southwest, The New Orleans Film Fest, The Worldwide Short Film Festival and the Anchorage International Film Festival.
Copies of “Real Man Adventures” will be available for purchase at the meeting. Additional information about Cooper and his work can be found at www.t-cooper.com. For more information about this and other KWG events, visit www.knoxvillewritersguild.org.
