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Meet Author David Giffels

Join us when author David Giffels visits to discuss his new book, The Beginning Was the End.

About the author:

David Giffels is the author of six books of nonfiction, most recently Barnstorming Ohio: To Understand America, one of Library Journal’s Best Books of 2020. His other books include the memoirs Furnishing Eternity and All the Way Home, both winners of the Ohioana Book Award, and The Hard Way on Purpose, a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice.” His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Parade, The Iowa Review, Esquire, Grantland, and many other publications. He is professor of English at the University of Akron, and serves on the faculty of the NEOMFA creative writing program.  

The Beginning Was the End is the definitive account of Devo’s vibrant early history, from the authors of the first-ever book about the band. The Beginning Was the End features more than eighty never-before-seen images of the band members and their visual history as it tells the unlikely story of a collection of creative misfits who formed a musical kinship, drawing material and inspiration from the industrial Midwestern environs of Northeast Ohio. With the May 4, 1970, Kent State shootings as a catalyst, Devo channeled protopunk energy into a sprawling art project that would pioneer the use of music videos, innovate technology in pop music, define the aesthetic of the 1980s New Wave/MTV era, and maintain an edge of social, political, and cultural criticism that continues their relevance fifty years after their formation.  

Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Mac's Backs - Books on Coventry.