(Cazenovia, NY – April 2014) All are invited to join local author James Longstaff in the Cazenovia Public Library Community Room on Thursday, May 1 at7 p.m. as he shares his debut book Wapsipinicon/ Stories and Poems.
In Wapsipinicon, Longstaff takes his readers from the Kona Coast of Hawaii to St. Petersburg, Russia, by way of America’s Upper Midwest, Chicago, the Great Lakes, and Canada.
On fishing boats, sailboats, motorcycles, forgotten trains, jazz riffs, and trout streams, his stories and poems explore the country between adolescence and last chances.
Among this collection is work nominated for a Pushcart Prize for Short Fiction and an Award Poem recognition from Plainsongsmagazine.
Currently a 17-year resident of the Cazenovia area, Longstaff was born and raised near the Wapsipinicon River in Eastern Iowa. His early years were spent as a radio and television announcer and as a producer/director in Minneapolis and Memphis.
As an advertising writer and producer in Minneapolis, he remembers with special fondness the filming of television commercials with George Burns. He has also been an adjunct professor at the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University and is married to Professor Patricia Longstaff also of the Newhouse School.
Copies of Wapsipinicon/Stories and Poems will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
For more information on this or other events at the Cazenovia Public Library, call 655-9322 or visit www.cazenoviapubliclibrary.org.