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Events
Please note: all events are canceled until further notice.
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.
- Sunday, March 1st at 2:00pm (Discussion)
Fifth Annual Amherst College LitFest “Writing at the White House: An Insider’s Account“ Obama aide
Ben Rhodes & his Random House editor
Andy Ward ’74 will talk with
Cullen Murphy ’74 in
Johnson Chapel, Amherst College. For more information:
LitFest Calendar.
- Thursday, March 5th at 7:00pm (Reading)
Abdi Nor Iftin will read from his new memoir,
Call Me American, at the
Amherst Regional Middle School Auditorium here in Amherst, as part of the Jones Library’s “On the Same Page” program. For more information see
here.
- Tuesday, March 10th at 12noon - 1:00pm (Conversation)
POSTPONED until March 24thNoontime Book Conversation This month the group will discuss
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. 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. April’s book is the Ann Carson translation of Sophocles’
Antigone.
- Tuesday, March 10th at 6:30pm (Book launch party)
CANCELED Help Amherst College professor Aneeka Henderson celebrate the publication of her new book,
Veil & Vow: Marriage Matters in Contemporary African American Culture, in the
Bassett Gallery, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College. Henderson places familiar, often politicized questions about the crisis of African American marriage in conversation with a rich cultural archive that includes fiction by Terry McMillan & Sister Souljah, music by Anita Baker, & films such as
The Best Man. Seeking to move beyond simple assessments of marriage as “good” or “bad” for African Americans, Henderson examines contemporary texts alongside legislation such as the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act & the Welfare Reform Act, which masked true sources of inequality with crisis-laden myths about African American family formation.
- Wednesday, March 11th at 6:00pm (reading)
Erika Lee will speak about “Xenophobia in America: How We Got Here & What’s At Stake” at the
Integrative Learning Center, N151, UMass, Amherst, as the 2020 Distinguished Annual Lecture sponsored by the UMass History Department. Lee is author of
The Making of Asian America: A History &
At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943. For more information see
here.
- Wednesday, March 11th at 8:00pm (Poetry reading)
CANCELED Franny Choi &
Fatimah Asghar will read from recent work. Choi is a writer of poems, essays, & plays. She is the author of two poetry collections—most recently,
Soft Science. Asghar, author of the new poetry collection,
If They Come for Us, is a nationally touring poet, performer, educator, & writer. She is the writer of
Brown Girls, an Emmy-nominated web series that highlights friendships between women of color.
- Friday, March 13th at 7:00pm (Reading)
CANCELED“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.
- Wednesday, March 25th at 4:30pm (Reading & talk)
CANCELED CHI Salon: What is a Short Story? Beth Piatotewill read from her new collection of stories,
The Beadworkers, at the
Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Frost Library, Amherst College. Piatote is author of numerous scholarly essays & creative works, & is the recipient of multiple awards & fellowships. She is Nez Perce enrolled with Colville Confederated Tribes & lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Tuesday, March 24th at 12noon - 1:00pm (Conversation)
Noontime Book Conversation This month the group will discuss
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. Meeting ordinarily on the second Tuesday (today’s conversation was originally schueduled on March 10th) 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. April’s book is the Ann Carson translation of Sophocles’
Antigone.
- Thursday, March 26th at 7:00pm (Reading)
POSTPONED Local author
Jennifer Rosner will read from her first novel,
The Yellow Bird Sings. Rosner is the author of
If A Tree Falls: A Family's Quest to Hear & Be Heard, a memoir about raising her deaf daughters in a hearing, speaking world. Her children’s book,
The Mitten String, is a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable. Rosner’s writing has appeared in the
New York Times,
The Massachusetts Review,
The Forward, & elsewhere. PLEASE NOTE, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL MAY 28.
- Friday, March 27th at 7:00pm (Poetry reading)
CANCELEDKristin Bock &
Janaka Stucky will read from recent poetry. Bock is the author of
Cloisters & the forthcoming
Dear Life Form. She received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts, & has published widely in many literary magazines & journals, including
Columbia,
The Seattle Review,
Prairie Schooner,
The Black Warrior Review, &
Fence. Stucky is a mystic poet, performer, & founding editor of the award-winning press, Black Ocean. He has performed in over 60 cities around the world & his poems have appeared in such journals as
Denver Quarterly,
Fence, &
North American Review. He is also a two-time National Haiku Champion. His most recent book is
Ascend Ascend.
- Monday, March 30th at 7:00pm (Poetry reading)
POSTPONED Margo Stever &
Stephanie Stickland will read from recent poetry. Stever is the author of The
Lunatic Ball,
Frozen Spring, & most recently,
Cracked Piano. She is the founding & current co-editor of Slapering Hol Press, the small press imprint of The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center. Strickland, a poet, essayist & reviewer, has published nine volumes of print poetry & co-authored eleven digital poems, including
How the Universe Was Made: Poems New & Selected. Her latest collection of poetry is
Ringing the Changes.