Events

Kalamazoo Book Arts Center Gallery from at 7 p.m.
This reading will be held in conjunction with the reception for Mary Proenza: Memoir, paintings and works on paper. 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Please join us for a reading by Jervey Tervalon, author of the newest KBAC letterpress edition Truth Comes Slowly, with linoleum cut images by Mary Proenza.

Jervey Tervalon was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and moved with his family as a young boy to the Jefferson Park/Crenshaw area of Los Angeles, California, the setting of many of his short stories and novels. The short story Truth Comes Slowly recounts an experience he had with gun violence, while visiting family members in San Francisco as a child with his mother.

Tervalon received his MFA in creative writing from UC Irvine studying with Thomas Keneally and Oakley Hall and was a Disney Screenwriting fellow and a Shanghai Writers Association fellow. His first novel Understand This, for which he won the 1994 New Voices Award from Quality Paper Books, was based on his experiences teaching at Locke High School. He has published five novels including the Los Angeles Times bestseller Dead Above Ground.  He also edited A Geography of Rage on the 1994 uprising against police abuse.  He coedited the Cocaine Chronicles and writes an ongoing series of memoir vignettes in the LA Review of Books. He is cofounder and literary director of Pasadena LitFest, the 2nd largest literary festival in California and the most diverse. and teaches fiction writing at the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara.  

Jervey has three daughters, Giselle and Elise from his first marriage and Colette from his second marriage. Colette is half Chinese and enjoys spending time with her African American sisters and their mother. Jinghuan Liu Tervalon, Colette’s mother, is a marathon runner and the love of Jervey’s life. They are a perfect match: she’s a true competitor and Jervey would rather walk the dog, get a coffee, and chill. Jervey lives with Jinghuan, Colette, and his step-son Sammy Smookler in Altadena, California.