Matt in Belgium: Strip Turnhout Dec 11-13

Jessica and I will be in Turnhout, Belgium, this December for the bi-annual comics festival, Strip Turnhout.

I was originally invited to this festival two years ago but the dates fell quite literally on the birthday of my daughter, Aldara. They have graciously invited me again and this time all three of us will be attending the festival.

Back in 2007, as followers of this blog may remember, the festival published a lovely hardcover edition (the only one) of my "must-have boek" (Stripelmagazine), Stijloefeningen:

In the intervening years, an educational group called Kunst in Zicht has put together an educators' pack devoted to my book and its applications in secondary school classrooms. (I'm hoping to get it translated into English soon--details to follow here of course.) The day before the festival, Thursday December 11, Jessica and I will be talking at an educational symposium the group has organized in conjunction with Strip Turnhout.

Jessica and I will then be having a chat with the amazing Paul Gravett on Saturday, and on Sunday afternoon we'll be looking at art by young, aspiring cartoonists.

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Very brief update from France

This is just to say I will not be posting anything until after I get back. I'm too busy and anyway I can't seem to d/l photos from my camera. In the meantime follow me (better yet, the whole group) on Twitter or periodically check the feed to the right. Read more...

Nov. 8-21: touring France with Belles Etrangères

For the next two weeks, I'll be touring France with 11 other American authors as part of the Centre National du Livre's annual Belles Etrangères festival.

A film crew came to my house over the summer and shot a bunch of footage for an hour-long documentary which will be screened in Paris on Monday night. It will be posted on line later and I'll post the link here. We're based in Paris and do various short trips with one other artist where we'll be doing readings and talking to the public at libraries and schools. I'll be in Nancy on my own, in the Pyrenées with novelist John Haskell and finally in Corsica with would-be U.S. Secretary of Postracial Affairs, Colson Whitehead. You can see the full itinerary here.

And I guess you could call this burying the lead: I've been invited to be a guest of honor at one of Oulipo's legendary monthly dinners. I'm a bit more excited than I am intimidated!
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