• Thursday, March 13th at 7:00pm(Reading & book launch)

Amherst resident Corinne Demas, author of two collections of short stories, five novels, a memoir, a collection of poetry, two plays, & many children’s books, will read from her new novel for young adults, Returning to Shore.   Booklist says it’s a “quiet, thoughtful story for sophisticated readers.”

• Saturday, March 22nd at 2:00pm(Reading & book launch)

Amherst resident Burleigh Mutén, author of many children's books, will read in the Woodbury Room, Jones Library, Amherst, from her new book, Miss Emily, as part of the Jones Library’s “Winter in the Kid’s Room” program.   For more information: Jones Library.

• Monday, March 24th at 5:00pm (Book launch party)

Help us celebrate the publication of Peter Gizzi’s new book—In Defense of Nothing: Selected Poems, 1987-2011.   Gizzi, who teaches in the University of Massachusetts MFA Program for Poets & Writers, is editor of The House That Jack Built: The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer, & My Vocabulary Did This To Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer.   He is author of numerous volumes of poetry, including The Outernationale & Threshold Songs.

• Tuesday March 25th at 7:00pm (Reading)

Acclaimed novelist Chris Bohjalian will read at the Amherst Regional Middle School Auditorium as part of the Jones Library's “On the Same Page” program.   The book everyone will be reading is Bohjalian’s The Sandcastle Girls.   He will be introduced by local author Cammie McGovern.   For more information, go to the Jones Library web page.

• Tuesday March 25th at 8:00pm (Reading)

CANCELEDYiyun Li will read at the Pruyne Lecture Hall, Fayerweather, Amherst College as part of the Amherst College Visiting Writers Series.   A MacArthur Fellow, Li’s debut short story collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, won the 2005 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award; her second collection, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, was shortlisted for the same award.   Her debut novel, The Vagrants, was shortlisted for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.   Li’s new novel is Kinder than Solitude.

• Wednesday, March 26th at 5:30pm (Book launch party)

Join University of Massachusetts professor Jonathan Skolnik in celebrating the publication of his new book, Jewish Pasts, German Fictions: History, Memory, & Minority Culture in Germany, 1824-1955.   Skolnik’s new book is the first comprehensive study of how German-Jewish writers used images from the Spanish-Jewish past to define their place in German culture and society. He argues that Jewish historical fiction was a form of cultural memory that functioned as a parallel to the modern, demythologizing project of secular Jewish history writing.

• Friday, March 28th at 8:00pm(Reading)

Valerie Martin will read in the Top of the Campus, Marriott Center, UMass, Amherst, as part of M.F.A.'s 50th Anniversary Celebration.   For more information about this event & the festivities, go to the the M.F.A. Program’s web page.

• Saturday, March 29th at 8:00pm(Poetry reading)

John Ashbery will read in the Top of the Campus, Marriott Center, UMass, Amherst, as part of M.F.A.'s 50th Anniversary Celebration.   For more information about this event & the festivities, go to the the M.F.A. Program’s web page.

• Monday, March 31st at 5:30pm (Book launch party)

Join us in celebrating a new book by activist, writer & policy strategist, David Bollier—Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons.   Bollier, who lives in Amherst, was Founding Editor of Onthecommons.org & a Fellow of On the Commons from 2004 to 2010.   He is author of many books, including two on the commons: The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market & State, co-edited with Silke Helfrich; & Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights & the Commons, co-authored with Burns H. Weston.