Friends of the Library to host first in-person ‘Books and Authors’ event this year
Each month the Friends of the Starkville Library host a “Books and Authors” event in which authors speak about their books, the writing process, and their lives. This event is free and open to the public, but over the last year, each event has been virtual through Zoom. However, the Friends are hosting their first-time-in-a-while in-person “Books and Authors” event with a local artist.
On Tuesday, November 9, Starkville’s very own Becky Hagenston will speak as the featured author this month at Starkville Public Library at 6 p.m. Hagenston lives in Starkville with her husband, and she is an English professor at Mississippi State University. She is a Maryland native, and she spent some time in the Southwest for two different master’s degrees.
Hagenston is the author of four award-winning story collections, and her newest came out in August of this year. It was published by by The Ohio State University Press/mad Creek Books.
According to Hagenston’s website, “she has won a 2020 Pushcart Prize and two O. Henry Awards, as well as the Great Lakes Colleges Association
New Writers Award, the Reynolds Price Award in Short Fiction, and the Julia Peterkin Award. Her work has appeared in the Oxford American, Ploughshares, Southern Review, Gettysburg Review, Crazyhorse, New England Review, Subtropics, and many other journals.”
While the event is in-person, there is a Zoom option available, but if interested, you must contact Friends of the Library or Starkville Public Library on Facebook. For those attending inperson, there will be light refreshments available. After Hagenston’s presentation, there will be a free book signing for those in attendance.