• Tuesday, November 4th at 6:00pm (Book launch party)

Join Tom Dumm in celebrating the publication of his new book, My Father's House: On Will Barnet’s Painting.   Dumm, who teaches political theory at Amherst College, reflects on a series of paintings by Will Barnet which depict the artist’s family & childhood home.   Dumm is author of several previous books, including Loneliness as a Way of Life & A Politics of the Ordinary.

• Wednesday, November 5th at 4:00pm (Talk)

Wilbert Rideau will talk in the Cape Cod Lounge, Student Union Center, UMass, Amherst.   Rideau is author of In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment & Redemption.   He is a convicted killer & former death row inmate in Louisiana, as well as an author & award-winning prison journalist.   For more information go here

• Wednesday, November 5th at 7:00pm (Reading)

Russian author & independent film-maker, Vladimir Kozlov will read from his novel, USSR: Diary of a Perestroika Kid.   Kozlov’s fiction & nonfiction has been long-listed for awards in Russia such as the National Bestseller prize & the Big Book prize.   In 2011 & 2012 he was nominated for GQ Russia’s Writer of the Year.  

N.B. His documentary on Siberia’s punk scene will be shown at Amherst College, Stirn Auditorium at 7:00pm the day before—Tuesday, November 4th.

• Wednesday, November 5th at 7:00pm (Talk)

Graphic artist Miriam Katin will talk at The Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, & Memory Studies, UMass, 758 N. Pleasant St., Amherst, about her work.   Katin is author of two graphic novels—Letting it Go & We Are on Our Own.

• Wednesday, November 5th at 7:30pm (Talk)

Suheir Hammad will talk at the Red Barn, Hampshire College, Amherst, as the featured speaker for this year’s Andrew Salkey Memorial Reading.   Hammad is an American poet, playwright, film-maker, & political activist.   She was born in Amman, Jordan.   Her parents were Palestinian refugees who immigrated along with their daughter to Brooklyn, New York City when she was five years old.   She is author of several collections of poetry, including Born Palestinian, Born Black. See here for more information.

• Friday, November 7th at 4:00pm (Book launch party)

Help us celebrate the publication of a new book by Hampshire College professor Monique Roelofs — The Cultural Promise of the Aesthetic.   Roelofs teaches & writes on aesthetics, the philosophy of art & culture, feminist philosophy, & critical race theory.

• Friday, November 7th at 7:00pm (Poetry reading)

Launch launch revolution: Cecily Iddings, Frank Guan, Ish Klein, & Delia Pless will read together for the launch of Iddings’s first collection of poetry, Everyone Here, & the first issue of Prelude a brand new journal of poetry & criticism.  

• Sunday, November 9th at 3:00pm (Poetry reading)

jubilat/Jones Reading Series at the Jones Library, Amherst.   Poets Shane McCrae & Caryl Pagel will read.   Meet the poets at an informal Q & A session that follows the reading.     For more information go to ju bilat/Jones Reading Series on Facebook.

• Thursday, November 13th at 7:00pm (Talk)

Edward Tick will talk about his new book, Warrior’s Return: Restoring the Soul After War.   Tick is Founding Director of Soldier’s Heart: Veterans’ Safe Return Programs.   Honored for his groundbreaking work in the spiritual, holistic & community-based healing of veterans & Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Dr. Tick has been a psychotherapist for 38 years, specializing in working with veterans since the 1970s.   He is author of numerous books, including the award-winning book, War & the Soul: Healing Our Nation’s Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

• Friday, November 14th at 7:00pm (Poetry reading)

Chris Hosea, Jeannie Hoag, & Simeon Berry will read from recent work.   Hosea’s first collection of poetry, Put Your Hand In was selected for the Walt Whitman Award by John Ashbery.   Hosea received his MFA from the University of Massachusetts here in Amherst.   Hoag’s work has appeared in The Blue Letter, GlitterPony, NOO Journal, & notnostrums.   Her chapbook New Age of Ferociousness was published by Agnes Fox Press, & Informal Invitation to a Traveler, a collaborative project with Kyle McCord, was published through Gold Wake Press.   She also received an MFA in creative writing at UMass Amherst.   Berry has been an Associate Editor for Ploughshares, & won a Massachusetts Cultural Council Individual Artist Grant & a Career Chapter Award from the National Society of Arts & Letters.   His work has appeared in Crazyhorse, AGNI, Colorado Review, Blackbird, DIAGRAM, The Iowa Review, American Letters, & Commentary, & many other journals.   His first book, Ampersand Revisited, won the 2013 National Poetry Series, & his second book, Monograph, won the 2014 National Poetry Series.

• Thursday, November 20th at 7:00pm (Talk)

Debby Irving will talk at the Grace Episcopal Church, Amherst, as part of a series of events organized by the Coming Together: Understanding Racism, Working for Justice & Building Connections Project.   Irving is author of Waking Up White & Finding Myself in the Story of Race—the story of her own awakening from a well-meaning, but not very well informed liberal, to become a growing, anti-racism activist & widely praised author.

• Friday, November 21st at 6:00pm (Benefit)

Save the S.M.A.!   Fund raiser for the Sexual Minorities Archive   Celebrate Queer Histories & save the Sexual Minorities Archives!   Join us for a festive evening as local poets, artists, & activists read hidden gems from this storehouse of queer history, as well as share original work.   The Sexual Minorities Archive in Northampton, a national collection of LGBTQI literature, history, & art, is under threat of ceasing its operations for the first time in 40 years.   We can’t let that happen!   $10 - $20 sliding scale donation to help keep the Sexual Minorities Archives open.