Oct. 4, 2011
7:00 PM
Star Hall (Moab Art Theatre)
159 East Center Street, Moab
Robert Fulghum, author of the New York Times bestselling All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten and part-time resident of Moab, will read recent stories about Grand County and the Moab area. No book sales or signings.
Also appearing Sept. 30, 7 pm, Salt Lake City Main Library Auditorium, Fulghum will read from and discuss his new book What on Earth Have I Done?, followed by Q&A, book sales and signing.
Robert Fulghum’s new book begins with a question we’ve all asked ourselves: “What on Earth have I done?” As Fulghum finds out, the answer is never easy and, almost always, surprising. For the last couple of years, Fulghum has been traveling the world - from Seattle to the Moab Desert to Crete - looking for a few fellow travelers interested in thinking along with him as he delights in the unexpected: trick-or-treating with your grandchildren dressed like a large rabbit, pots of daffodils blooming in mid-November, a view of the earth from outer space, the mysterious night sounds of the desert, every man's trip to a department store to buy socks, the raucous all-night long feast that is Easter in Greece, the trials and tribulations of plumbing problems and the friendship one can strike up with someone who doesn't share the same language.
What on Earth Have I Done? is an armchair tour of everyday life as seen by Robert Fulghum, one of America’s great essayists, a man who has two feet planted firmly on the earth, one eye on the heavens and, at times, a tongue planted firmly in his cheek. Fulghum writes to his fellow travelers, with a sometimes light heart, about the deep and vexing mysteries of being alive and says, “This is my way of bringing the small boat of my life within speaking distance of yours. Hello…”In fairy tales, the third wish is the last one left when the first wish as foolish, and the second wish was used to undo the first wish. Now the remaining wish must be used wisely and well--with the help of co-conspirators.
The main thread of Fulghum’s novel, Third Wish--like Ariadne’s string guiding Theseus into the labyrinth with the Minotaur--begins at a table on a terrace on the Greek Island of Crete, winds its way into the center and back out to the same table, passing through Greece, Japan, France, England, and Seattle. Its main characters are Alice, Max-Pol, Aleko, Wonko, Zenkichi, Polydora, Alice-Alice, and Dog. Woven into the fabric of the novel are cultural history, art, philosophy, archeology, poetry, theater and music. The mode of the novel is contained in the words Slowly, Surprise, and Witness. More than anything else, Third Wish is a long love story--not in the usual sense--but the story of people who love life and will go to great lengths to find a flourishing Way onward.
Best known as the author of All I Really Need To Know I learned In Kindergarten, Fulghum has published eight best-selling works of non-fiction, two novels, and two plays. More than 17 million copies of his work are in print in 30 languages and 107 countries. His most recent books are the novel Third Wish (available only at Amazon) and What On Earth Have I Done. Further details and a regular journal posting may be seen on his website, robertfulghum.com.
Robert Fulghum was born in 1937, and grew up in Waco, Texas. In his youth he worked as a ditch-digger, newspaper carrier, ranch hand, and singing cowboy. After college and a brief career with IBM, he returned to graduate school to complete a degree in theology. For 22 years he served as a Unitarian parish minister in the Pacific Northwest. During the same period he taught drawing, painting, and philosophy at the Lakeside School in Seattle. Fulghum is an accomplished painter and sculptor. He sings, and plays the guitar and mando-cello and was a founding member of the The Rock-Bottom Remainders–a rock and roll band of author-musicians.
Robert Fulghum has four children and nine grandchildren. He lives in Seattle, Washington, and on the Greek island of Crete and is sometimes in residence in Moab, Utah.