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Amherst Books
8 Main Street  Amherst, MA 01002   ·  413.256.1547 ·  800.503.5865 · books @ amherstbooks.com   
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Events

< March 2019 >

Events listed in white are at the bookshop; events listed in yellow are elsewhere.

Unless noted otherwise all events are free & open to the public.

Fourth Annual Amherst College LitFest   “A Conversation with Rebecca Carroll”  Rebecca Carroll will talk in the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Frost Library, Amherst College.   For more information: LitFest Calendar.
Fourth Annual Amherst College LitFest   “An Evening with Jennifer Egan”   Jennifer Egan in conversation with Jennifer Acker in Johnson Chapel, Amherst College.   For more information: LitFest Calendar.
Fourth Annual Amherst College LitFest   “Poets of Amherst: A Conversation with Shayla Lawson & Nuar Alsadir ’92”   Shayla Lawson & Nuar Alsadir, moderated by Jane Wald, in the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Frost Library, Amherst College.   For more information: LitFest Calendar.
Fourth Annual Amherst College LitFest   “A Conversation with Elizabeth Kolbert & Charles C. Mann ’76”   Elizabeth Kolbert & Charles Mann, moderated by Cullen Murphy ’74,   in Johnson Chapel, Amherst College.   For more information: LitFest Calendar.
Roger McNamee will talk at the Isenberg School — TBA about his new book, Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe.   McNamee is a legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist.   In 2006 he met a 22-year-old Mark Zuckerberg when Facebook was still in its infancy.   McNamee became his mentor & eventually an early investor in Facebook.   But Zucked is McNamee’s intimate reckoning with how Facebook became a tool for bad actors globally, his unsettling realization that Zuckerberg & Sheryl Sandberg are unable or unwilling to address the dangers Facebook poses, & a call to action to prevent further harm.

Aurelie Sheehan, Ann Lewis, & Larry Sheehan will read.   Aurelie Sheehan is author of two novels & four short story collections, including Once into the Night, winner of FCE’s 2018 Catherine Doctorow Prize for Innovative fiction.   Ann Lewis is a writer & artist.   Her mixed media books & paintings are in several collections & she has published numerous individual essays & stories, as well as a collection of vignettes, Confederate Jasmine & the Fat Tuesday Tree: A Poetic Herbarium.   Larry Sheehan is a freelance writer with a distinguished list of publications, including a large format lifestyle book series.   He has recently produced smaller titles on larger themes including Archie: The Autobiography of a Cocker Spaniel & Prayers for Parlous Times.
Noontime Book Conversation This month the group will discuss Ibsen’s play The Wild Duck.   Meeting ordinarily on the second Tuesday of every month from 12:00pm until 1:00pm, the group has no fixed members (although quite a few regulars).   Readers are urged to nominate a book to be read, especially if they are willing to lead the discussion.   We focus on fiction & drama with occasional foray into the graphic novel.   We limit the length of our selections to about 200 pages, although this is a guideline rather than a fixed rule.   We believe in the joy of re-reading, so some of our selections are works that many have already read at least once.   The noontime book group is under the general oversight of Michael Greenebaum (mlgreenebaum33@gmail.com) who selects the books & leads the discussions.   He is happy to hear from those with ideas or questions.   Amherst Books offers a 10% discount on the month’s book for those who plan to join the group.

Luis Martín Valdiviezo Arista will talk about his new book, (Auto) Reconocimiento de la Afroperuanidad en la Educación Peruana, based on the dissertation he wrote for UMass, “Afroperuvian perspectives & critiques of intercultural education policy.”   Valdiviezo Arista is a professor of ethics, philosophy & education at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima.  

Shira Dentz, Adam Tedesco, & Seth Tourjee will read from recent work.   Dentz is the author of five full-length books & two chapbooks, most recently, door of thin skins & how do i net thee.   Her writing has appeared in Poetry, The American Poetry Review, & The Iowa Review, among others, & has been featured at The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series & NPR.   Tedesco is a founding editor of Reality Beach, a journal of new poetics.   His recent poetry & essays has appeared or is forthcoming in Entropy, Gramma, Funhouse, Fanzine, Fence, & elsewhere.   He is the author of several chapbooks, most recently Ablaza & Mary Oliver.   Tourjee is a writer, performer, educator, & media & book artist.   They are the author of Sam Says, Sam, as well as two chapbooks: Ghost, which was adapted for ballet by the Berkshire Choreography Project, & When Tongue Was Muscle.   Tourjee was a 2015-2016 Artist-in-Residence at Joshua Tree National Park, & was a finalist of the MacColl Johnson Fellowship in 2019.   From 2013–2017, they were co-director of Frequency Writers, a nonprofit writing organization.
Claire Bond Potter will talk about her new book, Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical Is Restaging America’s Past, at the Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Hall, UMass, Amherst.   For more information see the UMass History Department’ website.
“Trans Literature Today”    A reading & discussion in the Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Hall, UMass, Amherst, with trans writers Samuel Ace, Visiting Lecturer, Creative Writing, Mount Holyoke College; Cameron Awkward-Rich, Assistant Professor, WGSS, UMass; Joy Ladin, Professor, English, Yeshiva University; & Andrea Lawlor, Visiting Lecturer, English, Mount Holyoke College.   Sponsored by the UMass Stonewall Center.   For more information see the Facebook page.
Anthony Jack (’07) will talk in the Lipton Lecture Hall, Science Center, Amherst College, about his new book, The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Poor Students.   Anthony Abraham Jack is a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows & assistant professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.   He holds the Shutzer Assistant Professorship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Emily Dickinson reading at bookstore
“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.
jubilat/Jones Reading Series at the Jones Library, Amherst.   Diana Khoi Nguyen & Shayla Lawson will read.   Meet the poets at an informal Q & A session that follows the reading.
Joseph Ellis will read from his new book, American Dialogue: The Founders & Us in the Woodbury Room, Jones Library, Amherst.   For more information go to the Jones Library's Event webpage.
Alex Chee will read from his recent collection of essays, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel.   Chee is author of the award-winning novels The Queen of the Night & Edinburgh.   He is a contributing editor at The New Republic, an editor at large at The Virginia Quarterly Review, & a critic at large at The Los Angeles Times.  Co-sponsored by the Amherst College Visiting Writers Series.
Dina Friedman will read from a new collection of poetry, Wolf in the Suitcase.   Friedman teaches writing here at the University of Massachusetts.   She has published a number of short stories, poems, articles, & plays in literary journals, & has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize.   She is author of two books for teens—Escaping into the Night & Playing Dad’s Song.
Join Milan Dragicevic in celebrating the publication of his new book, The Persuasive Actor: Rhetorical Power on the Contemporary Stage.   Dragicevich is an actor, playwright, & professor in the UMass Department of Theater.   His new book adapts classical principles of rhetoric, enabling today’s actor to send a bold vocal “charge” into the act of speaking. It seeks to rediscover the lost art of persuasive speaking, applying it to both “classical” works & verbally adventurous contemporary plays, from Shakespeare to Stoppard, from Shaw to Hip-Hop Theater.   Beyond the formal requirements of verbal craft, the book gives actors a sense of adventure, fun, playfulness, & courage in speaking the Word.
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