Author Ta-Nehisi Coates in New Haven
Beyond Words, the annual major fundraising event for the Hartford Public Library, will present a cocktail reception and dinner, a talk by best-selling and prizewinning author Reyna Grande and the awarding of the Caroline M. Hewins Medal. It will take place Nov. 20 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Hartford Marriott Downtown, 200 Columbus Blvd, Hartford. Tickets are $175 for guests and $250 for patrons.
Grande’s bestselling memoir, “The Distance Between Us,” is about her life before and after illegally emigrating from Mexico to the U.S. She also has written another memoir, several novels and young readers editions of her books. She has won an American Book Award, the El Premio Aztlán Literary Award and the International Latino Book Award, among other honors.
The Hewins Award, named for the innovative librarian who helped found the Hartford Public Library and expand the mission of American libraries will go to architect Tai Soo Kim, who has won numerous awards. His work includes international projects and such local buildings as an addition to the Dwight Library branch, Coltsville National Historic Park, Wadsworth Atheneum lobby and UConn Hartford Library at the Hartford Public Library. Information: hplbeyondwords.com or 860-695-6300. and is told entirely in lists. Dicks also is a Moth StorySLAM champion and mentor through his Speak Up Storytelling organization and author of “Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling.”
Dicks will give several talks about his new novel: On Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. at That Book Store, 446 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield (860-529-5500); on Nov. 21 at 6:30 p.m. at Simsbury Public Library, 725 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury (860-658-7663); on Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. at RJ Julia Booksellers, 768 Boston Post Road, Madison (203-2453959); and at a book launch party on Nov. 23 at 7 p.m. at Connecticut Historical Society, 1 Elizabeth St., Hartford (860-2365621). matthewdicks.com.
RJ Julia Booksellers of Madison will present a talk by Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends co-host on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 26 Meeting House Lane, Madison. He will discuss his new American history book, “Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers.” Kilmeade also has written bestselling books about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Tickets are $33 and include admission and one copy of the book. A single companion ticket can be added for $5.
On Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven, Ta-Nehisi Coates, National Book Award–winning author of “Between the World and Me” and a Macarthur “genius” grant, will discuss his novel, “The Water Dancer,” a story of how slavery caused the breaking up of black families. Tickets are $40 and include admission and a copy of the book. Tickets and information are available from RJ Julia Booksellers, 203-245-3959 or rjjulia.com.
On Nov. 17 at 3 p.m. at Wesleyan RJ Julia Booksellers, 413 Main St., Middletown, Connecticut native and best-selling author Rachel Kodanaz, who was widowed at age 31, will launch her latest book, “Finding Peace, One Piece at a Time.” The book offers guidance to those needing to downsize or repurpose possessions once owned by loved ones that still carry strong emotional resonance.
On Nov. 21 at 7 p.m., film historian and founder of the film studies department at Wesleyan University and curator its cinema archives, Jeanine Basinger, will discuss her 12th book on films, “The Movie Musical!” The book explores such iconic movies as “Singin’ in the Rain;” “Meet Me in St. Louis” and “The Sound of Musi” and others.
On Nov. 23 at 2 p.m., Susan Jaques will discuss her cultural history book, “The Caesar of Paris: Napoleon Bonaparte, Rome, and the Artistic Obsession that Shaped an Empire.” The book explains Bonaparte’s love of antiquity and how it affected Paris’ artistic world. Jaques is a journalist specializing in art a gallery docent at the J. Paul Getty Museumin California.
Information: 860-685-3939 or wesleyanrjjulia.com.
The Together We Rise 2019 Poetry Series will host a reading Nov. 17 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Two Wrasslin’ Cats, 374 Town St., East Haddam by poets Nan Meneely of Essex and Greg Coleman and Edwina Trentham of East Haddam along with a read-in of poems exploring the high costs of war and the desire for peace.
The poets will read from Meneely’s book, “Letter from Italy, 1944,” based on letters by her father when he was serving in World War II. The book provided the libretto for an oratorio with music by her sister, composer Sarah Meneely-Kyder. A documentary, “Letter from Italy, 1944: A New American Oratorio,” narrated by Meryl Streep, premiered on CPTV and won a 2016 Emmy Award for filmmaker Karyl Evans. carol.chaput1@snet.net or trentham@comcast.net
On Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. at Immanuel Congregational Church, 10 Woodland St,, Hartford, historian and author David Blight will give a free talk about his Pulitzer Prizewinning book, “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom,” a biography of the man who escaped slavery to become a major black leader and literary figure. The talk is presented by the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center.
Blight is a history professor at Yale University, where he directs the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. 860-522-9258 or harrietbeecherstowecenter.org
The Hartford/ Ocotal Sister City Project and Hartford Public Library will offer a free a discussion of
“Black Autonomy: Race, Gender, and Afro-Nicaraguan Activism” by Jennifer Goett at the library, 500 Main St., Hartford on Nov. 20 at 12:30 p.m. Goett is a feminist ethnographer who studies the multicultural struggle for autonomy on the eastern coast of Nicaragua from the 1990s into the 21st century.
The focus of this program in the Library’s Bridging Cultures Series will be the book’s last three chapters and the epilogue. Copies can be borrowed from the library. Participants may bring brown bag lunches. hplct.org, 860-695-6337 or 860-675-3755.
On Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. McMahon Wintonbury Library, 1015 Blue Hills Ave., Bloomfield, will present a free reading by West Hartford Poet Laureate Julie Choffel and Hartford Poet Laureate Frederick-Douglas Knowles II. An open mic will follow the readings. 860-243-9721 or tnicotera@libraryconnection.info.
Bank Square Books, 53 W. Main St., Mystic, will host a book signing with local author Penny Goetjen, whose latrst mystery is “Murder Returns to the Precipice,” on Nov. 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. In it, a woman who reopens her family’s historic inn is encounters danger when murders happen there and she seeks to find the killer. banksquarebooks.com.