Literature MARCH VB’s Literary Events Program

Additions and changes to this schedule will occur so check out VillageBooks.com to stay updated—or even better, let us come to you! Register for the Village Books eNewsletter!

2023

Pre-registration is required for Whatcom READS events. See whatcomreads.org.

Thursday, March 2

11am: Book Discussion with Jess Walter at the Deming Library - 5044 Mt. Baker Hwy

Join in a lively discussion of The Cold Millions with author Jess Walter.

7pm: The Chuckanut Radio Hour at the Hotel Leo - 1224 Cornwall Ave

Unless Otherwise noted, events take place at Village Books in Fairhaven. Registration to save your seat is required for most events. When the $5 fee applies, you will receive a voucher for that amount to use at the event!

Details at VILLAGEBOOKS.COM

Friday, March 10, 7pm

DANIELLA CHACE

–Home Detox: Make Your Home a Healthier Place for Everyone Who Lives There

From cleaning products to mattresses, furniture, food storage materials, and more, our homes are filled with hidden toxins that can contribute to chronic health conditions. Professional toxicologist and health writer Daniella Chace offers an enlightening and accessible room-by-room guide to identifying and removing potentially toxic items, along with suggestions for safe, affordable alternatives.

Sunday, March 12, 4pm

JANE DWINELL

–Alzheimer's Canyon: One Couple's Reflections on Living with Dementia

VillageBooks

The Chuckanut RADIOHOUR

Join us for an evening of music, comedy, poetry, and literature. Jess Walter will be interviewed by David Tucker, current Secretary of the WhatcomSkagit Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World. Village Books is proud to produce this event as part of the Whatcom READS author series. Tickets $5 at villagebooks.com.

Friday, March 3

11am: The Art and Craft of Writing at Village Books in Fairhaven

Gain insight into the writing process as Jess Walter shares his writing practice and tips to inspire your own writing.

7pm: An Evening with Jess Walter at the Mount Baker Theatre

Join us at the Mount Baker Theatre for our premiere event. Following his lecture, Jess Walter will answer audience questions and sign books. Free to attend.

Saturday, March 4

11am: A VIRTUAL Conversation with Jess Walter Paul Hanson, co-owner of Village Books and Paper Dreams, will interview Jess Walter for the final event in this year’s Whatcom READS series!

Note: event details are subject to change

“In the middle of the night I don’t know where I am…. Am I in my house? My neighbor’s house? Do I get dressed? I turn to Jane, hold her hand, and let her bring me back to reality.” What do you do when your reality slips away? If you’re Sky Yardley and Jane Dwinell, you accept each new challenge, reshape your life, and write. Welcome to Alzheimer’s Canyon: one way in, no way out.

Tuesday, March 14, 6pm

Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater Open Mic

This Open Mic is held at Village Books on the second Tuesday of the month from 6-8 PM Pacific time. Our CSWT emcee is Carla Shafer, who founded Bellingham’s first continuous Open Mic in Bellingham in 1991. The Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater is named after the local rock which looks hard at first, but breaks open easily and like all great writing has grit.

Thursday, March 16, 7pm

PAIGE TOWERS

–The Sound of Undoing: A Memoir in Essays

This new book deconstructs the way sound has overwhelmingly shaped the author’s life. Experimental in form and provocative in content, this lyrical book uses research on silence, nature and noise pollution, sound art, autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) and the acoustic environment in general. Paige Towers is a Bellingham-based creative and freelance writer who earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Emerson College.

Keep turning for more events

Friday, March 17, 6:30pm Kids Event! An Evening with MAC BARNETT and CHRISTIAN ROBINSON at Sehome High School –Twenty Questions

Village Books is thrilled to welcome two celebrated authors/illustrators in childrens’ literature! In Twenty Questions, award-winning creators Mac Barnett and Christian Robinson tap deep into childhood curiosity with a mind-tickling ode to the open-ended. In this spare yet expansive narrative, acclaimed author Mac Barnett poses twenty questions both playful and profound. Some make us giggle. Others challenge our assumptions. The result is a quirky, wandering exploration of where the best questions lead—to stories. Intriguing, richly interactive, and brought to vivid life by Caldecott Honor recipient Christian Robinson's bright and whimsical illustrations, Twenty Questions is a charming invitation to speculate without limits and know no bounds. Tickets $5 - available now

Nature of Writing Series

Sunday, March 19, 4pm

CHRISTOPHER PRESTON

–Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change the Way We Think about Animals

Join us in the Readings Gallery for an inspiring look at wildlife species that are defying the odds and teaching important lessons about how to share a planet.Tenacious Beasts is quintessential nature writing for the Anthropocene, touching on different facets of ecological restoration from Indigenous knowledge to rewilding practices. More important, perhaps, the book offers a road map—and a measure of hope—for a future in which humans and animals can once again coexist. Christopher Preston's essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Smithsonian, Aeon, and on the BBC website. He teaches environmental philosophy at the University of Montana and lives in Missoula, MT.

