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"Britain's brightest young writer."
—The Guardian

"[Lawrence Norfolk is] just about ahead of everyone in his generation of novelists."
—The Observer

"If Norfolk's first novel were indeed a dictionary, its first entries might well be accomplished, ambitious, and audacious. On one level this is a richly textured historical novel set at the end of the 18th century in London, Paris , and the Channel Islands. At the same time it subverts our expectations, revealing 'history' as a vast conspiracy whose workings are both mysterious and inevitable. At its center is John Lempriere, a (real) figure whose 1788 dictionary of mythology insists on springing to gruesome life. An army of cabalists and automatons, a virtual bureaucracy of the damned, plotting apocalypse, are ranged against him. Dauntingly elusive and allusive, but highly recommended for readers of Eco and Fowles."
—Grove Koger

Lawrence Norfolk is the author of three historical novels which have together sold over a million copies and been translated into thirty-four languages. Born in London in 1963, Norfolk moved with his parents to Iraq in the following year. Evacuated following the Six Day War in 1967, he grew up in the West Country of England.

Author of Lempriére's Dictionary, The Pope's Rhinoceros, and In the Shape of a Boar, and co-author of Ott's Sneeze, he is currently writing a novel set in 17th-century England during the Civil War. Norfolk is the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and the Budapest Festival Prize for Literature. His work has been short-listed for the Impac Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Award, and the Wingate/Jewish Quarterly Prize for Literature. In 1992 he was listed as one of Granta magazine's "Twenty Best Young British Writers."

Norfolk's journalism has appeared in newspapers and magazines throughout Europe and America. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio Four's Saturday Review and Front Row, and BBC Radio Three's Nightwaves. He lives in London with his wife and two sons.

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Co-editor of the magazine Chain, as well as several anthologies of poetics and criticism, Juliana Spahr is the author of seven volumes of poetry and a critical work, including Everybody's Autonomy: Connective Reading and Collective Identity (2001).

An ardent proponent of "boredom and uncreative writing," Kenneth GoldsmithÑauthor of nine books, including Fidget, Soliloquy, and Day—teaches writing at the University of Pennsylvania and hosts a weekly radio show on WFMU-FM in Jersey City, NJ, as DJ "Kenny G."

Both poets will reconvene on the UB North Campus the next day (Tues., April 8) for a conversation in the Poetry Collection on the 4th floor of Capen Hall.

SpahrÊwill also inaugurate the Returning Poet/Critic Series at 11:30 a.m., Tues., April 8 in the Oscar Silverman Room on the third floor of Clemens Hall, UB North Campus.

Charles Bachman, a native of Iowa, made his way to Buffalo by way of Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, Germany, and Indiana, including three years in the U.S. Army. His Ph.D. from Indiana University is in Comparative Literature, and his teaching specialties at Buffalo State College are Native American Literature and Contemporary Drama. He took a 20-year hiatus from writing poetry during an active second career as an operatic baritone, singing 26 major roles and many solo appearances with groups including Opera Rochester, Arpark Opera (under Christopher Keene), the Syracuse Symphony, and the Buffalo Philharmonic, as well as song recitals of German Lieder and French, Italian, English, and American art songs. Periodicals where his poetry has appeared include Carolina Quarterly and Kansas Quarterly. His book of poems, If Ariel Danced on the Moon, was published in September 2006.

Judith Slater's poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Margie (forthcoming), AGNIonline, Chautauqua Literary Review, 5AM, Poet Lore, and Ted Kooser's Website American Life in Poetry. She lives in Williamsville, NY, where she works as a psychologist in private practice.

Continuing publication of Earth's Daughters magazine is made possible by a Decentralization grant from the Arts Council in Buffalo & Erie County, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts. The Gray Hair Series is co-sponsored by Hallwalls and Just Buffalo Literary Center.

$12
Gay men's traveling music & comedy troupe makes a stop in Buffalo on its spring Northeast tour. Starring Bobaloo, Elijah Black, Shannon Grady, Kendall, & Matthew Temple.

Over the last few years, outlets like Bear Radio Network, Bearapalooza, and WoobieBearMusic—along with a host of supportive bear runs, bars, and podcasts—have given Bear musicians, songwriters, and performers a place to share their talents. Following up on their successful first-ever fall 2007 tour of the midwest, south, and southwest, five BOTR performers will once again head out in a van for their first-ever northeast tour, this time taking them to Toronto, Buffalo, Albany, Provincetown, Boston, Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia, & NYC.

