Hot Air Quarterly Spring Issue 2010

In an age when the dimensions of an artist’s talent come so often paired with an equally large and disappointingly diva-esque ego, someone of Brian Lanker’s humility and pure dedication to his craft is not only refreshing, it’s deeply inspiring. In addition to his remarkable and diverse body of work, Lanker is famous for his artistic integrity, his honoring of his subject, and his generosity. The Hot Air Quarterly is thrilled to announce that Lanker’s work will be gracing the cover of our Spring issue.

For those not familiar with Lanker’s work, I’ll give a little background: He won a Pulitzer Prize for photography when he was 26 years old, and was twice named National Newspaper Photographer of the Year when he worked as a journalist. In early 1989, his photographic exhibition, “I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America” opened at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., breaking all previous attendance records and proceeding to tour internationally for a decade. Concurrently, a book of these portraits and interviews by the same title was published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang, which went into a second printing before the first printing had even reached book stores. Its long shelf life and amazing sales figures have established it as one of the most successful photographic titles of all time. His title, Shall We Dance, a sumptuous coffee table book that chronicles a breathtaking and joyous spectrum of dance in the U.S., came out fall of 2008. Lanker conceived and directed the documentary film, They Drew Fire: Combat Artists of World War II, which aired on PBS in the year 2000, and he is well-known for his work in Sports Illustrated, LIFE magazine, and National Geographic. For a delightful synopsis of his professional history up until 1991, check out this article, written by Lanker’s long-time friend and colleague, Blaine Newnham, for The Seattle Times. Newnham recounts some wonderful anecdotes, such as the time Lanker had an assignment to photograph jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in New Orleans. Wynton didn’t want to give him the time of day until Brian managed to beat him shooting baskets after scaling a chain-link fence. To see more of Lanker’s brilliant and deeply affecting work, check out his website.

We are also pleased to announce that our featured new voice for this issue is the talented Eugene author, Chris Scofield, with her deliciously quirky story, “I’ve Come for the Iguana.” Other contributors include local authors Peter Wright, Jim Dowling, and Greg Pate, as well as poets Lisa Hubbell (her first appearance in HAQ), Catherine Camp, Sharon Brisolara, Larry Greco Harris, and Tish Harris (also making her debut). And of course, you’ll find the fourteenth installment of The Listener, by yours truly, for those of you who are following that serialization.

A reception for the issue will take place at Pacific West Graphics, in conjunction with Art Hop, Saturday, May 8, from 6 - 9 PM. A formal reading is not planned, but an informal reading may take place at the end of

the evening. Refreshments will be served. Paintings by Bev Corford, an abstract expressionist whose intriguing works have been shown throughout the North State and who was the featured Art Hop artist in August 2009, will be on display in the Pacific West Graphics gallery.

Free copies of the issue will be available, as long as they last, at the Hot Air Quarterly reception at Pacific West Graphics at the corner of South and California streets in downtown Redding, as well as at the Writers Forum reading and book sale, which will be in the Eagle Room at Win River Casino the same evening. Steve Brewer, Linda Boyden, Charlie Price, and Jamie Weil, as well as other members of Writers Forum, will be reading at that event.

Stop by either location, and get your free copy of this very special issue!

Monday, May 3, 2010

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