• RIVERHEAD BOOKS

Set in the 1920s and '30s, The Chaperone illustrates the changing social landscape in the Prohibition-era Unites States. Girls with short hair are considered "provocative" and "not feminine at all." Louise is considered to be one of the "new generation" who, as one of the traditional women in Wichita says, "walk around practically naked so they can be stared at." The conflicts over a changing value system between generations is nothing new, but Moriarty allows Cora take center stage in the story and we learn that she has a secret history based in New York.

While in the city, Louise attempts to be mature and seductive, flirting with older men and drinking alcohol. Cora, on the other hand, has an agenda to resolve the issues of her complicated past. This makes for an interesting read, as the reader is drawn in to see how both the young "liberated flapper" and Cora are forever impacted by their trip.

Laura Moriarty will be reading excerpts from her newest novel at the Highland Inn Ballroom Lounge on Tuesday, June 18, at 7:00 pm. More details.

• Isadora Pennington
• Kory Calico talks at the first AZF

Last weekend, the first Atlanta Zine Fest was held in Castleberry Hill. The event included local artists as well as those who made their way across the country to participate in the event designed as a small marketplace for handmade books and a series of panel discussions on DIY culture. CL sat down with event organizer Amanda Mills, founder of the Atlanta Zine Library, along with Kory Calico, current head of Kill Your Darlings writers workshop, artist Becky Furey, and Jessie Feigert, Ar'nt I A Woman blog author, to discuss the importance of zines as a platform, the challenges of DIY, and the art of documenting Atlanta subculture from your bedroom floor.

CL: Talk a little bit about the zine-making/DIY process.

Jessie: This was my very first zine and I very foolishly went in thinking, "This is gonna be really easy," because the appeal is that anyone can do it. I still believe that, but you do have to do hard work to get it done. Printing was my biggest headache. I spent three days straight at FedEx.

To me the content was more important than the aesthetics, it was just more of using this as a platform. I wanted more people to start talking about mental health, and women that suffer from mental health issues.

Amanda: I have a sincere interest in the copy machine. Knife!! of Atomic Heat Ray, who gave a sticker-making workshop during the Zine Fest, has an entire printing press. He has like some ancient steel thing - not a letterpress, but it's kind of similar- two or three office copiers and a risograph.

A risograph is the exact same thing as a photocopier but instead of using toner it uses actual ink. Another thing is it prints really fast for some reason so when you hit copy, and you hit like 100, him and I were doing this just for the fun of it, and paper is just flying into your face, like 20 a second.

• JOEFF DAVIS
• Natasha Trethewey

The second year appointment will focus on a collaboration with the PBS Newshour Poetry Series. According to the announcement, Trethewey "will join NewsHour Senior Correspondent Jeffrey Brown for a series of on-location reports in various cities across the United States to explore several large societal issues, through a focused lens offered by poetry and her own coming-to-the-art."

For more on Trethewey, take a minute to revisit Max Blau's profile from our Literary Atlanta issue.

Zines have been experiencing a kind of cultural resurgence and reinvention that is, at least in part, a response to the rise of the Internet. (The New York Times has been championing this trend for years now.) While mostly focused on the art of little handmade books, AZF's lectures and panels touch on all variety of DIY subjects: "History of Street Art talk and wheat paste demonstration," "Controlled Chaos: the perils, payoffs and pleasures of putting on DIY shows," "Feminist Perspectives on DIY Blogging and Zine-making," and so on.

CL caught up with Amanda Mills, co-founder and organizer of the event, to talk about zines and her plans for the festival.

This is the first year for Atlanta Zine Fest. How did it come about?

AZF was born through my friendship with a Canadian actually. She and I are compared incessantly. Before I met her, our mutual friend, Josh Fauver, told me that I had to meet this girl named Tracy Soo-Ming. "You guys are exactly alike. And I'm not sure which one is the evil twin," he said. Eventually she found me on Facebook back in April. We pretty immediately started organizing a volunteer base and fundraisers. More significantly, she became one of my best friends - which is not a term I use lightly. I have never found someone who has such similar interests as me.

We both have been involved with zines since elementary school. Riot grrrl has an indelible role. My childhood - and that of all my girl friends - was rife with violence and poverty. Riot grrrl really helped me understand the relationship between my experiences and the broader scope of feminist politics, including how to articulate these concerns. Here is where zines come in. For me, zines are inherently political. Zines allow for fringe expression, or counter-responses and alternatives to mainstream media. It's a medium that is accessible to everyone. Honestly I consider myself a sort of community cheerleader in that I'm always trying to hype and organize other people's talent - of which there's an insane wealth in Atlanta - and concentrate it into more accessible venues. This is what AZF comes down to. Exposing and in tandem creating an Atlanta zine community.

• Brendan Bourke
• Colum McCann

On June 10, National Book Award-winning novelist Colum McCann will read at the Carter Center. That'll be just a few days after the release of TransAtlantic, the follow up to his much-lauded novel Let the Great World Spin. Like that previous effort, TransAtlantic promises to draw a few historical figures into the framework of the novel.

On June 19, New Yorker staff writer George Packer will also head to the Carter Center to discuss his latest book, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America. Packer's 2005 book, The Assassin's Gate, is largely regarded as the first definitive book about America's invasion of Iraq. His latest looks at the past few decades of American history and popular figures "from Newt Gingrich to Jay Z" as a way of exploring an empire in decline.

The announcement seems to mark an ambitious elevation in programming for both the festival and the bookstore. We'll have more coverage as the dates get closer.