Our book WAYS OF WALKING, edited by Ann de Forest, continues to contribute to conversations around Philly. JJ Tiziou, a WOW contributor and co-creator and steward of Walk Around Philadelphia, has curated an exhibition in collaboration with the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. Called "Walking the Edge," it features visual art in all media, as well as poetry and prose inspired by walking the perimeter of Philadelphia.

The show opened last week and runs until April 1st.

On Wednesday, March 1st, from 6-8 pm, the Center will host an evening reading and conversation about WAYS OF WALKING, featuring 3-4 contributors and editor Ann de Forest.

Here's the link for the exhibit:
www.schuylkillcenter.org/art/?ha_exhibit=walking-the-edge

There's no separate page yet for the reading. Just show up! Come early if you want to walk the incredible grounds of The Schuylkill Center.

We're late in posting this, but here's the recording from the 9/29 WXPN  radio broadcast of the Kelly Writers House program based on our book WAYS OF WALKING.

It features readings by Ann de Forest, Justin Coffin, Kabria Rogers, David Hallock Sanders, Christine Nelson, JJ Tiziou, and Temwa Wright, along with musical interludes from members of the West Philadelphia Orchestra. We invite everyone to listen and walk along.

Our next event for Ways of Walking is coming up later this month, September 19, 6:30 p.m., at the Kelly Writers House on the University of Pennsylvania campus in West Philadelphia. This Live at the Writers House program will be recorded for broadcast on WXPN radio in late September.

The event will feature authors from Ways of Walking, participants in the "Walk Around Philadelphia" events that inspired the book, plus musical interludes by the West Philly Orchestra.

To join the live audience in the lovely Arts Cafe, register here.

On Saturday, 8/6, we'll gather in lovely downtown Wayne, PA, for a reading and signing of WAYS OF WALKING, the new anthology edited by Ann de Forest. Then, to celebrate in the most appropriate way, we'll go for a walk!

Says William Sharpe of Barnard College, ​“Walking’s pleasures are infinite, and those in Ways of Walking hardly less so. Editor Ann de Forest has assembled an eloquent team of rambling writers who offer readers intriguing discoveries at every turn of the page. The twenty-six essays assembled here contain fresh takes on city streets and foggy mountaintops, haunting riversides and dicey edgelands."

These writers, says Inga Saffron, have "brought back rich insights that remind us that walking is the most literary of exercises."

All are welcome to join us with their heads, their hearts, and their feet. More details here.

A new review of Ways of Walking emphasizes how "walking is an exploration of ourselves as much as of the world." The reviewer, Antonia Malchik, author of A Walking Life, writes:

The review quotes appreciatively from several of the book's 26 essays, and Malchik finds that one of the book's passages, from contributor Ruth Knafo Setton, is written "more evocatively than an entire volume of Thoreau." The review concludes:

Many thanks to Ms. Malchik for this lovely review. Nice picture too!

On July 12 at 7:00 p.m. EST, Christine Nelson offers an online lecture to celebrate Thoreau's 205th birthday. The talk is based on her essay in our book WAYS OF WALKING, and it stems from her many years as the keeper of Thoreau's journal at New York's Morgan Library & Museum.

Author of the famous essay "Walking," Thoreau made some startling observations in his journal, including his concept of a library buried "far away in the depths of a primitive forest."

To register for the event, go here.

Two of the authors of our anthology Ways of Walking, editor Ann de Forest and contributor Nathaniel Popkin, are presenting an online "cafe" discussion on Tuesday, July 5, at 11:30 a.m. EST. They'll be speaking live from Catalonia, Spain, as part of an international conference.

The conference as a whole, which takes place across three cities in Catalonia, is titled "Walking Art and Relational Geographies." We confess that we don't fully understand what that means, but to the conference participants, it seems that walking is much more than exercise or relaxation or mind-clearing or getting from here to there. It's "an urgent and necessary perspective through which to look, analyse and understand the contemporary world."

Indeed, that's what the book Ways of Walking conveys: reflections by 26 different authors on the deeper meaning of moving the feet. Imagining a walk from Vermont to New York City, contributor Mark Geanuleas writes, "Between here and there everything is more important than you, everything must be faced, no mile, no mosquito, no neighborhood can be avoided." As a result, he contends, the self that arrives in New York is "founded upon the world," whereas, for someone who drives or takes a train, the world is founded upon the self.

That's deep. To get a taste of what such thoughtful walkers are meditating about, you can register for the online cafe talk here. And to read more about the entire conference, go here.

Louis Greenstein, author of Mr. Boardwalk, has recorded a podcast interview and tour of his old haunts in Atlantic City for the Real Jersey Shore Show. Along the way he confesses to being a childhood mascot for the lifeguard crew and tells how his father got into baking and selling pretzels. With host Lauren Doral, he discovers the eternal truth that "you can't have a boardwalk without a psychic," and he recommends where to get the best sub sandwich.

Many thanks for Janet Fitch's long, appreciative review of Ways of Walking in the Los Angeles Review of Books. It's worth reading in its entirety (she discusses all 26 essays in the book!), but here's how she concludes:

Our acclaimed new anthology WAYS OF WALKING will stride forth into the world on May 12. (Note: It's "acclaimed" not just by us but by some reasonably sane people as well.) There will be TWO launch events, one virtual on May 12 and then an in-person gathering on May 15. Everyone is welcome to attend both events, but they require separate registrations.

Here is the info with links to the registration sites:

Thursday, May 12, 7:00-8:30 p.m., virtual launch via Zoom

Sunday, May 15, 4:00-6:00 p.m., in-person launch at Calvary Center for Culture and Community,  801 S. 48th Street (corner of 48th and Baltimore), Philadelphia, PA

The Zoom event will be hosted by our local South Philly bookstore A Novel Idea on Passyunk, and their staff will be on hand to sell books at the in-person event as well.