Cover Image for the "Along the Lake" anthology about Erie, Pa.
Dougherty edits anthology of Erie writers
May 27, 2005
The Erie Bookstore recently was host for a reception
and reading in honor of the publication of "Along the Lake: Contemporary
Writing from Erie, PA" (Ye Olde Font Shoppe 2005). The anthology is the
three-year-long researched effort of editor Sean Thomas Dougherty, a lecturer
in the BFA program for creative writing at Penn State Erie and himself one of
the nation's leading young poets. The anthology is the first of its kind to
conduct a national search for writers who have lived and worked in Erie County
sometime over the last 30 years.
The anthology includes work from ex-Erieites as far
away as Oregon, Texas and Connecticut, as well as more than a dozen writers who
still work and live in the county. The book is published by Ye Olde Font Shoppe
Press of New Haven, Conn., a small press that has put out nearly 60 titles, and
whose founder, poet Victoria Rivas, is an old east-sider from Erie. The
anthology idea came when Dougherty was at a festival in Connecticut back in
2001. He mentioned the idea to Rivas, who said, "Yes, it is a long
overdue idea. Let's put Erie on the literary map."
The book includes writing by many well-known authors
including a novel excerpt from Bakeless Prize winner Ann Pancake of Seattle;
poetry from John Poch, a professor at Texas Tech; and a prose piece by New York
City playwright Eugene Grygo; as well as prose and poetry from current Erie
County residents Ron Androla, Mark Borczon, George Looney, Heather A. Slomski,
Kirk Nesset, Jen Town, Benedectine sister Mary Lou Kownacki and half a dozen
others.
The book is designed by Erie fiction writer Chris
Majerik with a black and white cover photo by Erie artist Suzanne Proulx, who
also did the cover for the most recent Spring 2005 edition of Lake Effect, Penn
State Erie's literary journal. When asked about the photo, Dougherty admits, “That's
my son. He's the best little poem in Erie county.”
Along the Lake is available for purchase at $15 a
copy. For more information, contact the Erie Bookstore at (814) 480-5671.
CONTACTS:
Loretta Brandon
lzb6@psu.edu
Work Phone: 814-898-6063
Last Updated November 18, 2010
http://www.eriebookstore.org/ 
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