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    <p><strong>(downtown) omaha lit fest</strong></p>
	<h2>SILK & SAWDUST</H2>
<em>(the heart & mechanics of literature</em>
	<p><strong>October 13-15, 2011<br>
	At <a href="http://www.omahapubliclibrary.org/">Omaha Public Library</a> <rb>
	(W. Dale Clark branch; 215 S. 15th St) & <br>
	<a href="http://www.thekaneko.org/">KANEKO</a> (1111 Jones St)</strong></p>
	
	<p>In Chapter XVI of <em>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</em>, titled “The Magic Art of the Great Humbug,” the Wizard provides the Tin Woodman a heart made of silk and stuffed with sawdust. “But I shall have to cut a hole in your breast,” Oz explains, “so I can put your heart in the right place. I hope it won’t hurt you.”</P>

<p>“Oh, no. I shall not feel it at all,” the Woodman answers. The Woodman then asks Oz, “But is it a kind heart?” Oz assures him it is indeed kind (“very!”), puts the heart in the Woodman’s breast, then replaces the square of tin, “soldering it neatly together where it had been cut.”</p>

<p>Writers of fiction and poetry regularly practice this gentle humbug (the Wizard of Oz, incidentally, grew up as a ventriloquist and balloonist in Omaha, or so he tells Dorothy in Chapter XV, “The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible”), with tools perhaps no less delicate than Oz’s tinners’ shears and welding torch. But that relationship of trust, that placement of the heart in the right place, serves as a lovely metaphor for the relationship between reader and writer, and the writers’ process of taking familiar forms and fashioning a story with a new, beating heart.</p>

<p>Our focus, therefore, with this year’s edition of the (downtown) omaha lit fest (a partner of Omaha Public Library), is on the mechanics of writing. Not only will authors lift the corner of the curtain on their methods and processes, but we’ll also look at the literal tools of production—including book-making and design, and our curious nostalgia for the typewriter.</p>

<p>In addition to panel discussions, readings, and an opening-night party, the (downtown) omaha lit fest will also feature an art exhibit: “Possessions: Literary characters and the things they carried.” This exhibit will feature artists’ interpretations of literary artifacts, in a variety of media&mdash;namely: the props, objects, fashions, food, and jewelry of famous literary characters. (Think Hester Prynn’s scarlet letter; Mrs. Dalloway’s flowers; Sherlock Holmes’ pipe; Willy Wonka’s golden ticket; Proust’s madeleines.)</p>
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