Author’s Sala special series

Readings by Albert Sgambati and Edward Swift

Fri, Apr 13, 5–7pm

Posada de San Francisco

Plaza Principal 2

50 pesos, includes wine reception

Author’s Sala Special Series

Bringing readers and writers together
By Linda Sorin

The Author’s Sala is pleased to present readings by two authors, one originally from New York City and the other from Texas. Both have found their way to Mexico and both are multi-talented. Not only do they both write, but one is also a visual artist and the other is a teacher, journalist and film consultant. Their literary offerings are equally varied and include poetry, novellas, memoirs and novels. This week’s readings will certainly offer diversity and a forum for lively discussion. Please join the Author’s Sala and the Messrs. Sgambati and Swift for a provocative evening.

Albert Sgambati

Albert Sgambati is a native of New York City. At present he lives in Mexico City where he freelances as a feature writer, film consultant, translator and editor, in addition to working as a part-time professor at Alliant International University.

In 2006, Miami University Press published his prize-winning novella, The Waiting Room. Other recent publications include a collaborative limited edition, All Roads...But This One, from Luddite Kingdom Press, (San Francisco, 2006).

Radical House Press (San Francisco) released a collection of his poetry under the title, This Is Always, in the early 90s, and Big Scream Press (Grand Rapids, MI), included his poetry in its, Anthology of American Poets 1980s.

Most recently, on the strength of an as-yet unpublished novel and some fast-talking, International Creative Management in New York, has taken him on as one of their clients. 

Sgambati reads excerpts from his novella, The Waiting Room as well as from his poetry and novel.

Following is an excerpt from Prism Quarterly.

“Mr. Wicker’s Method”

Mr. Wicker writes about art. He walks into a gallery with a leather-bound notebook. Writes something down. Then moves on. If anyone approaches he waves them away. This makes people nervous and he enjoys it. It’s his job. Not that anyone pays him for it. Mr. Wicker is compensated by other means, free to spend his days in writing about art. It is what he loves. In fact it is a love story he is writing. It moves through all the galleries of the city and is set in a leather-bound notebook with a thinly disguised Mr. Wicker as protagonist. A sexy story full of mystery. Mr. Wicker is impeccably dressed. At the top of his game. He does all the galleries. 

The love interest is a girl off the street with two skateboards attached from their trucks by a piece of rope over her shoulder. A beat up overnight case and a gym bag. Mr. Wicker is on his way to a gallery when the door slides open and she puts everything down to fish out a dollar coming up a dime short. He throws it in the machine. He’s behind her. He’s impeccably dressed. Between the cars she surprises him. Says “Hi.” Smiles. 

They’re getting off at the same stop but they don’t know it yet. The girl, let’s call her Ernesta, doesn’t even entertain the idea. Mr. Wicker clutches his leather-bound notebook. She steps off ahead of him. Once again he is surprised.

The night is full of surprises. It’s in the notebook. That’s why he asks her, “Where are you going?” Then she pivots on the balls of her rubber tips and faces him. “The park,” she says. “Want to get something to eat?” he asks. She looks him over. Impeccable. Leather-bound. “Sure,” she says. 

At the restaurant Mr. Wicker shows her the notebook that’s the setting for the story that moves through galleries with a thinly disguised Mr. Wicker, and she is astonished to find out that she, Ernesta, is the love interest in the story. She doesn’t understand how this could happen. Mr. Wicker smiles. He thinks of Pierre Bonnard’s Man and Woman and twirls vermicelli noodles on his fork.

“What are you smiling at?” Ernesta asks. He points to the place in the leather-bound book, where it says, Mr. Wicker smiles. He thinks of Pierre Bonnard’s Man and Woman. “Do you know it?” he asks when she’s through reading. She shakes her head. 

Here there’s a chapter break in the leather-bound book. 

We find Mr. Wicker and Ernesta on a couch in the den with Bonnard’s Man and Woman balanced on their knees. “A simple and formal strength,” Mr. Wicker tells Ernesta. “An acute perception of light,” she reads back to him from the leather-bound notebook. Mr. Wicker is getting excited. “Oh,” Ernesta moans gripping the leather notebook with Man and Woman on her knees. She’s following the text with her finger. Reads ahead. Is ready for him when he comes. There are two skateboards by the door. A beat up overnight case and a gym bag. Mr. Wicker needs a smoking jacket for the next paragraph and is absent, momentarily, between graphs. Ernesta takes some pills from her gym bag and opens them up into a snifter of cognac in front of the fire where we find her and Mr. Wicker at the indent. 

“Imbuing it with the most disquieting and incongruous elements of dream,” Mr. Wicker says as she massages his foot. He then realizes how he’s jumped ahead of himself. Said something he shouldn’t have until later. Words that would have echoed the Bonnard painting as they undressed, but Ernesta is still on the footstool. Now Mr. Wicker is confused. Ernesta watches his eyelids flutter and his head fall to his chest.

As Mr. Wicker sleeps Ernesta draws a warm bath and settles in with the leather-bound notebook. There, Mr. Wicker dreams a canvas. A blue wash. She reads: He pens the words: “Cool and objective,” into his book; closes it and admires the piece for a moment catching up to her place in the notebook in the bath. 

Then Mr. Wicker walks in. Without knocking. Ernesta looks up from the leather-bound volume. He is impeccably dressed. The love story he is writing becomes indistinguishable from the present. Here, she loses her place and he takes the book from her. Lays it open on the tile. 

Face down.



The Author’s Sala Special Series presents short works by local authors. The San Miguel Author’s Sala presents author readings and workshops for writers and aspiring writers. Look for books by local authors in a special section at the tienda in the Biblioteca. For up-to-date information on upcoming events, visit www.sanmiguelauthors.com.