2 authors to speak for library’s series
Authors Kevin Brockmeier and Mara Leveritt will be featured this week in separate sessions for the Meet the Authors series at the William F. Laman Library, 2801 Orange St.
All programs during the series are free and open to the public.
Brockmeier and Leveritt are both former recipients of a $10,000 Laman Writers Fellow award, which is presented annually by the library to assist Arkansas authors in the writing and publishing of their work.
At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Brockmeier will be reading from and talking about his latest book, A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip: A Memoir of Seventh Grade, in which the author writes about being age 12 and “explores the dream of his own past and recovers the person he used to be.”
At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Leveritt, author of the award-winning Devil’s Knot about the trial of three teenagers, commonly called the West Memphis Three, will be at the library to discuss the book’s sequel, Dark Spell, Surviving the Sentence, along with the book’s main subject, Jason Baldwin, who is to appear via Skype for the program.
This will be Leveritt’s first program in Arkansas about the new book, according to a library news release.
More information on the programs is available at lamanlibrary.org.
Assistant to fill in for retired fire chief
Steve Smith, city assistant fire chief, will become acting fire chief Tuesday, Mayor Joe Smith announced recently.
Smith’s salary will be $6,946.50 a month, the mayor said.
Steve Smith, a former city fire marshal, joined the Fire Department in January 1988. He is not related to the mayor.
Fire Chief Robert Mauldin announced his retirement in May, effective at the end of June. The hiring of a new fire chief is expected to take “several months,” the mayor told the City Council last week.
Mauldin has been fire chief since Feb. 1, 2009, part of a 41-year career with the department.
Program to focus on business of art
Applications are being accepted until July 7 by the Mid-America Arts Alliance for Artist INC Live Argenta, a training program for artists that addresses their specific business needs and challenges, according to a program announcement.
The Mid-America program is in partnership with the Arkansas Arts Council, the Argenta Arts Foundation and Artist INC.
The program will be limited to 25 participants, according to the news release.
Artists in the program will meet once a week for eight weeks — beginning Sept. 15 and ending Nov. 3 — at the Art Connection, 204 E. Fourth St., to learn business skills specific to their art practice and how to apply those skills, according to program information. Program cost is $125.
More information is available from the Art Connection at (501) 319-7905.