Register at tinyurl.com/ewml-authortalk-518
If you liked Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver or The Overstory, by Richard Powers…
Caroline Ailanthus’ novel, Ecological Memory, is set twenty years after a catastrophic global pandemic. It is part scientific detective story, part post-apocalyptic travelogue. It is NOT a dystopia—although the author uses catastrophe as a starting point, her vision for the future is quite optimistic. The story explores how the characters, society, and the planet find ways to heal. It’s a book about what happens AFTER you lose everything. Caroline wrote the book well before our real pandemic, but now finds her story has become unexpectedly timely.
Caroline will briefly talk about the book’s plot, main characters, and other relevant points, then will read several excerpts and use them as starting points to discuss two themes:
1) creating a fictional pandemic vs. living in a real one
2) looking to the science of ecology as a source of perspective and hope in the face of loss
She’ll end with a question-and-answer period, and may read additional excerpts as part of the discussion.
Author Bio:
Caroline Ailanthus is primarily a science writer; even her fiction blends science and story. She is also the author of the Climate in Emergency blog. Ecological Memory is her second published novel. She grew up in Delaware and attended various small, odd schools, mostly in New England, earning BA in Environmental Leadership and an MS in Environmental Studies. She lives in Maryland with her husband and assorted animals.
Jennifer will talk about what led her to co-author The #ActuallyAutistic Guide to Advocacy: Step-by-Step Advice on How to Ally and Speak Up with Autistic People and the Autism Community. She’ll go on to discuss general advocacy, then focus on family, work and educational topics. Q&A to follow.
This talk is in-person. Masks are required.
Please RSVP to slevine@ewmlibrary.org with the event name and number of attendees.
The #ActuallyAutistic Guide takes an in-depth look at the key elements of effective, respectful, inclusive advocacy and allyship. Every topic was chosen, shaped, and informed by #ActuallyAutistic perspectives. She and Jenna are currently writing, and collecting surveys for, their second collaboration, The #ActuallyAutistic Guide to Teen and Young Adult Advocacy and Activism: Step-by-Step Advice for Autistic Youth and Those Who Care About Them.
Author Bio:
Jennifer Brunton, Ph.D. is the co-author, with Jenna Gensic, M.A., of The #ActuallyAutistic Guide to Advocacy: Step-by-Step Advice on How to Ally and Speak Up with Autistic People and the Autism Community. A neurodivergent parent of an Autistic son and a neurotypical daughter, Jennifer is passionate about making the world a better place for people who think, learn, and experience life in unique ways. Her parenting blog, Full Spectrum Mama, has been advancing civil rights for all—with a focus on neurodiversity and intersectionality—for more than 10 years.
Join us as we welcome author Tim Spofford for a conversation about his new book What The Children Told Us. Tim will discuss the lives and work of Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark, including Clark/Phipps genealogy (guided by vintage family photos), the Doctors’ famous Doll Test, and their roles as Black activists, humanitarians and intellectualists in Springfield, MA and nationally.
This event is drop-in and masks will be required.
Author Bio:
Tim Spofford’s writing career was inspired by the May 1970 slayings on the Kent and Jackson State campuses amid antiwar unrest. He wrote Lynch Street, the only book about the black students slain in Mississippi. A writing career focused on racial issues in education followed the completion of his first book.
For seven years, Spofford covered educational policymaking for the Albany Times Union, including at the NYS Education Department, the NYS Legislature and the 64-campus State University of New York system. He often interviewed Kenneth Clark, a policymaker on the NYS Board of Regents.
Spofford has taught writing and journalism in schools and colleges and has a Doctor of Arts in English degree from the State University at Albany. He’s published articles in the New York Times, Newsday, Mother Jones, Columbia Journalism Review and other publications. He also worked as a copy editor, most recently at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, where he coached young editors. Spofford is an avid but unaccomplished hiker, swimmer and landscaper. He lives with his wife, Barbara, in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Lee, Massachusetts.
Join the Library and Meat for Tea in welcoming local authors Jane Yolen and Peter Tacy! Jane and Peter will read selections from “The Black Dog Poems” (pub. 2022), and other works, including pairs of poems written by them that they call “back and forth poetry”. Masks are required at this in-person program.
Author Bios:
Jane Yolen is best known as the author of many best-selling and award-winning children’s books. However, among her 400 published books are 14 books of adult poetry — many of which have recently won awards, including the Sophie Brody Medal and the Sydney Taylor Body of Work Award. Her husband Peter Tacy is a retired independent-school educator. He and Jane first met through their shared interest in poetry during the 1950’s, when they were at Smith and Williams Colleges; but then they went separate ways and into separate marriages — until, both widowed, they re-connected and began writing with and to each other in 2019. They divide their time between Jane’s home in Hatfield and Peter’s in Mystic, CT.
Pick up a copy of the book at the Library. Please RSVP at tinyurl.com/ewml-women-clothes
Join us for an informal discussion about how women use fashion/clothing as a means of self-expression, self-care, as armor or disguise, to reinvent themselves, to transform how others see them, to communicate, or to enhance confidence and individuality. Please book-mark your favorite sections of “Women in Clothes,” and share your thoughts about your relationship with clothing, shopping, and what influences your daily ritual of getting dressed.
“Women in Clothes,” the 2014 book edited by the novelist-critics Sheila Heti and Heidi Julavits and the artist Leanne Shapton, is a compilation of lessons, fears and wishes. It pushes against the prevailing rules that have governed women’s self-presentation for thousands of years.
As mentioned in this 2014 New York Times article, Sheila Weiss writes, “The book began as a survey consisting of an “ever-evolving” list of questions that the editors sent out to more than 600 women… The questions are provocative and psychological. They suggest that a closet is an archive of emotion. The questions also resist the idea, commonly held, that paying too much attention to dress is frivolous… Clothing is as much a means for defiance and privacy as it is a vehicle for pleasing self-presentation.”
Susan W. Berry MS, MFA, CHC, CIC is a Certified Holistic Health Coach and Certified Personal Style, Wardrobe and Image Consultant. She resides in Easthampton, MA.
Join Jim Armenti (poet) and Dave Madeloni (photographer) in support of Sun On The Muddy a book of poetry and fantastic photos published by Levellers Press of Amherst, for a short presentation, poetry reading, a few songs and conversation. Books will be available for purchase.
Jim Armenti is a poet, musician, and composer. In Sun on the Muddy he gives us fifty irresistible reflections on the people and objects that make a life. He was born in Ann Arbor, MI, the third-generation product of Italian immigrants. Jim grew up in a household of musicians, his father a classical mandolin player, one sister (of three) a guitar player, another a flute player and everyone a singer. In high school Jim started a band called H&WA, named after the school counselor’s report that Jim is “happy and well-adjusted.”
Jim performs with the legendary band, The Lonesome Brothers. He tours internationally with The Young at Heart Chorus, and he constantly writes poetry.
Dave Madeloni is a photographer, educator, and journalist. Early on, his parents strongly encouraged his curiosity and creativity. He immersed himself in the lyrics of great songwriters while capturing images of performers, protesters, and most recently, puddles. For the last forty years, he has also taught and supported young people with social/emotional disabilities, inspiring their curiosity and creativity. In Sun on the Muddy, Dave explores in photos the beauty and meaning found all around us, but not where we ordinarily look.