8 Main Street Amherst, MA 01002 ·
413.256.1547 · 800.503.5865 · books @ amherstbooks.com
Events
Events listed in white are at the bookshop; events listed in yellow are elsewhere.
Unless noted otherwise all events at the bookshop are free & open to the public. We recommend masks!
For events elsewhere, there may be vaccine or masking requirements. Please follow the links to check.
- Friday, March 1st at 4:00pm (Conversation)
Point/Counterpoint Series Ilan Stavans, Amherst College professor, author, & editor of numerous titles, including the recent
The People’s Tongue: Americans & the English Language, will talk with
John McWhorter in the
Stirn Auditorium, Amherst College. McWhorter McWhorter is an American linguist with a specialty in creole languages, sociolects, & Black English. He is currently an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches American studies & music history. He is author of numerous books, including
Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America,
Nine Nasty Words English in the Gutter Then Now & Forever , &
Talking Back: Talking Black Truths About Americas Lingua Franca For more information, see
here.
- Sunday, March 3rd at 7:30pm (Talk)
Jewish educator & rabbi, award-winning author, speaker, & activist
Abby Chava Stein, will talk in
Integrative Learning Center S331, UMass, Amherst, on “How to Navigate Hope & Sacrifice Your Truest Self.” Stein is author of numerous books, including
Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman. For more information, see
here.
- Tuesday, March 5th at 11:30am (Talk)
Cassidy Sugimoto will talk in
Lederle Hall, Room A112, UMass, Amherst, about “Equity for Women in Science.” Sugimoto is Professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is author of numerous books, including
Equity for Women in Science: Dismantling Systemic Barriers to Advancement. For more information go
here.
- Wednesday, March 6th at 7:00pm (Reading)
Vivek Narayanan
will read from his recent poetry at the
CHI Think Tank (Lyceum 101), 197 South Pleasant St., Amherst as part of the
Amherst College Visiting Writers Series . Narayanan has published poetry in journals such as
Poetry,
The Paris Review,
Granta,
Harvard Review, &
Agni. His published volumes include
Short Prayer,
Life & Times of Mr S, &
After, among others.
- Tuesday, March 12th at 7:00pm (Readings)
The Amherst College Visiting Writers Series presents “Burmese Diasporic Writers:
Maw Shein Win,
Audrey T. Williams,
Kenneth Wong” at the
CHI Think Tank (Lyceum 101), 197 South Pleasant St., Amherst. Maw Shein Win is a Burmese American poet, editor, & educator. She was the first poet laureate of El Cerrito, California. She has published several prize-winning chapbooks, & her full-length poetry collection
Storage Unit for the Spirit House was long-listed for the 2021 PEN America Open Book Award, nominated for a Northern California Book Award for Poetry, & shortlisted for the Golden Poppy Award. Williams is a speculative literary artist who writes poetry, fiction, & creative non-fiction. Her writing is published in
Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook,
Space & Time magazine, among others. She is a Program Coordinator for the Afrosurreal Writers Workshop of Oakland, Co-chair of the Speculative Literature Foundation’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter, & a board member of the Black Speculative Arts Movement’s Oakland chapter. Wong is a Burmese American author & a language instructor. His short stories, essays, & poetry translations have appeared in
AGNI,
The Irrawaddy,
Myanmar Times, & more. For more information see
here.
- Thursday, March 14th at 6:00pm (Conversation)
Anthropologists
Pinky Hota &
Joe Lee will talk about their new books—Hota’s
The Violence of Recognition: Adivasi Indigeneity & Anti-Dalitness in India; Lee’s
Concealing Caste: Narratives of Passing and Personhood in Dalit Literature. Hota teaches at Smith College Informed by critical caste & race, & gender & sexuality approaches, her research examines right wing politics in the context of contemporary capitalism, & participates in Smith’s Program for the Study of Women & Gender. Lee teaches at Williams College where he conducts research on religion, language, caste & the state in South Asia.
- Wednesday, March 27th at 4:00pm (Talk)
Michael Willrich will give the “2024 Distinguished Annual Lecture in History” in
Herter Hall 601, 161 Presidents Drive, UMass, Amherst. His new book,
American Anarchy: The Epic Struggle between Immigrant Radicals & the US Government at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century will form the basis of his talk. Willrich is is a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow and the Leff Families Professor of History at Brandeis University, where he has received university-wide prizes for his undergraduate and graduate teaching.
- Wednesday, March 27th at 7:00pm (Reading)
Meghana Mysore, currently a visiting professor at Amherst College, will read & talk about her work at the
CHI Think Tank (Lyceum 101), 197 South Pleasant St., Amherst, as part of the
Amherst College Visiting Writers Series. A 2022-2023 Steinbeck Fellow, her work appears in
Pleiades,
Apogee,
Passages North,
The Yale Review,
The Rumpus,
Indiana Review,
Boston Review,
The Margins of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, & the anthology
A World Out of Reach.
- Thursday, March 28th at 6:00pm (Book launch party)
Help us celebrate the publication of local author
David Toomey’s new book,
Kingdom of Play: What Ball-Bouncing Octopuses, Belly-Flopping Monkeys, & Mud-Sliding Elephants Reveal about Life Itself. Toomey teaches courses in writing & in the history of science at the University of Massachusetts. He is author of numerous books, including
Stormchasers: The Hurricane Hunters & Their Fateful Flight Into Hurricane Janet,
Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own, &
The New Time Travelers: A Journey to the Frontiers of Physics.
- Thursday, March 28th at 7:00pm (Conversation)
Point/Counterpoint Series Ilan Stavans, Amherst College professor, author, & editor of numerous titles, including the recent
The People’s Tongue: Americans & the English Language, will talk with
John Morse in the
Stirn Auditorium, Amherst College. Morse is the former President & Publisher of Merriam-Webster Incorporated. He joined Merriam-Webster in 1980, serving first as an assistant editor, then as Manager of Editorial Operations & Planning & later as Executive Editor responsible for product-development operations. He became President & Publisher in 1997 but remained actively involved in editorial activities. For more information, see
here.
- Friday, March 29th at 7:00pm (Readings)
Jennifer Rosner &
Karen Chase will read. Rosner is author of, among other books,
The Yellow Bird Sings, &
Once We Were Home, which is now just out in paperback. Both were finalists for the National Jewish Book Award. Chase is author of numerous collections of poetry, including
Jamali-Kamali, a book-length homoerotic poem which takes place in Mughal India; essays & memoirs. Her new book, a collection of essays, is
History is Embarrassing. Both live in Western Massachusetts.
- Saturday, March 30th at 6:00pm (Reading)
Margaret Juhae Lee will read from her new book,
Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History, the true story of her grandfather, Lee Chul Ha, which was lost in early twentieth-century Korea. Lee was an editor for the Books & the Arts section at
The Nation magazine. Her articles, interviews & book reviews have been published in
The Nation,
Newsday,
Elle,
ARTnews,
The Progressive, & most recently in
The Rumpus &
Ploughshares Blog.