The Hartford Public Library, 500 Main St., Hartford, will host free programs on the Big Read, poetry and a mystery novel.
On Wednesday, March 23, at 6 p.m., Professor Paul LaRocca of Goodwin College will discuss John Steinbeck’s classic Depression-era novel “The Grapes of Wrath” in the keynote event of the library’s Spring 2016 Big Read community reading project. The library is one of 75 organizations nationwide to receive a grant for a Big Read project to increase the role of literature in American culture and encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment.
On Saturday, March 26, at 10:15 a.m., the Connecticut Poetry Society’s monthly Poets on Poetry discussion will focus on Heather McHugh, who teaches at the University of Washington-Seattle and has won many honors, including the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry. McHugh will appear June 22 at the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival at the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington. Clare Rossini, visiting assistant professor of English and director of the Inter-Arts program at Trinity College, will lead the discussion.
Also on Saturday, March 26, from 1 to 4 p.m., an Author’s Table program will present Newington author Steve Liskow, discussing his ninth novel, “Oh Lord, Won’t You Steal Me a Mercedes Benz” (CreateSpace, $15), about a stolen car, missing money and mob murder in Detroit. Liskow is the only Connecticut crime writer to become a finalist for the Edgar Award from Mystery Writers of America and the Shamus Award from Private Eye Writers of America.
Information: hplct.org and 860-695-6300.
Authors At R.J. Julia
Three authors will give free talks at R.J. Julia Booksellers, 768 Boston Post Road, Madison. The talks will begin at 7 p.m. Reservations are required: 203-245-3959 or rjjulia.com.
On Monday, March 21, Jane Mendelsohn will discuss her novel “Burning Down the House” (Knopf, $26.95), a family saga about two girls, one of whom tries to destroy a successful New York real estate dynasty and the other to save it. Mendelsohn is a best-selling novelist and author of three previous novels, including “I Was Amelia Earhart.”
On Wednesday, March 23, Ted Danforth, a historian and author, will discuss his nonfiction book, “The Eastern Question: A Geopolitical History in 108 Maps & Drawings” (Anekdot, $29.95). The book shows how today’s turmoil in the Middle East stems from centuries of geopolitical dynamics.
On Thursday, March 24, author, columnist, humorist, UConn professor of English and Friars Club member Gina Barreca will talk about her latest essay collection, “If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?: Questions and Thoughts for Loud, Smart Women in Turbulent Times” (St. Martin’s Press, $25.99). It is a humorous but serious look at women, men, friendships, paternalism and why bondage “now seems to come in fifty shades of grey and has been renamed Spanx.”
Metcalf In Tolland
Dawn Metcalf, a Connecticut author who writes young-adult novels, will speak about “Getting Published: A Helpful Guide to Navigating Traditional Book Publishing” on Tuesday, March 22, for the Tolland Public Library Foundation’s Eaton-Dimock-King Authors Series. Her talk for teens and adults will be held at 7 p.m. in Tolland Town Hall, 21 Tolland Green.
Metcalf’s books are “Luminous,” a young-adult paranormal fantasy, and “Indelible,” “Invisible,” and “Insidious,” a trilogy about “The Twixt,” a fantasy world.
Registration is required: 860-871-3620 or tolland.org/library.
Poet Martin Espada
Martin Espada, a poet and professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will give a free talk at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 23, in the Mount Carmel Auditorium in the Center for Communications and Engineering at Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel Ave., Hamden. Espada, who has won many awards, has been called “the Pablo Neruda of North American poets” and has published nearly 20 books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator and writes to support social justice and Latino rights. His new collection is “Vivas to Those Who Have Failed” (Norton, $25.95). Information: 203-582-8652.
On Thursday, March 24, Espada will read with Lauren Schmidt at the UConn Co-op, 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, at 5 p.m. Schmidt has been widely published in literary journals. Her third collection is “Psalms of the Dining Room” (Wipf & Stock Publishers, $12). Information: 860-486-8525 or coopbks@uconn.edu.
