Local books: Hodgson furthers mystery series; One Read events on deck
Strain your ear just enough, and you might hear the sound of book spines creasing across Columbia. With students and teachers fully back to their work, the city's page count is trending up.
But Columbia's larger literary community never takes a season off, and a number of current and upcoming local happenings show the fruit of that forward progress.
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Hodgson releases second book in 'Androgyne Papyrus' series
Columbia author Robert Hodgson Jr. brings a full story to bear before ever reaching Page One of his ongoing mystery series. Hodgson previously taught New Testament literature at Missouri State University, and spent decades working with the American Bible Society.
He also holds a delightful distinction as the first Roman Catholic to earn a doctoral degree from Germany's Heidelberg University "since the Reformation," his author bio notes.
Hodgson applies these interests — and his clear, lifelong curiosity — to his series of "Tom and Chiara" mysteries. The first, "The Androgyne Papyrus: Book One," hit the atmosphere in February, setting the stage for what's ahead.
The story opens with a true book of revelation — a lost letter from the Apostle Paul troubles the waters of orthodoxy, gender, church authority and more by claiming "a mingling of male and female" in each person.
"Hardly speak it," an elderly monk gasps, summing the book to another on an early page. "We are all ... Adam and Eve."
The story grows into a paper chase with various authorities interested in the book, titular protagonists Tom Weathering and Chiara O'Keeffe seeking answers from the text, and implications about the personhood of Jesus wrapped up in the mix.
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Hodgson acts both as an artist and wise man in this work of historical fiction, uniting lyrical phrasing with the little details necessary to flesh out bygone ages. Book Two was released this month, and Hodgson hopes to loose Book Three, the series finale, by year's end.
Current and upcoming book events
Berkley Hudson, a professor emeritus in journalism at the University of Missouri, has fixed a nuanced, necessary gaze at his Mississippi home in the book "O. N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South." The volume sifts more than 88,000 negatives from photographer Otis Pruitt to create a portrait of the place Hudson came of age. While Hudson has already held several local book events, images from the Pruitt collection can be seen through early November in exhibits at the State Historical Society of Missouri and Reynolds Journalism Institute at MU.
Daniel Boone Regional Library is set to embark on a full September of events revolving around this year's One Read title, "The Big Door Prize" by M.O. Walsh. The novel immerses readers in a small Louisiana town, asking questions about individual destiny and community bonds when a machine purports to tell the potential of every user who enters it. Learn more about events at https://oneread.dbrl.org/, and look for more coverage in the Tribune this September.
Caylin Capra-Thomas and S. Yarberry, both poets with new work out via the publisher Deep Vellum will read at Skylark Bookshop Sept. 1. A recent Tribune review called "Iguana Iguana," from Columbia's Capra-Thomas among the best collections of 2022, marked by its "seamless lyricism and particular perspective."
Also on deck at Skylark: a reading from MU professor and poet Huichun Liang Sept. 8; a launch event for Columbia poet Lynne Jensen Lampe's "Talk Smack to a Hurricane" on Sept. 22.; and a celebration of local author Stephen Paul Sayers' "100 Things to Do In Columbia Before You Die" Sept. 29.
Learn more about these and other events at https://www.skylarkbookshop.com/new-events.
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. Find him on Twitter @aarikdanielsen.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia authors keep momentum going with series, readings
