Description: Join the Indiana Center for the Book and the Rhode Island Center for the Book for “An Evening with Laird Hunt,” author of the 2021 National Book Award finalist, “Zorrie.” This title is being featured by both Indiana and Rhode Island at the 2022 National Book Festival. “Zorrie” tells the story of one Hoosier woman’s life convulsed and transformed by events of the 20th century, specifically the Great Depression. Set in Clinton County, Indiana, Zorrie is orphaned twice, first by her parents and then her aunt. She ekes out a living, eventually finding work in a radium processing plant in Illinois. However, when Indiana calls her home, she returns and works to build a new life, yet again. Laird Hunt’s novel is a poignant study in rural Midwestern life and an exploration of the passage of time through individuals and communities. Join us to learn more about the author and this fascinating novel.
Date Recorded: 8/2/22
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Speaker: Laird Hunt is the author of eight novels, including the 2021 National Book Award finalist “Zorrie.” He is the winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction, the Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine, the Bridge Prize and a finalist for both the Pen/Faulkner and the Prix Femina Étranger. His reviews and essays have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Beast, the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Los Angeles Times, and his fiction and translations have appeared in many literary journals in the United States and abroad. A former United Nations press officer who was largely raised in rural Indiana, he now lives in Providence, Rhode Island where he teaches in Brown University’s Literary Arts Program.
Resources:
The Indiana Center for the Book at the Indiana State Library and the Arkansas Center for the Book at the Arkansas State Library partnered to present a program featuring Nate Powell on the theme “The Graphic Arts and the Reading Experience.” This program focuses on the use of comics/graphical arts to communicate as a mass medium as well as how a graphic writer envisions, creates and curates the reading experience. Teen as well as adult librarians will enjoy hearing from Nate.
The National Book Festival is sponsored by the Library of Congress annually. This year, the events are online and you and your library can join in the festivities. Learn more about this fun opportunity from Suzanne Walker, Indiana Center for the Book and Megan Telligman, Indiana Humanities. The National Book Festival will feature hundreds of author talks, including authors from Indiana, as well as other programs all available remotely. Learn more about how to participate, what’s available, and program ideas for your library in this fun and informative webinar. A tool-kit on how to participate in the National Book Festival will be unveiled. The National Book Festival happens September 17 – September 26. You don’t want to miss it!
“Resilience,” while an over-used term, is a very important scientific concept. Far from being rare, it is common for families to display resilience when faced with adversity. Nonetheless, threats to resilience, trauma among them, are also common. This webinar will review the scientific definitions of resilience and family resilience, and consider factors that may threaten or promote resilience. A new program created at Purdue to support family resilience during the pandemic will be introduced.
GenCon is the largest tabletop-game convention in North America that occurs annually in Indianapolis, Indiana and is contracted to continue happening in Indiana at least through 2023. This webinar will be presented by someone who has attended the convention in a multitude of hats; as a spectator, as a game-player, as a librarian taking advantage of the opportunities of Trade Day and as an event presenter. The webinar will cover a variety of basic information for attending and participating in the convention, whether you consider yourself a gamer or just a curious librarian.
The Heroic Adventure Kids Club (Or HAK Club, for short) is an RPG club of elementary and jr. high aged students that are sponsored by the local library. The H.A.K. Club began in January 2017, formed by 4 students from the Hagerstown Elementary School and a librarian at the Hagerstown Public Library acting as sponsor. The students wanted to learn to play role playing games and there was interest in using it as a play test idea for the community outreach coordinator of the school who was interested in the benefits of elementary students playing role playing games and how it might be used towards social skills & behavior improvement. The club has grown, expanded to two “level” age groups of participants. The group has been written about in newspapers and has been part of three summer reading programs and been featured on the list of “Great Things Happening in Indiana Libraries” by the Indiana Library Federation (ILF). We want to share the origin, the challenges that were faced and the secrets to our success as this group has continued for over three years. We’ll cover what has worked, what hasn’t worked, a few things libraries should always keep in mind & what the plans are for the future.