Literary calendar for week of July 31

WHAT’S GOING ON

Talking Volumes fall reading series will host Karen Armstrong, Celeste Ng, Dani Shapiro and Ross Gay at the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul. Armstrong discusses her new book, “Sacred Nature: Restoring Our Ancient Bond with the Natural World” Sept. 14; Ng introduces her her third novel, “Our Missing Hearts” on Oct. 26; Shapiro reads from her novel “Signal Fires,” Oct. 28, and Gay discusses his new essay collection “Inciting Joy” Nov. 2. Tickets at $30 for the general public are available at mprevents.org. The series is presented by Minnesota Public Radio and the Star Tribune.

University of Minnesota Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature awarded the 2022 Kerlan Award to Andrea Davis Pinkney for exceptional attainments in the creation of children’s literature and contributions and support of the Kerlan Collection. Pinkney is the award-winning author of more than 50 books for children and young adults and has won multiple awards, including the American Library Association’s Coretta Scott King award, She is a four-time NAACP Image Award nominee and she and her work are the subject of the Emmy-nominated short film “Andrea Davis Pinkney: National Author Engagement.” Vice president and editor-at-large for Scholastic Trade Books, she has had an illustrious career as a children’s book publisher and editor, including as founder of the first African American children’s book imprint at Jump at the Sun, a major publishing company. The award presentation will be Oct. 11 at the University of Minnesota Andersen Library. The event will be live-streamed as part of the Rain Taxi Twin Cities Book Festival.

Ojibwe author David Treuer, who grew up on the Leech Lake Reservation, published his debut novel, “Little,” in 1995 when he was just 24 years old. Now considered among the foremost writers of his generation, Treuer began the book, now back in print after 27 years, in a class he took with Toni Morrison. The novel (which Morrison called “a wonder”), was Fiona McCrae’s first acquisition when she took the helm of Minneapolis-based Graywolf Press, from which she retired last month. In a new introduction to his novel of life in the reservation town of Poverty, Treuer writes: “I began this book around the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s initial landing in the New World. The question of Indian durability, of our insistence on not just survival but life itself, as my response and that is something that has carried through all my work.” Among his books is the bestseller “The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee,” a finalist for the National Book Award.

Sara Nintzel and Dana Jacobs sign copies of their children’s book “Dasher” from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, Aug. 5, at Lake Country Booksellers, 4766 Washington Square, White Bear Lake.

Related Articles

• Books | Readers & Writers: What makes fiction work and a brave K-9

• Books | Readers & Writers: Needlework in Hmong culture, baseball memoirs and books for kids

• Books | Literary Pick of the Week: ‘The Bourne Sacrifice’

• Books | Literary calendar for the week of July 24

• Books | ‘Everybody Just Breathe’: A St. Paul nurse’s pandemic memoir