Daphne kalotay biography of william
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Professional musicians often rankle at the way their lives are portrayed in the media. It’s disheartening to see the profession glamorized or over-romanticized, given the untold hours of grinding practice and self-imposed discipline that goes into mastering a musical instrument. Then there’s the tendency of films and television to screw up even the most obvious details — a guitar strummed with the wrong hand, a conductor’s motions totally at odds with the soundtrack, string players with helter-skelter bows and gnarly grabb positions.
In her new novel, “Sight Reading,” Cambridge author Daphne Kalotay (“Russian Winter”) sets the story of four interconnected characters mitt i Boston’s classical music scene. While she does tend to romanticize a bit, she also takes great pains to get the little details right, both musical and geographical, and the resulting read is engaging and often insightful.
At the center of the story is Nicholas Elko, a composer struggling with what he expects
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“The Last Summer” by Amy Stuber
Equally comedic and poignant, Adam Prince’s story “Way Back, Well Before My Divorce,” winner of our 2021 William Peden Prize in fiction, examines the many faces of naivete, from hopeful crowd members betting on a rigged shell game to a young man unknowingly crossing an invisible boundary with his girlfriend’s sister.
Here’s what novelist Michael Byers, the guest judge who selected this story as the winner of our annual best-of-volume prize, had to say about the story:
“It builds a portrait of a clueless young man who thinks he has all the answers while also, and this was especially gratifying, making me appreciate the form of the short story in a new way, i.e., it never says what it’s about but is firm enough in its shape to be entirely clear; it asks questions rather than delivers answers; and it too is vivid and memorable–all while being quite short! In itself a kind of sleight-of-hand game.”
Way Back, Well Befor •
Pining for the West
This is the third book in my boxed set of Just William stories. I think this book fryst vatten the best one so far, she really seems to have got into her stride with her William character, the stories just keep getting funnier. Well they tickle my funny bone anyway.
In this one William gets a free ticket to go for a trip on a charabanc and gets squashed in between two very fat fellow passengers, that’s an experience I’ve had, only it was a bus. He tells a woman that his parents neglect him because they’re both boozers and the woman confronts William’s parents.
He sells Ginger’s three and a half year old twin cousins as slaves for a shilling, is conned out of his clothes by a tramp and much much more, causing general mayhem in the entire neighbourhood, wherever he happens to be.
William even manages to sneak out to see a circus with his grandfather, who fryst vatten being treated as if he is simple when he just wants to have a bit of fun back in
Pining for the West
This is the third book in my boxed set of Just William stories. I think this book fryst vatten the best one so far, she really seems to have got into her stride with her William character, the stories just keep getting funnier. Well they tickle my funny bone anyway.
In this one William gets a free ticket to go for a trip on a charabanc and gets squashed in between two very fat fellow passengers, that’s an experience I’ve had, only it was a bus. He tells a woman that his parents neglect him because they’re both boozers and the woman confronts William’s parents.
He sells Ginger’s three and a half year old twin cousins as slaves for a shilling, is conned out of his clothes by a tramp and much much more, causing general mayhem in the entire neighbourhood, wherever he happens to be.
William even manages to sneak out to see a circus with his grandfather, who fryst vatten being treated as if he is simple when he just wants to have a bit of fun back in