• Friday, November 3rd at 7:00pm (Poetry reading)

Jason Montgomery & Miguel Bacho will read from their new volumes of poetry.   Montgomery, who is a playwright, poet, & visual artist, is co-founder of Attack Bear Press in Easthampton.   His new volume of poetry, These Latest Apocalypses, looks at endings: “particularly for those of us with indigeneous heritage—the world has ended many, many times over.   From there I started to think about endings, sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always from a place of after.”   Bacho is a Chilean poet.   His bi-lingual Continental Breakfast details his migration to the U.S. & is published by Attack Bear Press.

• Monday, November 6th at 6:00pm (Author talk)

Amherst icon Madeleine (“Maddy”) Blais will talk about her new book, Queen of the Court: The Many Lives of Legend Alice Marble.   Marble was a tennis celebrity, author, actor, fashion designer, & successful campaigner to allow African Americans into the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, but now she is forgotten.   Blais, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her journalism, is author of, among other books, In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle: A True Story of Hoop Dreams & One Very Special Team; To the New Owners: A Martha’s Vineyard Memoir; & Uphill Walkers: Memoir of a Family.   In her new book she brings Marble back to life.

• Tuesday, November 7th at 6:00pm (Talk)

Nicholas Syrett will discuss his new book, The Trials of Madame Restell: Nineteenth-Century America’s Most Infamous Female Physician & the Campaign to Make Abortion a Crime, with Amherst College professor Jen Manion.   Syrett is a professor of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies & an associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Kansas.   Manion is author of Female Husbands: A Trans History.

• Wednesday, November 8th at 7:00pm (Talk)

Amherst College Fall 2023 Creative Writing Series
Neema Avashia will talk about & read from her recent book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer & Indian in a Mountain Place, at the CHI Think Tank (Lyceum 101), 197 South Pleasant St., Amherst.   The book was named Best LGBTQ Memoir of 2022 by BookRiot; was one of the New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2022; & was a finalist for the New England Book Award; the Weatherford Award; & a Lambda Literary Award.   For more information, see here.

• Thursday, November 9th at 6:00pm (Talk)

UMass professor & Director of the Labor Center here at UMass, Jasmine Kerrissey & co-author Judith Stepan-Norris, Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine, will talk about their new book, Union Booms & Busts: The Ongoing Fight Over the U.S. Labor Movement.   Kerrissey is also author of Labor in the Time of Trump.

• Wednesday, November 15th at 7:00pm (Talk)

2nd Annual Ellsberg Lecture
Norman Solomon will talk about & read from his recent book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, at the Integrative Learning Center at UMass, Amherst, Room N151.   The Ellsberg Lecture Series is part of programming for the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace & Democracy at UMass.   Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org & executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.   He is author of numerous books, including War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.

• Thursday, November 16th at 6:00pm (Reading)

UMass Visiting Writers Series
Andrea Lawlor will read from recent work at the Old Chapel, UMass, Amherst.   Lawlor teaches writing at Mount Holyoke College & is known for writing the novel Paul Takes The Form of a Mortal Girl, which was a 2018 Lambda Literary finalist.   One journalist described the book as “the Great Queer American Novel.”   Lawlor’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Ploughshares, jubilat, the Rumpus, the Brooklyn Rail, Encyclopedia, & Mutha.   For more information see the series website.

• Wednesday, November 29th at 6:00pm (Reading)

Ani Gjika will read from her new memoir, An Unruled Body, winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, followed by a reception at the new Restless Books office just down the street at 69 Main Street.   Set across four countries—Albania, Thailand, India, & the U.S.—An Unruled Body tells the story of a young Albanian woman’s journey to selfhood through the lenses of language, sexuality, & identity, & how she learned to find freedom of expression on her own terms.

• Thursday, November 30th at 6:00pm (Readings)

UMass Visiting Writers Series
Gabriel Bump will read from his brand new novel, The New Naturals at the Old Chapel, UMass, Amherst.   Bump received his M.F.A. from UMass here in Amherst.   His first book, Everywhere You Don’t Belong, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2020 & has won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award for Fiction, the Heartland Booksellers Award for Fiction, & the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s First Novelist Award.   For more information see the series website.