Book Talk at the Library of Virginia

Thursday, July 31, 2008

_The Tangierman's Lament and Other Tales of Virginia_ by Earl Swift

Time: Noon–1:00 PM

FREE EVENT

Go where the story is—that's one tenet of journalism Earl Swift, staff writer 
for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, has had little trouble following. In two decades 
of covering the commonwealth, Swift has hiked, canoed—even spelunked—a 
singular path through Virginia. He has also stopped and listened. He discusses 
his collection of some 20 Virginia tales wherein hardship is revealed as 
tragedy, and humor appears as uncanny, illuminating strangeness. The Pulitzer 
Prize–nominated title story takes us to the Chesapeake Bay island of Tangier, 
home to a Methodist enclave over 200 years old, with an economy almost 
wholly dependent on the blue crab. The gradual exodus of the island's young 
people and the dwindling crab hauls point to an inevitable extinction that finds 
a dramatic metaphor in the erosion of the island itself, which is literally 
disappearing beneath its inhabitants' feet.

The Library of Virginia is located at 800 East Broad Street in downtown 
Richmond.  Free parking is available underneath the building.

Copies of _The Tangierman’s Lament_ are available in the Virginia Shop at the 
Library of Virginia: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/whatwedo/shop.htm .

www.lva.virginia.gov 
804.692.3500

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