A Wooden Leg: A Novel in 64 Cards by Leni Zumas and Luca DiPierro

Leni Zumas and Luca DiPierro's A Wooden Leg is a novel in 64 cards, consisting of 64 drawings and corresponding captions which the reader is free to arrange into a variety of narrative and visual sequences. They join host David Naimon in a discussion of A Wooden Leg, contextualizing this endeavor within the larger history of art and fictions that invite reader participation, that involve combination-recombination, chance, and the use of constraints to liberate the artist's and the reader's creativity.  Zumas is a professor in the creative writing MFA program at Portland State University and the author of the story collection Farewell Navigator (Open City) as well as the novel The Listeners (Tin House), which was a finalist for the 2013 Oregon Book Awards.  DiPierro is an animator and illustrator whose works has appeared on record covers, book covers and in animated films both in the U.S. and Europe.  He is the author of the art zine Das Ding and the book of fictions Biscotti Neri.

The Clinton Street Theater, on Thursday July 3rd at 7pm, is also doing a showcase of the animated films of Luca DiPierro, carnivalesque tales of acrobacy and death that draw from the traditions of Italian commedia dell’arte and Sicilian teatro dei pupi (marionette theatre). Sorrowful and comical at once, Dipierro’s animations tell stories of trees growing out of furniture, stranded Columbus-like explorers, puppet funerals, monkeys, prestidigitators, ghosts, and a woman birthing a fish. Father Murphy, an experimental band from Italy, will provide a haunting live soundtrack
more details here:
http://cstpdx.com/show/paper-circus-animations-luca-dipierro