More Japan in Pittsburgh

This just in: New York author and debut novelist, Ellis Avery, will be reading from The Teahouse Fire in Pittsburgh on March 13th. Her novel is set in late 19th century Japan, and is based in part on her five years spent studying the tea ceremony, both in New York and Kyoto. The book is getting rave reviews, from the LA Times, Publisher's Weekly, and everyone inbetween. “Beneath the beautiful surface of Avery's artfully controlled prose...the novel's essential question is that of desire: By what ceremonies, through what pains and past what obstacles must we endure in order to have not just any life but the one we most want to claim as our own?” --Buffalo Artvoice; and “Ellis Avery's research included a stay in Kyoto where she studied the tea ceremony, but that alone doesn't account for her perceptiveness about Japan; she's simply a keen cultural observer.” --Japundit

See more at Ellis' website

This reading, reception and book signing will be on March 13th, 6:30pm, at University of Pittsburgh--Room 501 of the Cathedral of Learning. Free and open to the public.