The tour is called BEARS ON THE RUN and showcases the talents of Bobaloo (a comedian from L.A.), Kendall (a songwriter/performance artist from Buffalo NY), Matthew Temple (a folksinger/songwriter from Nashville, T.N.), Elijah Black (a rock singer/songwriter from Akron, OH), and Shannon Grady (a singer/songwriter from Minneapolis, MN). Along for the ride will be two videographers who will capture performances as well as life backstage and on the road to be edited into a documentary.

The tour's founder Shannon Grady (a singer and co-host of the popular podcast bTALK) hopes that the tour will grow and open up doors for other Bear artists and find new audiences for their work.

With Nikki Germany, Black Magic, Rain Bethel Cooper, Devotion, & Crusaders Drill Team. Hosted by SpOkEn (aka Tysheka Long)

$8, $6 members
Tale Me More—Again is the second installment of "not your usual poetry reading"—a show with a beat, pulsing with spoken word and musical rhythms that will challenge your definition of a poetry reading. Performers will include Black Magic, Nikki Germany, Rain Bethel-Cooper, The Crusaders Drill Team, Mizz. Streetz, & Devotion. Hosted and coordinated by poet Tysheka "Spoken" Long.

Tysheka "Spoken" Long has been a part of Buffalo's poetry scene for the past 7 years, performing at such venues as Em Tea Coffee Cup Café, El Museo Gallery, Buffalo Museum of Science, and at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in the Poetry Slam finals organized by Just Buffalo. Formally an Njozi Poet, she performed with them in many venues around Buffalo including the "Sisters' Perspective."

Garry "Black Magic" Collins, born and raised in Buffalo, NY, is an up and coming visual artist and musician specializing in Spanish Guitar. To his credit he has performed at Villa Maria College's Battle Battle, Hallwalls, African & African American Diversity Conference (McKinley High School), and as a regular at El Museo.

Rain Bethel-Cooper began writing in 1999. She does a lot of her art work at Locust Street Neighborhood Art Classes. Her inspiration for writing was watching the staff at Locust Street write grants. That's when she realized "writing gave you the power of voice!" She got involved in spoken word in 2004. Her first poetry performance was at Em Tea Coffee Cup Café. Since then she has performed for Just Buffalo at Klienhans Music Hall, El Museo, and the Science Museum, and is also a former Njozi Poet!

Nikki Germany is Nickel City's 2007 Grand Slam Champ and a 2008 Nickel City Regional Team member.

$25

Award-winning novelist Kiran Desai is a citizen of India and a Permanent Resident of the United States. She was born in New Delhi on September 3, 1971, and lived there until she was 14, when she and her motherÑthe noted author Anita DesaiÑmoved to England for a year, then finally to the United States where Kiran studied creative writing at Bennington College, Hollins University, and Columbia.

Kiran Desai's first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published in 1998 and received accolades from such notable figures as Salman Rushdie. It went on to win the Betty Trask Award, a prize given by the Society of Authors for the best new novels by citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations under the age of 35.

Her second book, The Inheritance of Loss (2006) has been widely praised by critics throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States, and won the 2006 Man Booker Prize as well as the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.

Preceding the reading from 7:00­8:00 p.m.: An hour-long concert of live Indian music by the duo Omkara, made possible by a grant to Hallwalls from the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

Omkara—Ravi Padmanabha (tabla, kanjira, frame drum) and Naryan Padmanabha (hammer dulcimer, santoor)—is an eclectic duo with music in their blood. Brothers Ravi and Naryan Padmanabha produce an intense and dynamic sound seamlessly blending music of various traditions. The brothers (usually performing with a third brother, Aneal, on acoustic guitar and contrabass) explore classical and contemporary Indian music styles by integrating Eastern and Western instruments into a classical setting and allowing for infinite improvisational explorations. Their music is purely acoustic. From traditional folk to the outer limits of the avant-garde, Omkara navigates freely between many worlds. As a trio, they collaborated with Sri. Nanda Kumar to complete the self-titled CD Omkara in 2005. The duo plays a variety of musical instruments, including the dulcimer, santoor, frame drum, tabla, kanjira, gopi-chand, and morrsing.

Besides major grant support from The John R. Oishei Foundation, the organizers of Babel thank Artvoice, Buffalo Spree, & WBFO 88.7 for their media sponsorship; Righteous Babe Records for the use of Asbury Hall at Babeville; Talking Leaves…Books; The Mansion; and New York State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and Erie County, for their support of Just Buffalo's and Hallwalls' programs.