Wednesday, March 22, 7pm

CATHERINE HERNANDEZ –Scarborough

Village Books and WWU’s Center for Canadian-American Studies are pleased to host Catherine Hernandez, author of Scarborough, a contender for Canada Reads 2022! Scarborough is a low-income, culturally diverse neighborhood east of Toronto. Like many inner-city communities, it suffers under the weight of poverty, drugs, crime, and urban blight. Scarborough the novel employs a multitude of voices to tell the story of a tight-knit neighborhood under fire. A poignant multi-voiced novel about the troubled yet noble lives of urban warriors living in low-income neighborhoods.

This is one of three appearances that Catherine Hernandez will make in Bellingham. Head downtown to the Pickford on March 21 for a screening of the film adaptation of Scarborough, and then dine with Catherine Hernandez that same evening at Evolve Café’s Life Between the Pages literary dinner! (evolvefairhaven.com)

Literature

Monday, March 27, 6pm (new time!)

Open Mic with Seán Dwyer

Village Books invites everyone to enjoy local talents as they share their own stories, poems and essays. Published and unpublished writers are encouraged to attend and enjoy a welcoming audience. Our regular emcee and celebrated local author, Seán Dwyer, will host as he does every month.

Tuesday, March 28, 12pm

Hour of Mindfulness with Carolyn McCarthy

Curious about mindfulness? Led by Carolyn McCarthy, certified Mindfulness and Mindful Self-Compassion Instructor with Mindfulness Northwest, this one-hour interactive presentation will introduce you to the research behind mindfulness and how it can help us live more peaceful and fulfilled lives. You'll leave with a handout and a tool kit of simple practices to use at work and home.

Tuesday, March 28, 7pm

PRISCILLA LONG

–Dancing With the Muse in Old Age

We’re so pleased to welcome Priscilla Long back to the Readings Gallery for her newest book on writing. Dancing with the Muse in Old Age uses current science to present old age as a potentially happy, creative, and productive time. Numerous models-including many elders active in the arts-illustrate the possibilities. Priscilla Long is a Seattle-based writer of science, poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, and history, and a longtime independent teacher of writing. Take a writing class with Priscilla the same day - see page 31 for details.

Friday, March 31, 7pm

KIM TODD

–Sensational: The Hidden History of America's "Girl Stunt Reporters"

We’re closing out Women’s History

Month with a great event featuring some very important women in US history. n the waning years of the nineteenth century, women journalists across the United States risked reputation and their own safety to expose the hazardous conditions under which many Americans lived and worked. In various disguises, they stole into sewing factories to report on child labor, fainted in the streets to test public hospital treatment, posed as lobbyists to reveal corrupt politicians. Inventive writers whose in-depth narratives made headlines for weeks at a stretch, these “girl stunt reporters” changed laws, helped launch a labor movement, championed women’s rights, and redefined journalism for the modern age.

Unless otherwise noted, events take place in the Readings Gallery at VIllage Books in Fairhaven

Find details and registration Information for

all events at villagebooks.com

VILLAGEBOOKS.COM

Register for all virtual events and reserve your seat for in-person events through Fees may apply.

Note: Additions and changes to this schedule WILL occur so watch our website—or even better, let us come to you!

Receive

VB Email Updates

Every week, Village Books sends out an email newsletter packed full of store and book information including our upcoming Literature Live events. Twice each week, you'll receive the popular Shelf Awareness for Readers book reviews. Sign up in the store or at villagebooks.com today! VB READS

Book Groups

Village Books currently hosts multiple book groups. See page 72 or villagebooks.com for details.

All are welcome!

VB WRITES

Writing Groups

After a long hiatus, our writing groups are back in the store! See page 32 and villagebooks.com for details.

All are welcome!

