• Thursday, May 1st 7:00pm (Reading & talk)

Visiting Scholar in the UMass History Department, Justin Jackson will read from & talk about his new book, The Work of Empire: War, Occupation, & the Making of American Colonialism in Cuba & the Philippines.   As the Trump administration seems to be returning the United States to the aggressive imperialism of the past, with threats to annex Canada, Greenland, & the Panama Canal, understanding how & why Americans actually acquired an overseas empire in 1898 may be more important than ever.  Jackson will talk how laborers shaped the U.S. wars & occupations in Cuba & the Philippines that so greatly determined Americans’ colonial projects in these islands.

• Wednesday, May 7th at 4:30pm (Reading)

Amherst College Professor Patricia O’Hara will talk about her new book, Food Chemistry in Small Bites at the CHI Think Tank (Lyceum 101), 197 South Pleasant Street, Amherst College.   O’Hara is the Amanda & Lisa Cross Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry, & Biophysics at Amherst College, co–author of The Chemical Story of Olive Oil, & author of numerous scholarly research publications.   Her new book takes readers on an up-close scientific journey through the transformation of food when meals are prepared.   Organized in bite-size, digestible units, the book introduces readers to food’s molecular makeup as well as the perception of food by the five senses.   Using familiar foods as examples, it explores what happens to ingredients when heated, cooled, or treated & also considers what happens when materials that don’t naturally mix are forced to do so.

• Wednesday, May 7th at 7:00pm (Reading)

Brad Leithauser will read from his new collection of poetry, The Old Current.   Leithauser is an American poet, novelist, essayist, & teacher, & author of many volumes of poetry & novels.   Leithauser has won a Guggenheim, a MacArthur, Ingram Merrill Foundation Grant, & a Medal of the Order of the Falcon (awarded by the President of Iceland).

• Thursday, May 8th at 7:00pm (Poetry reading)

Anne Halley Poetry Prize Reading   Chard deNiord, winner of the annual Anne Halley Poetry Prize, sponsored by the Massachusetts Review, will read from recent poetry.   deNiord is author of 7 volumes of poetry, including the new collection, Westminster West. 

The Anne Halley Poetry Prize is named in memorial for Anne Halley, to honor her 25 years of work as poetry co-editor of the Massachusetts Review as well as her work as a poet & writer.   Her last collection of poetry, Rumors of the Turning Wheel, was published by University of Massachusetts Press in 2003.

• Tuesday, May 13th 10:00pm-6:00pm (Party!)

Student Appreciation Day! Help us celebrate our 22nd Anniversary!   All undergraduates get 20% off today!

• Wednesday, May 14th at 7:00pm (Talk)

Lida Maxwell will talk about her new book, Rachel Carson and the Power of Queer Love.   It describes how Silent Spring stands as a monument to a unique, loving relationship between Rachel Carson & Dorothy Freeman, and & such love underpins a new environmental politics.   Maxwell is Professor of Political Science & Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Boston University & the author of Insurgent Truth: Chelsea Manning & the Politics of Outsider Truth-Telling, among other books.

• Tuesday, May 20th at 6:30pm (Talk)

Pagan Kennedy—who is author of 11 books— will read from & talk about her new book, The Secret History of the Rape Kit by Pagan Kennedy: A True Crime Story, at the Forbes Library, Northampton.   For many years Kennedy was a contributing writer for the NY Times Sunday Review & a columnist for the NY Times Magazine.

• Thursday, May 22nd 7:00pm (Reading & talk)

Eleanor Finley will talk about her new book, Practicing Social Ecology: From Bookchin to Rojava & Beyond.   Finley is a researcher at the University of Massachusetts, an associate of the Institute for Social Ecology (ISE), & an affiliated researcher at George Mason University, Next System Studies.   She has published numerous articles on social ecology & related themes, such as Kurdish democratic confederalism, energy & environmental justice, & degrowth, & conducted dozens of workshops, talks, & lectures to diverse audiences in North America & Europe.

• Thursday, May 29th 7:00pm (Poetry reading)

Elizabeth Galoozis will read from her debut collection of poetry, Law of the Letter, which won the Hillary Gravendyk Prize from the Inlandia Institute.   Her work has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes & for Best of the Net.   She is a poetry reader for The Maine Review.   Her poems have appeared widely, including in Air/Light, Pidgeonholes, RHINO, Witness, & Sinister Wisdom.   Galoozis’s in town for her Amherst College reunion!