The Woodstock Shivastan Bookshop and Art Gallery is hosting a Winter Solstice Gathering and book-release party this Saturday evening, touting two new limited-edition Shivastan Press titles – both with handcrafted covers and printed on handmade lokta paper in Kathmandu. One is the second edition of Breathe by the Los Angeles-based poet India Radfar, originally published in 2004. “Written after my son was born and two years after my father died, this book is based on a dream I had in which my father told me to ‘cherish breath,’” says the author. “It is a one-sided conversation with my father about what it means to be alive and what it means to be gone from this world.”
The other new release, titled Uncle Skallywag, is the latest collection of poems by Shivastan’s proprietor, tantric Buddhist/Hindu yogi, anthropologist, archivist, artist, photographer, publisher and poet Shiv Mirabito. Based in Woodstock most of the year, Mirabito takes off each winter to spend four months in India and Nepal, so this event is also a sort of going-away party. Hot tea and snacks will be on offer, along with some unusual gift-shopping opportunities at Shiv’s Pop-Up Shop: thousands of new, used and rare books, art, antiques and crafts, including jewelry that Mirabito designs. After the Solstice, the shop will be packed up until the spring.
The Winter Solstice Gathering & Shiv’s Going Away Book-Release Party runs from 4 to 8 p.m. this Saturday, December 21. The bookshop is the bright orange cabin in back of the driveway at 6 Hillcrest Avenue in Woodstock.
Winter Solstice Gathering & Shiv’s Going Away Book-Release Party, Saturday, Dec. 21, 4-8 p.m., Shivastan Bookshop & Art Gallery, 6 Hillcrest Ave., Woodstock, http://www.shivastan.com/
Join the family! 