Workshops & Classes

Village Books and WCC Community & Continuing Education program have created a writing instruction collaboration called Chuckanut Writers to support writers at all stages of their writing journey throughout the year. Turn to pages 31-32 for upcoming classes and go to whatcom.edu for more information and to register.

April

Celebrate National Poetry Month Enjoy Readings & 20% Off Poetry Books!

Sunday, April 2, 4pm Poetry

MAUREEN KANE

–The Phoenix Requires Ashes

We're kicking off Poetry Month with local poet Maureen Kane! The poems in this collection are an exploration of the human condition through the lens of a mental health therapist. They are about reclaiming and celebrating oneself and one's story in a time of turmoil. Maureen Kane is a mental health therapist in private practice. Her past work focused on literacy, health care access, aging, homeless youth, and disability. She is a winner of the 2022 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Award.

Tuesday, April 11, 7pm

The Chuckanut Radio Hour featuring SARAH HAWLEY at the Hotel Leo, Downtown Bellingham –A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon

Join us for a fun evening of comedy, poetry, music, and literature! Bellingham author Sarah Hawley’s new book is an “..utterly witchy sort of meet cute” that is garnering all kinds of buzz!

Mariel Spark is prophesied to be the most powerful witch seen in centuries of the famed Spark family, but to the displeasure of her mother, she prefers baking to brewing potions and gardening to casting hexes. When a spell to summon flour goes very wrong, Mariel finds herself staring down a demon—one she inadvertently summoned for a soul bargain. Sarah Hawley is an author of romance and fantasy novels. She co-hosts the Wicked Wallflowers Club podcast about romance fiction, which was featured on Entertainment Weekly.

Thursday, April 6, 7pm Fiction ANN PUTNAM –Cuban Quartermoon

The protagonist of this evocative and gripping novel journeys across a ravishing and perilous terrain—both dreamscape and landscape— from tourist Havana with its Havana Club, to an alley in Central Havana, with its mysterious Santeria drumbeat, and finally to the caves of Pinar del Rio, where she discovers her own family’s heart of darkness and the answers she seeks. Ann Putnam is an internationally-known Hemingway scholar, who has made more than six trips to Cuba as part of the Ernest Hemingway International Colloquium, sponsored by the Cuban Ministry of Culture.

Keep turning for more events

Nature of Writing Series

Friday, April 7, 7pm Poetry

ABIGAIL MORGAN PROUT

–Walk Deep

Walk Deep is inspired as much by the words of poets like Mary Oliver, Ada Limon, Pádraig Ó Tuama, and David Whyte as by the island songs of the Salish Sea in the PNW. The poems within arise from a deep love of the natural world and call attention to the power that a familiar outer landscape has — to be all at once, companion, mirror, compass, and divination tool for our inner landscape. Abigail Morgan Prout was a finalist for the 2020 Homebound Poetry Contest. She is an advocate for poetry as a medium of cultivating professional leadership. Abigail now lives with her family on Lopez Island where she was raised.

Nature of Writing Series

Saturday, April 8, 4pm

JASON KNIGHT

–The Essential Skills of Wilderness Survival: A Guide to Shelter, Water, Fire, Food, Navigation, and Survival Kits

The Essential Skills of Wilderness Survival shares a systematic approach to survival that will increase your confidence in the outdoors and teach you exactly what to do, and in what order, if you find yourself in an emergency. Discover key strategies of shelter, water, fire, food, and other life-saving skills. Jason Knight has been teaching wilderness survival skills since 1997. He is a cofounder and instructor at Alderleaf Wilderness College, one of the leading outdoor schools in the United States offering training in wilderness survival to a broad range of clients including the US Forest Service, the Seattle Mountaineers, and the cast of the award-winning film Captain Fantastic

Tuesday, April 11, 6pm

Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater Open Mic

Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater (CSWT) Open Mic is held at Village Books on the second Tuesday of the month from 6-8pm. Our CSWT emcee is Carla Shafer, who founded Bellingham’s first continuous Open Mic in Bellingham in 1991. The Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater is named after the local rock which looks hard at first, but breaks open easily and like all great writing has grit. Pre-registration required to read.

Thursday, April 13, 7pm

An Evening with

CARL BERGSTROM and JEVIN WEST

Truth, Trust, and the News at Whatcom Community College’s Heiner Auditorium

The Salish Current and the Munro Institute are pleased to welcome the co-authors of Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World, for a discussion on the importance of truth in the news. How do YOU decide what is true? With an avalanche of distortion coming from every direction, how can we sort out what is true and what is misleading, false or “fake news”? See page 48 for details.

