Local Author Celebration Series: FRANCIS ROURKE
Please be our guest for our next local author talk featuring Francis Rourke
Where: Carriage House at Joslyn Castle & Gardens (3902 Davenport Street, Omaha, NE 68131)
When: Wednesday, November 20 from 6pm-7pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
What: A FREE all ages event.
About the Author:
Francis Rourke, born in Fountain Valley, California, is a writer whose work explores the boundaries of literature through the lens of OULIPO—a style marked by the use of creative constraints in form and rhetorical devices.
Rourke's writing spans multiple genres, with a focus on experimenting with structure and storytelling techniques. He is the author of three collections of poetry, the short story collection AH UM: Exercises In Plot & Perspective, the novella Berringer: A Hardboiled Quixote, and an autobiographical series titled The Books of Rourke (Good Morning Wednesday and OM . . . AHA!).
In his autobiographical works, Rourke delves further into his experimental style, aiming to uncover magic in the mundane—a concept he calls "realistic magicalism." Now residing in Omaha, Nebraska, Rourke continues to push the boundaries of literary form, inviting readers to engage with the possibilities of literature in new and thought-provoking ways.
About his Book "Paradise Point"
Paradise Point tells the whimsical and thought-provoking tale of the Painter, who is mysteriously transported from Renaissance Italy to the modern world of the 21st century. Tasked with painting the portrait of the enigmatic Bookmaker, the Painter is shocked to find a society consumed by digital devices, leading its people to disconnect from nature, creativity, and their own senses. With the help of the Poet and the Bookmaker, the Painter embarks on a mission to rekindle wonder, imagination, and human connection.
Set in the vibrant, quirky community of Paradise Point on the California coast, the novel unfolds through a series of interconnected stories and memorable characters, reminiscent of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row. Along the way, readers meet colorful figures like Myra Dukes, Saul Crinkle, Krishna Singh, and Balso Thomas Francis Snell, whose personal dilemmas add layers of humor, mystery, and heart to the narrative.
As these characters’ lives intersect, the story explores the fine line between progress and disconnection, creativity and destruction—leading to unexpected chaos and a journey that unravels with each rhythmic, poetic turn of the page.
