The Erie Bookstore recently was host for a reception and reading in honor of the publication of "Along the Lake: Contemporary Writing from Erie, PA" (Ye Olde Font Shoppe 2005). The anthology is the three-year-long researched effort of editor Sean Thomas Dougherty, a lecturer in the BFA program for creative writing at Penn State Erie and himself one of the nation's leading young poets. The anthology is the first of its kind to conduct a national search for writers who have lived and worked in Erie County sometime over the last 30 years.
The anthology includes work from ex-Erieites as far away as Oregon, Texas and Connecticut, as well as more than a dozen writers who still work and live in the county. The book is published by Ye Olde Font Shoppe Press of New Haven, Conn., a small press that has put out nearly 60 titles, and whose founder, poet Victoria Rivas, is an old east-sider from Erie. The anthology idea came when Dougherty was at a festival in Connecticut back in 2001. He mentioned the idea to Rivas, who said, "Yes, it is a long over-due idea. Let's put Erie on the literary map."
The book includes writing by many well-known authors including a novel excerpt from Bakeless Prize winner Ann Pancake of Seattle; poetry from John Poch, a professor at Texas Tech; and a prose piece by New York City playwright Eugene Gryg; as well as prose and poetry from current Erie County residents Ron Androla, Mark Borczon, George Looney, Heather A. Slomski, Kirk Nesset, Jen Town, Benedectine sister Mary Lou Kownacki and half a dozen others.
The book is designed by Erie fiction writer Chris Majerik with a black and white cover photo by Erie artist Suzanne Proulx, who also did the cover for the most recent Spring 2005 edition of Lake Effect, Penn State Erie's literary journal. When asked about the photo, Dougherty admits, "That's my son. He's the best little poem in Erie county."
Along the Lake is available for purchase at $15 a copy. For more information, contact the Erie Bookstore at (814) 480-5671.