Nature of Writing Series

Saturday, April 15, 4pm

FRANCES BACKHOUSE

–Grizzly Bears:

Guardians of the Wilderness

Fact-filled and richly illustrated, Grizzly Bears explores the biology and ecological importance of grizzlies and considers what it takes to share the land with them. Meet the bears and learn from Indigenous knowledge keepers, scientists, conservationists, and young people who are working to ensure grizzly bears will be with us forever. Frances Backhouse is a former biologist who once spent five months studying grizzly bears in the wild. She now makes her living as an environmental journalist and author. She lives in Victoria, BC.

Friday, April 21, 7pm

TODD WARGER

–Shipyard: Short Histories of Whatcom County’s Boatbuilders & Shipyards, with Remembrances from those Who Worked Them

For over 120 years, Whatcom County has been at the forefront of boatbuilding and ship construction. Its shipwrights, carpenters, and manufacturers have helped led the way and at times pioneered the industry itself. Warger will discuss the research and writing of Shipyard.

Todd Warger is an Emmy Award nominee for the documentary film The Mountain Runners and a recipient of the Washington State Historical Society’s 2008 David Douglas award for the documentary film Shipyard. Read more on page 45.

Saturday, April 22, 7pm Poetry

MARIE MARCHAND

–Gifts to the Attentive

The poems in Gifts to the Attentive traverse the domains of reverence, resilience, and reverie. While some poems move through despair into hope, others hover in the questions and stand as witnesses to life’s emerging dialectic. Marchand's work illuminates the transcendent within the ordinary. Marie Marchand has been writing poetry for 35 years to find healing for herself and the world. In April 2022, she became the first Poet Laureate of Ellensburg, WA.

Sunday, April 23, 4pm Poetry

DAYNA PATTERSON

–O Lady, Speak Again

The witchy, spell-soaked poems in Patterson’s collection explore female characters from Shakespeare’s plays—with a PostMormon feminist twist. If you’re not well-versed in Shakespeare or Mormonism, don’t worry—you will find these poems delight and enchant you with their own deep magic, their tremendous power, their singing. Prepare to be entranced. Dayna Patterson is a photographer, textile artist, and irreverent bardophile. She’s the author of Titania in Yellow and If Mother Braids a Waterfall. Honors include the Association for Mormon Letters Poetry Award and the 2019 #DignityNotDetention Poetry Prize judged by Ilya Kaminsky.

Monday, April 24, 6pm

Open Mic with Seán Dwyer

Village Books invites everyone to enjoy local talents as they share their own stories, poems and essays. Published and unpublished writers are encouraged to attend and enjoy a welcoming audience. Our regular emcee and celebrated local author, Seán Dwyer, will host as he does every month. Pre-registration required to read.

Tuesday, April 25, 5pm Fiction

DENNIS LEHANE in conversation with Gillian Flynn

–Small Mercies

A VIRTUAL EVENT

Join us on Zoom as we partner with independent bookstores across the nation for a riveting conversation with two bestselling authors in the suspense genre! Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city’s desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write. He is the author of 13 previous novels—including the New York Times bestsellers Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River; and Shutter Island —a collection of short stories and a play. Tickets include a signed copy of Signed Mercieswhile supplies last.

Wednesday, April 26, 6pm Poetry

Poetry Celebration with CAITLIN SCARANO, JANE WONG, and JESSICA GIGOT

–The Necessity of Wildfire

We’re closing out Poetry Month with a bang! Caitlin Scarano’s collection, The Necessity of Wildfire has won the Pacific Northwest Bookseller’s Association award for poetry and we’re celebrating in the Readings Gallery! She’ll be joined by two other local poets, Jane Wong and Jessica Gigot.

Caitlin Scarano holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. This, her second full length collection of poems, won the 2023 PNBA Award for Poetry and was selected by Ada Limón as the winner of the Wren Poetry Prize

Jane Wong is the author of two poetry collections: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything and Overpour. Her debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, is forthcoming in May 2023. She likes raccoons and is an Associate Professor at WWU.

Jessica Gigot is a poet, farmer, and coach. She lives on a little sheep farm in the Skagit Valley. Her second book of poems, Feeding Hour, won a Nautilus Award and was a finalist for the 2021 Washington State Book Award. Her memoir, A Little Bit of Land, was published in 2022.