Anne Izard Award for Immortal Mullah Nasruddin, NM Spectrum

NM Spectrum notes Izard Award goes to Immortal Mullah Nasruddin

New Milford Spectrum, 6/14/13
New Milford Spectrum, 6/14/13

Notice of the Anne Izard Award for Immortal Mullah Nasruddin, New Milford (CT) Spectrum

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New Milford author to receive Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award

A collection of Turkish folktales by New Milford author Ron Suresha has been named a recipient of the 2013 Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award. The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin, published by Lethe Press in 2010, received last year the Storytelling World Honor Title award and is now designated to be honored with a second prestigious storytelling commendation.

According to the Awards co-chair Carol Birch, a ceremony of stories and storytelling, including a presentation by Suresha, will be held 10:00am Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at the White Plains Public Library, 100 Martine Ave., White Plains, New York. The morning program is open to the public with a local bookstore supplying books and an area for authors to sign their titles.

Every two years, an (Augusta) Baker’s Dozen (13) of titles are chosen for the ANNE IZARD STORYTELLERS’ CHOICE AWARD that was established in 1990 to honor Anne Izard, noted storyteller, librarian and consultant, who had died that same year. The award was established in her name by the Westchester County Library System (New York), where she served as the Children’s Services Consultant for many years. The award highlights distinguished titles in the field of storytelling published for children and adults, and promotes the riches of storytelling to even wider audiences. Books considered for the 11th award had to be original material, reprints, or new English translations published in North America between January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2012.

Selection Criteria:

While mindful of the established standards of excellence in literature, the primary intention of this award is to honor books that can be used with confidence as resources for storytellers.

Stories must be entirely successful without depending upon illustrations, graphic elements, or audio-visual media. Collections, as well as individual picture book versions of stories, will be considered. Folk tales should be distinguished by an outstanding style, which makes the particular version notable. Authenticity, scholarship, and documentation will be taken into consideration, but are not the sole criteria. Distinguished examples of original stories should preserve, promote and/or honor an oral tradition. Non-fiction narratives, including poetry and biography, will be considered. Books which deepen and enrich a storyteller’s understanding of the meaning and uses of story, as well as books pertaining to folk traditions, aesthetics, methods and study of storytelling are eligible.

Here is the complete list of this year’s Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award recipients:

  • Bateman, Teresa. The Leprechaun under the Bed. Illustrated by Paul Meisel. Holiday House, 2012.
  • Claflin, Willy. Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs: A Maynard Moose Tale. Illustrated by James Stimson. August House, 2011
  • Ellis, Elizabeth. From Plot to Narrative: A Step-By-Step Process of Story Creation and Enhancement. Parkhurst Brothers, Inc., 2012.
  • Ford, Lyn. Affrilachian Tales: Folktales from the African-American Appalachian Tradition. Parkhurst Brothers, Inc., 2012.
  • Gotschall, Jonathan. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.
  • Hamilton, Mary. Kentucky Folktales: Revealing Stories, Truths, and Outright Lies. University Press of Kentucky, 2012.
  • Lyon, George Ella. Which Side Are You On: The Story of a Song. Illustrated by Christopher Cardinale. Cinco Puntos Press, 2011.
  • MacDonald, Margaret Read. The Boy from the Dragon Palace. Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. Albert Whitman and Company, 2011.
  • Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America. Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. Hyperion Books an imprint of Disney/Jump at the Sun, 2012.
  • Pullman, Philip. Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm. Viking Adult, 2012
  • Strauss, Linda Leopold. The Elijah’s Door: A Passover Tale. Illustrated by Alexie Natchev. Holiday House, 2012.
  • Suresha, Ron J. The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin. Lethe Press, 2011.
  • Van Dusen, Chris. King Hugo’s Huge Ego. Candlewick, 2011.

Suresha, a native of Detroit, Mich., moved with his husband from New London, Conn., to New Milford in 2011, and is a licensed Justice of the Peace. An award-winning author or editor of a dozen books, Suresha is currently completing a sequel to his acclaimed collection of Turkish folk tales of the legendary Mid- and Far-Eastern hero and teacher, Mullah Nasruddin (also known as Nasreddin Hoca, Djuha, and by other names), forthcoming 2013 from Lethe Press, an indie publisher based in Maple Shade, N.J.

