Literary Calendar: Jeffrey Archer kicks off Twin Cities Book Festival
JEFFREY ARCHER: British international bestselling author of fiction, non-fiction and short stories presents the virtual kickoff of the Twin Cities Book Festival, interviewed by Minnesota mystery writer/critic Carl Brookins in a special publication day event for Archer’s new thriller “Next in Line.” Set in 1988 when Britain was falling in love with Princes Diana, Det. Chief Inspector William Warwick of London’s Metropolitan Police Force knows that the security of the Royal family is vital, and one weak link can be disastrous. Now, a renegade organization is threatening the Royals. Archer, a member of the House of Lords, worked with the late princess as a member of parliament and charity work volunteer. 3 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27. Registration required. Go to: crowdcast.io/e/jeffrey-archer/register.
JAMIE FORD: Discusses his novel “The Many Daughters of Afon Moy,” about generational trauma in a family of women that began when their ancestor was the first Chinese woman to set her bound feet on American soil. In-person. 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, Washington County Library, 8595 Central Place, Woodbury, presented by Club Book. Go to: clubbook.org.
JACLYNN HERRON: Signs copies of her debut “Rewriting Marguerite.” 10-11:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 30, Lake Country Booksellers, 4766 Washington Square, White Bear Lake.
STEVEN HYDEN: Launches “Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation.” 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 26, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.
WILL MCGRATH AND FRIENDS: Present “Farewell Transmission: Notes from Hidden Spaces,” with Curtis Sittenfeld and Ali Sultan. This essay collection crosses the world, from Yemen to the Bronx and beyond. One is about Cliff Jones, a Black man in New York City who was exonerated after 30 years of wrongful imprisonment. The author worked on the piece with Jones for several years. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, Sisyphus Brewing, 712 Ontario Ave. W., Mpls., presented by Magers & Quinn.
JOHN OWENS: A wordless picture book can convey much through detailed illustrations. John Owens does it right in “One Winter Up North,” a journey through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in winter. Owens, a freelance illustrator who teaches at the University of Minnesota, is the author of “One Summer Up North,” also inspired by his travels to the Boundary Waters. His illustrations, in cool grays, pale blues and white, show a couple having coffee on an icy lake while their child plays in the snow. An image of a lake bordered by snowy trees evokes silence. and in a two-page spread snow falls on a big lake, with yellow light coming from a tiny, cozy cabin. Owens will launch his book (University of Minnesota Press), at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, at the Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul. Register at: redballoonbookshop.com/.
PENG SHEPHERD: Virtual talk about her award-winning novels, “The Cartographers,” “The Book of M” and “The Future Library.” 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 26, presented by Club Book. Go to: clubbook.org.
MICHAEL STANLEY: The writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip present “Deadly Covenant,” eighth in their police procedural series featuring David “Kubu” Bengu who eventually becomes a detective in the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department. In this second prequel, the large man whose nickname means hippo is a lowly policeman sent on what seems like a boring assignment to a village where old bones of a group of Bushmen is found. Soon, he ahd his boss are tangled in a web of village secrets, prejudice against a Bushman who wants to go home to his ancestors, and a water rights dispute. Trollip will be in person at the store; Sears will appear virtually from South Africa. 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls. This is the store’s first hybrid program, in-person and on-line. Register at: crowcdast.io/e/michael-stanley-deadly/register.
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON
Rain Taxi Review will release Minneapolis-based writer/musician Dessa’s “Tits on the Moon,” at the Oct. 15 Twin Cities Book Festival at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. This is the latest in Rain Taxi’s chapbook series, published by Rain Taxi in association with Doomtree, the hip hop collective and record label of which Dessa is a founding member. This is a special ticketed festival finale at 5 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center. Attendees can pick up a $5 ticket at the Rain Taxi booth in the Progress Center between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. the day of the festival. Dessa is the author of “My Own Devices,” a memoir about her life as a touring musician that made NPR’s Best Books of 2018. Rain Taxi also published her poetry chapbook “A Pound of Steam.”
Winner of Minneapolis-based Graywolf Press’ nonfiction prize is Jung Hae Chae for “Pojangmacha People,” which explores the idea of matrilineal inheritance of “han,” in the Korean diaspora. It centers on the lives of “ordinary” Korean women-mothers of postwar diasporic households who take action as the makers of their own fortunes. She explores her own childhood in South Korea in the 1970s, and takes readers through her journey to the United States. “I have been excavating the root song of my ancestors, the come-what-must-ghosts that I was, am, or will become,” she told her publisher. The Graywolf Nonfiction Prize honors and encourages the art of literary nonfiction and is given to an outstanding manuscript by an emerging author who has published no more than two previous books of nonfiction.
Sue Roegge took to Facebook to remind patrons of Chapter2Books in Hudson, Wis., that the store is still for sale and is not closing. Roegge, who owns the business with her husband Brian, says “we are stocked in every area.”
