• Friday, December 2nd at 5:00 P.M. (Book launch party)

Join Roberto Alejandro in celebrating the publication of Nietzsche & the Drama of Historiobiography.   Alejandro is professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.   In addition to Nietzsche, his research interests include Greek philosophy & tragedies, contemporary liberal theory, & American political thought.   His new book traces the evolution of Nietzsche’s thought by analyzing Nietzsche’s complex array of stories & historical narratives & by assessing the importance of each of Nietzsche’s philosophical moves, including his many detours & dead ends.

• Friday, December 2nd at 8:00 P.M.(Reading)

“Live Lit”   Students in the M.F.A. Program at the University of Massachusetts will read from their recent work.   Evenings usually include a mix of poetry & fiction.

• Sunday, December 4th at 3:00 P.M.(Poetry reading)

jubilat/Jones Reading Series at the Jones Library, Amherst, will feature poets Laura Solomon, Dorothea Lasky, & Arda Collins.   For more information go to jubilat/Jones Reading Series on Facebook.

• Sunday, December 4th at 5:00 P.M.(Concert)

In the first in our chamber concert series, graduate students from the University of Massachusetts will play the Prokofiev Quartet No. 2 & movements from Ravel’s & Brahams’ Quartets.

• Wednesday, December 7th at 8:00 P.M. (Reading)

Sabina Murray will read at from her new collection of stories, Tales of the New World.   Murray, who is a professor at the University of Massachusetts, is author of a previous collection of short fiction, The Caprices, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction; & three novels, Slow Burn; Carnivore’s Inquiry, which was named a “Best Book of the Year” by the Chicago Tribune; & Forgery.   She also wrote the screenplay for Terrence Malick’s film, The Beautiful Country.   Sponsored by the Amherst College Visiting Writers Series.

• Thursday, December 8th at 8:00 P.M. (Reading)

Sam Michel & Michael Martone will read at Memorial Hall, University of Massachsetts.   Michel, who has taught at the University of Massachusetts, is author of Under the Light & Big Dogs & Flyboys.   George Saunders wrote, “Michel is such a smart, manic, virtuosic stylist. He’s also a surprising, big-hearted, courageous storyteller, whose considerable talent is firing on all cylinders in Flyer, a book full of odd/beautiful language, & the kind of deep insights that make you suddenly & newly appreciative, of the world around you.”   Martone, who is author or editor of a dozen books of fiction & non-fiction, including Double-Wide: Collected Fiction of Michael Martone; Racing in Place: Collages, Fragments, Postcards, Ruins; & most recently, Four For a Quarter.   Sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Visiting Writers Series.

• Thursday, December 15th at 7:00 P.M. (Talk)

Dr. Mark Vonnegut will talk at the Leverett Library about his recent memoir, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So.   Vonnegut, who began telling his story in The Eden Express, continues it in his new book.   For more information, Leverett Library.

• Friday, December 16th at 4:30 P.M. (Book launch party)

Join Amherst College English professor William Pritchard in celebrating the publication of What’s Been Happening to Jane Austen: Readings of Novelists & Critics.   Pritchard is an Advisory Editor of The Hudson Review, where he appears regularly as essayist & reviewer.   His books include studies of Wyndham Lewis, Robert Frost, Randall Jarrell, & John Updike; a memoir, English Papers: A Teaching Life; & four volumes of critical prose.   What’s Been Happening to Jane Austen is a selection of his writings about novelists & critics over the past ten years.

• Saturday, December 17th at 11:00 A.M. (Book signing)

Valley artist & book illustrator Micha Archer will sign copies of her most recent books, Lola’s Fandango by Anna Witte, & Wise Fool: Fables from the Islamic World by Shahrukn Husain.   A world traveller, Archer’s sense of colour & pattern is influenced by the folk art, crafts, & architecture of India, Nepal, West Africa, & Mexico, among other countries.   Working with gouache, watercolours, pen & ink, & collage, she creates layered pieces from various materials on paper & digitally.   She taught kindergarten at Mark’s Meadow for many years.

• Saturday, December 17th at 1:00 P.M. (Book launch party & reading)

Join Amherst’s beloved Norton Juster in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Phantom Tollbooth. Two new books honor the occasion: The Phantom Tollbooth 50th Anniversary Edition & The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth.   And if that were’t enough, the jolly indefatigable Juster has a new children’s book as well, Neville.