Order the book from Lethe Press

 

Nasruddin Reading at NM Public Library Oct. 25

by rjs
Categories: Announcements
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Published on: October 7, 2011

The New Milford Public Library invites everyone to an

Author reception, Reading & Book signing

of an acclaimed collection of Turkish folktales,

The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin
with local author Ron Suresha

Tuesday, October 25th
6:00 – 7:30 pm
New Milford Public Library
Memorial Hall, 24 Main Street
Free and open to the public.

Please join us as we hear the humorous stories, jests, and donkey tales of the Turkish folk hero, Mullah Nasruddin, retold by local author Ron Suresha.
A question-and-answer session after the reading will precede the author reception. Refreshments provided courtesy of NM Public Library.

Books will be available for purchase and autograph before and after the reading, $18. Local booksellers Bank St. Book Nook and The Book Cove in Pawling also carry copies.

Facebook event page: http://snurl.com/y74xg
http://www.MullahNasruddin.com
http://www.newmilfordlibrary.org/

Naughty Nasruddin at DC Outwrite Book Fair

by rjs
Categories: Announcements
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Published on: August 7, 2011

Naughty Nasruddin

Thanks for everyone came to hear the premiere presentation at the DC Center’s inaugural OutWrite LGBT Book Fair of:

The Naughty, Nasty Adventures of Mullah Nasruddin and His Hairy Ass

Here’s a fairly tame fart joke for a teaser of the “Naughty Nasruddin” stories:

One day, Nasruddin’s father was sitting on the toilet, and let out a loud, long, stinky whine of gas.

Young Nasruddin, who happened to be nearby, exclaimed: “By my Willie! What a catastrophe!”

His father shouted out: “What are you saying?! Woe to you!”

“Sorry, Father!” Nasruddin replied. “I thought you were Mom!”

Thanks especially to David Mariner and the volunteers at the DC Center who did an amazing job with this event!

New London Author Shares a Reading from His New Book

by rjs
Categories: Reviews
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Published on: January 10, 2011
Lovely article by Christy Wood for Patch.com on the premiere reading of the Nasruddin book

Ron Suresha at the Bean & Leaf, reading from his new collection of stories. Credit Christy Wood

New London Author Shares a Reading from His New Book

Ron Suresha Reads Persian Folk Tales at the Bean & Leaf on Sunday

By Christy Wood

In the aftermath of the weekend’s snowstorm, New Londoners gathered at the Bean and Leaf on Sunday to listen to local author Ron Suresha read stories from his collection The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin.  Nasruddin has been a popular folk hero in the Middle East for over 800 years; Suresha collected more than 350 stories featuring Nasruddin to include in his anthology, seeking to introduce the timeless folk hero and his humorous tales to a new, American audience.

Suresha is a native of Detroit, but has lived in New London for six years.  He studied creative writing at the University of Michigan and spent much of his adult life working in publishing.  Fifteen years ago Suresha decided that he wanted to collect the stories of Mullah Nasruddin and incorporate them in a modern, vernacular English text.

“The English text I found of the stories was written in the 1950s.  The language was imperial and stodgy,” says Suresha.  “I decided to do my own version.”

Over the following years Suresha read Nasruddin stories in Turkish, Hebrew, French, Spanish and German.  He compared dozens of texts to compile his own version, choosing 350 of the most popular stories and jokes for his new English translation.

Suresha has been a lifelong devotee of Mullah Nasruddin.  His mother, who is Israeli, told him the stories when he was a child, piquing Suresha’s interest in the ancient “wise fool.”

He spent much of his time writing and collecting the stories in local coffee shops, including the Bean and Leaf and Muddy Waters.  “I have my own home office,” said Suresha.  “But it would get kind of lonely, so I would go out and write elsewhere.”

The cover illustrator of The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin is also a local New Londoner, Sgott MacKenzie.

After the reading, attendees were treated to cake and given the opportunity to buy signed copies of the book.

The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin is available through Lethe Press, and can be downloaded to electronic book formats.  Suresha also maintains a Nasruddin website: www.mullahnasruddin.com, where new stories are posted regularly and links to other Nasruddin sites are provided.

Premiere reading cake

by rjs
Categories: Announcements
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Published on: January 10, 2011
Cake for the premiere reading of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin
Cake for the premiere reading of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin
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