Literature LIVE! EVENTS The Village Books 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!

June 2023

BOOK LAUNCH!

Saturday, June 3, 4pm

PETER VAN DER VEEN and MARJOLEIN VAN DER VEEN

–The Linguist’s Family

In 1916, Peter’s parents accepted a contract with the Dutch Bible Society and moved to Tana Toraja, in what was then called the Dutch East Indies. Dr. Hendrik van der Veen, a linguist specializing in Indonesian languages, and his wife Louise, a talented nurse, found there a warm, generous, and deeply spiritual people.

The van der Veen family was confined to internment in camps run by the Japanese military. Peter survived six camps, and work on the Tjitjalengka railroad, but the family suffered irreparable losses. Spanning 1916-1956, this story tells of Indigenous life, colonial conflict, internment by Japan in WWII, and the national revolution. Marjolein van der Veen, Peter’s daughter, joins him as researcher and co-author to tell this story of an atypical Dutch family who were supporters of Indonesian independence.

Sunday, June 4, 4pm

ALIX CHRISTIE in conversation with

Candace Wellman

–The Shining Mountains

Don’t miss this conversation between two talented authors as they discuss Alix Christie’s latest novel. The Shining Mountains is an epic true story of the American Northwest and the marriage of the fur trade and indigenous worlds, based on the author’s own family. Alix Christie is the direct descendant of Angus McDonald’s brother Duncan. She consulted extensively with her Nez Perce and Salish-Pend d’Oreille cousins to research their blended family history, receiving official support for the project from the cultural committees of both tribes. Candace Wellman is the author of two national award-winning books, Peace Weavers and Interwoven Lives. Her new biography, Man of Treacherous Charm, is about E.C. Fitzhugh, Sehome Coal Mine manager who was appointed to the territorial supreme and district courts in 1858 while under indictment for murder.

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

Tickets may be available at the door.

Details at VILLAGEBOOKS.COM

Saturday, June 10, 6pm

KATY ELLIS with Kami Westhoff

–Home Water, Home Land: A Prose Poem

Home Water, Home Land is a novel-length prose poem set in the Pacific Northwest, where the narrative crosses borders and waterways to Vancouver Island and explores the interior landscape and transitions a young woman must navigate to break from her family’s patriarchal belief system. Katy E. Ellis is the author of the novel-length prose poem Home Water, Home Land and three chapbooks, including Night Watch, winner of the 2017 Floating Bridge Press chapbook competition. Kami Westhoff is the author of the short story collection The Criteria, and poetry chapbooks Cloudbound, Sleepwalker, and Your Body a Bullet, co-written with Elizabeth Vignali.

Sunday, June 11, 4pm

Red Wheelbarrow

Writers Group Reading –Spring and All Anthology

The Red Wheelbarrow Writers are at it again and have published another gorgeous anthology inspired by the iconic 1923 poem by William Carlos Williams.

One hundred years later, the Red Wheelbarrow Writers’ Spring and All 2023 anthology takes up its challenge: “Profound change” lies at the heart of each piece. Some authors write with raffish humor, some with wry nostalgia, some with elegiac undercurrents. These authors display a dazzling array of poetry and prose: art seeking to articulate insight.

“At Red Wheelbarrow Writers, we believe that so much depends upon community. We are a loose affiliation of working writers who produce independently, and who join together to support, encourage, and sustain one another.”

Tuesday, June 13, 6pm

Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater Open Mic

Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater

(CSWT) Open Mic is held at Village Books in Fairhaven and on Zoom on the second Tuesday of the month from 6-8 pm. Our CSWT emcee is Carla Shafer, who founded Bellingham’s first continuous Open Mic in Bellingham in 1991. Pre-registration to read is encouraged a so whether you plan to read in person or on Zoom, please email Carla Shafer at chuckanutsandstone@gmail.com to secure your spot!

Congratulations, Graduates!

Keep turning for more events

Friday, June 16, 6pm

SKYE BURN

–Living High : An Unconventional Biography

Join us in the Readings Gallery to hear the amazing story of Skye Burn’s grandparents, June & Farrar. Living High is the remarkable story of June & Farrar, their trust in life and courage to be unconventional offer inspiration and a compass for today’s world. Skye Burn will read from the new edition of Living High and share previously unseen photographs, original recordings of Farrar’s songs, and an introduction to the June & Farrar Project. (Note: Skye will also present in Lynden on June 24!)

Sunday, June 19

Happy Father’s Day!

Celebrating all fathers and father-figures in our lives.

Tuesday, June 20, 6pm

JOHN VAILLANT

–Fire Weather :

A True Story from a Hotter World

Join us in the Readings Gallery for an evening with the bestselling author of the acclaimed, award-winning nonfiction books, The Tiger and The Golden Spruce!

Built around a blow-by-blow account of the 2016 wildfire that devastated the Canadian oil hub of Fort McMurray, and caused the largest single-day evacuation in the history of modern fire, Fire Weather traces the braided histories of petroleum, automobiles, wildfires, and climate science, mapping out the journey and drama that brought us into a new “century of fire,” in which hotter, more destructive blazes are impacting forests and human communities across the globe. John Vaillant has received the Governor General’s Literary Award, British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, and the Pearson Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. He has written for, among others, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and The Walrus. He lives in Vancouver.

Wednesday, June 21, 7pm

The Chuckanut Radio Hour featuring LYANDA LYNN HAUPT in the Crystal Ballroom of the Hotel Leo –Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit