Author’s Sala Special Series

Bringing readers and writers together

The Cat’s Meow and other tales
By Linda Sorin, June 29, 2007

Reading With Leonard Brooks, Wayne Greenhaw and David Lyons Fri, July 6, 5–7pm Posada San Francisco Plaza Principal 2 50 pesos, includes wine reception

This month the Author’s Sala is honored to present what promises to be an outstanding program. Two of San Miguel’s most illustrious long time residents, who happen to share a very close friendship, will be reading and we also welcome David Lyons, a writer from Puerto Vallarta. The readings will be as varied as the presenters.

Leonard Brooks

About the Author

Leonard Brooks is a 95-year-old Canadian artist who has lived in San Miguel de Allende, since the 1940s. As an official Canadian Naval war artist in World War II, Brooks was highly praised for his work. He has had numerous one-man shows at the Bellas Artes in Mexico City and at top galleries and museums in Canada and the United States. The author of eight books on art, Brooks has received praise for his clear delineations of various styles of painting. The director of the McLaughlin Gallery in Ontario wrote that his books “were so well written they’re really fun. It’s very unusual for an artist to be that versatile.” His works hang in many galleries, including the New York Museum of Modern Art as well as numerous galleries in Canada.

Leonard Brooks, who recently celebrated his 95th birthday, will be reading from Sir Nobby: A Cat-ography A cat’s tale of his life in Mexico in an artist’s home. Anyone who has ever lived with a cat is sure to be enchanted by this whimsical tale of Sir Nobby and his famous master. Even people who don’t like cats are sure to be delighted by this reading.

Wayne Greenhaw

Wayne Greenhaw’s 19th book and his first collection of poetry, Ghosts on the Road: Poems of Alabama, Mexico and Beyond, will be published by River City Publishing of Montgomery in April of 2007 as will the paperback edition of his 1993 novel, King of Country. The Thunder of Angels: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the People who Broke the Back of Jim Crow, by Donnie Williams with Wayne Greenhaw will be published in April by the Chicago Review Press.

Greenhaw was the 2006 recipient of the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer. In 2005 he was presented the Clarence E. Cason Award for Nonfiction by the University of Alabama’s College of Communications.

Greenhaw will be reading from Ghosts on the Road: Poems of Alabama, Mexico and Beyond. It includes poems about his friend Leonard Brooks on his 95th birthday last November, about being with Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady at the old La Cucaracha cantina on the Jardín where Banamex is now located, about the artist David Alfaro Siqueiros who came to San Miguel in the late ’40s and worked on his unfinished mural in the dining room of the convent which is now the Bellas Artes, and a requiem for Frida Kahlo.

The Author’s Sala is pleased to present Puerto Vallarta-based writer David Lyons for his first appearance in San Miguel. He will be reading from his book, Mexico’s Hidden Gold. Be sure to come and hear David. You’ll have an opportunity to ask him some questions after his presentation.