photo courtesy of OLLU

Gemini Ink intern and Our Lady of the Lake University student Melinda Gonzalez asked Executive Vice President of Our Lady of the Lake University and professor of English, Howard Benoist, PhD what he’s been reading. He recommended, Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku.

“I sometimes teach a speculative fiction course, and Kaku, who is a professor of theoretical physics at City University of New York and co-founder of string field theory, discusses the physics behind concepts like time travel, artificial intelligence, and teleportation in a very readable way,” Benoist says.

Benoist manages to keep his colleagues on their toes by adding a dash of humor to his daily interactions and feels that literature teaches us, “tolerance for ambiguity.”  His respect for the study of English and the unknown has been his driving force throughout life. Benoist has a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania and Master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Gemini Ink kicks off our inaugural What are you reading? series with Gemini Ink staffer Carolene Zehner. Each week we’ll ask a local writer, book lover, or fan of Gemini Ink to contribute what they are reading at the moment. If you’re interested in contributing, e-mail us at communications@geminiink.org.

Preparing to celebrate her first year anniversary as Registrar/Operations Manager at Gemini Ink, Carolene Zehner has enjoyed getting to know the literary side of San Antonio. Observing the readers, the writers, the teachers and the thinkers has been an enriching experience, she says. At home, she is a metalsmith creating jewelry and tabletop pieces.

Who’s the author? The book?
E.B. White is an author who has enriched every stage of my life. As a child with Charlotte’s Web and as a young adult with his Elements of Style, it seems I always had a book of his at hand.  When I grew up, I learned of his work at the New Yorker and read all of his essays. Recently I came across the Letters of E.B. White and grabbed it.  This reads much like an autobiography and is a history of his 50-plus years at the magazine.

Who would appreciate this work?
This book is for any fan of the Algonquin group, the New Yorker, or Wilbur.

Favorite quotes?
Never totally without a sly shot of humor, the serious side of E. B. White says “a writer writes as long as he lives. It is the same as breathing except that it is bad for one’s health.”  His direct levity:  “The next grammar book I bring out I want to tell how to end a sentence with five prepositions. A father of a little boy goes upstairs after supper to read to his son, but he brings the wrong book. The boy says, “What did you bring that book that I don’t want to be read to out of up for?”

Josh Weil was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains of rural Virginia, received his MFA from Columbia University, and is currently the writer-in-residence at Gilman School in Baltimore.  Since Columbia University, Weil has received a Fulbright grant, a Writer’s Center Emerging Writer Fellowship, the Dana Award in Portfolio, and fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences. In 2009, he was acknowledged with the Tickner Fellow.

Weil returned to Virginia to write his first book, The New Valley (Grove, 2009), which was New York Times Editors Choice selection, honored with the “5 Under 35” Award from the National Book Foundation, and won the 2010 New Writers Award from the Great Lakes Colleges Association.  Weil’s short fiction has appeared in Granta, American Short Fiction, Narrative, and Glimmer Train, among other journals; he has written non-fiction for The New York Times, Granta Online, and Poets & Writers.

Weil is slated to read at Gemini Ink on Friday, Feb. 26 at 6:30pm and will also conduct the class, Uncharted Territory: Exploring Novellas on Saturday, Feb. 27.  In the class, participants will learn what is a novella and, what can it accomplish that’s different from what a short story or novel can accomplish.

Gemini Ink intern Angelia Potter interviews Weil about his writing process and what’s inspired him.

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This week Gemini Ink features poet Trey Moore who is currently working on two projects for the Writers in Communities program (WIC). Moore facilitates “Writing in the Light,” a 12-week poetry workshop at Safe Haven Homeless Shelter that will result in a chapbook in April. He’s also facilitating two creative writing workshops on Gothic literature in two Harlandale middle schools; Terrell Wells and Kingsborough. The work produced in these workshops will culminate in an online anthology.

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