Canaan Meetinghouse Reading Series: Summer 2019

Moderator: Phil Pochoda                                    

July 11:  Wyn Cooper       Mars Poetica (poems). Cooper’s fifth book of poetry. His poems have been turned into songs by Sheryl Crow, David Broza, and Madison Smartt Bell. Nominated for a Grammy Award, 1995.

Walter Wetherell  — Where We Live (stories, fiction).  Lyme’s prolific Walter Wetherell delivers another wonderful book of short stories (his sixth) to join his seven novels, five essay collections, three memoirs, and two travel and nature guides.

July 18:  Christopher Benfey — IF: the Untold Story of Kipling’s American Years.  Benfy has written many wide-ranging books and essays (in the NYRB, NYT, and elsewhere) on themes and authors of the Gilded Age in America.

 Hernan Diaz  — In the Distance (novel).  2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist; 2018 PEN/ Faulkner Award Finalist.  Publisher’s Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year.

July 25:  Gregory Pardlo — Air Traffic: a Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America.  Pardlo’s second book of poetry, Digest, (from which he will also read,) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2015, and was named NYT best poetry book of the year.

Alice Mattison — Conscience (novel).  Mattison is the author of ten previous novels and books of short stories, several of which were listed as NYT notable books of the year.

August 1:  Christopher Castellani  — Leading Men (novel).  One of the top 10 literary fiction titles for Spring 2019 (PW) “Blazing . . . casts a spell from the start.”  (Dwight Garner, NYT).

Peter Orner — Maggie Brown & Others (fiction, stories).  Orner is the author of two previous novels, two books of short stories, and a book of essays.  His books have been finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Prize and for the Los Angeles Time Book Prize; winner of the Goldberg Prize for Jewish fiction; finalist for the PEN Hemingway Prize.

 

All readings start at 7:30 at the Meetinghouse, Canaan Street, Canaan, NH.

The Norwich Bookstore will sell current and past books by each author at the Meetinghouse. (Many of the books can be purchased at the bookstore in advance, and can be signed by the authors in July or August)