Smith Reading Series
Trinity College’s free Allan K. Smith Reading Series will continue Thursday, March 24, at 4:30 p.m. in the Reese Room, Smith House, 123 Vernon St., Trinity College, Hartford. Poet and journalist Tom Sleigh, whose books include “Station Zed” “Army Cats,” winner of the John Updike Award and “Space Walk,” winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award, will read. Sleigh works as a journalist in Africa and the Middle East.
Information: Christina.Bolio@trincoll.edu or ciaran.berry@trincoll.edu.
Wallace Stevens Poetry Program
The free 53rd annual Wallace Stevens Poetry Program celebration at UConn will take place Tuesday, March 22, with a 6 p.m. reception followed by a 7 p.m. poetry reading by National Book Award winner Carl Phillips, preceded by student winners of the Wallace Stevens Poetry Award. The event, presented by the UConn Department of English, will be held in the Konover Auditorium and lounge at the Dodd Research Center, 405 Babbidge Road, Storrs. Phillips is professor of English and of African and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, and teaches in the creative writing program.
Phillips, the prize-winning author of more than a dozen books of lyrical poetry, criticism and translation, also will read at 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 23, at the CREC Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, 15 Vernon St., Hartford.
Information: 347-475-9535 or penelope.pelizzon@uconn.edu or wallacestevens.uconn.edu.
White At Bank Square
Madison author Michael C. White, founder and director of Fairfield University’s low-residency MFA creative writing program, will discuss his seventh novel, “Resting Places” (Open Books Press, $16.95) on Tuesday, March 22, at 6 p.m. at Bank Square Books, 53 West Main St. Mystic.
His novel is about a mother whose son is killed in a car accident and goes looking for closure. Along the way she encounters many “roadside memorials” erected by grieving families and friends. In his talk, White will give a PowerPoint presentation about this phenomenon.
Information: 860-536-3795 or banksquarebooks.com.
Rogue’s Road To Retirement
Hall Memorial Library, 93 Main St., Ellington, will present a free program with George Rider, author of “The Rogue’s Road to Retirement: How I Got My Groove Back After Sixty-Five — And How You Can Too!” (Skyhorse Publishing, $16.95), He will speak on Tuesday, March 22, at 6:30 p.m.
Rider wrote his debut book at age 70, and he says it is for those who refuse to grow old gracefully.
Registration is required at library.ellington-ct.gov or 860-870-3160.
Forever YA
Lucy Robbins Welles Library, 95 Cedar St., Newington, will host a meeting of the Forever YA Book Club on Monday, March 21, at 6 p.m. The book to be discussed is “The Walls Around Us” by Nova Ren Suma. The club is open to fans of YA literature who are age 14 or older. Registration is required: 860-665-8705 or newingtonct.gov/library.
Local Author Festival
Applications from local authors are being accepted through April 1 to take part in the third annual Avon Library Local Author Festival in June and July. The event celebrates Connecticut and New England writers and includes a keynote talk on June 25 with Newington novelist Matthew Dicks and genre nights featuring local authors who write in various categories.
Authors who wish to be considered must take this survey: surveymonkey.com/r/Authors2016. Information: tpanik@avonctlibrary.info or clarsen@avonctlibrary.info.
McQuilkin In Simsbury
Connecticut and Simsbury Poet Laureate Rennie McQuilkin will read from his own and other poets’ works about rebirth at a free Spring Forth program at Simsbury Public Library, 725 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury, on Wednesday, March 23, at 7 p.m. McQuilkin also will discuss a monthly poetry workshop he will lead at the library, beginning in April. Registration: 860-658-7663, ext. 2200 or simsburylibrary.info.
Matthew Dicks in Canton
Author Matthew Dicks will give a free talk Tuesday, March 22, at 6:30 p.m. at Canton Public Library, 40 Dyer Ave., Canton.
Dicks, who lives in Newington and is an elementary school teacher in West Hartford, a Moth StorySLAM champion and co-founder of the Speak Up storytelling organization, will discuss his fourth novel, “The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs” (St. Martin’s, $24.99), about the unexpected effects of finally dealing with a longtime hurt. Information: 860-693-5800 or cantonpubliclibrary.org.
