Launching Pascal Hall’s Free Summer Author Series with Laura Miller, July 27
ROCKPORT — Pascal Hall, in partnership with the Authors Guild Foundation and Maine Media Workshops + College, is launching a free summer author series featuring live in-depth discussions with award-winning writers.
The series kicks off at Pascal Hall on Wednesday, July 27 at 5 p.m. with novelist Lauren Groff in conversation with Slateis Laura Miller. It will continue on Tuesday, August 2, at 5 p.m., with American historian Ted Widmer in conversation with biographer Patricia O’Toole. At each event, the public will have the opportunity to ask questions. A reception and autograph session follow each event at 6 p.m. The events are free, but the number of places is limited, so it is necessary to register to attend. https://app.donorview.com/g8lbY
“We thought it would be great to host a Summer Author Series here in Rockport for locals and visitors interested in learning about some of today’s top novelists and non-fiction authors. “said Linda Lesher, owner of Pascal Hall and Barnswallow Books, in a press release.
The Lesher family is dedicated to giving authors a platform for their work. Their Barn Talk events at Barnswallow Books have featured books on everything from hiking to baseball stadiums, local artists and photographers to the 10th edition of Dr. Spock’s Baby & Child Care. Through this new partnership with Maine Media Workshops + College and the Authors Guild Foundation, the family looks forward to continuing the tradition at Pascal Hall.
Lauren Groff is the author of six fiction books, the most recent being the novel, Matrix (September 2021). Her work has won the Story Prize, the ABA Indies’ Choice Award and the Grand Prix de l’Héroïne de France. She has been a three-time finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, twice for the Kirkus Prize, and shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Prize, Southern Book Prize, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and was named one of Grantais the best of young American novelists. His work has been translated into over 30 languages. A resident of Gainesville, Florida, Groff serves on the Board of the Authors Guild.
Laura Miller, book and culture columnist at Slate, and co-founder of Salon.com, will guide the conversation. Miller’s work has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’sthe Guardianthe Los Angeles Timesthe the wall street journal and many other publications, including the New York Times book reviewwhere she wrote the Last Word column for two years.
Ted Wimer, a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow and author of Lincoln on the Edge: Thirteen Days in Washington. Widmer is a historian, writer, librarian, and musician who previously served as President Clinton’s speechwriter. First director of the CV Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College, he established the George Washington Book Prize, an annual award given to the best book on the Founding Fathers. In 2006, he served as director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, where he led efforts to digitize library holdings and raised funds to save Haitian libraries in the wake of the earthquake. earth of 2010. Widmer later served as senior adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and spent five years helping to create “Disunion”, a digital history of the Civil War produced by the New York Times. Currently, Widmer is director of the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and professor of humanities at CUNY Macaulay Honors College in New York.
Patricia O’Toole is the author of two biographies, When the trumpets soundabout Theodore Roosevelt, and The five of heartsexamining the life of Henry Adams. The Five of Hearts was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A former professor at the School of the Arts at Columbia University, she is a member of the Society of American Historians and a member of the Presidential Historical Commission of the New York Historical Society.
For more information contact Lynn Boulger at 207-669-2566 or lboulger@authorsguildfoundation.org
About Maine Media
Founded in 1973 as a summer school for photographers, Maine Media Workshops + College is a nonprofit institution offering certificate programs, workshops, and masterclasses in photography, film, media arts, printmaking, book arts and creative writing. Maine Media Workshops + College welcomes domestic and international students from its 20-acre campus in Rockport, Maine. Maine Media’s Writers Harbor is an innovative branch of the workshop, designed to inspire and teach motivated writers to learn more about the craft of writing. The Writers Harbor seeks to create a community of writers who are dedicated to developing their own work in the genres of poetry, non-fiction, fiction and screenwriting.
About the Authors Guild and the Authors Guild Foundation
With more than 12,000 members, the Authors Guild is the nation’s oldest and largest professional organization for published writers. He advocates on behalf of working writers to protect free speech, freedom of expression and the copyrights of authors; fights for fair contracts and the ability of authors to earn a living wage; and provides a welcoming community for writers and translators of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and journalism. Through its educational and charitable arm, the Authors Guild Foundation, it also provides free programming to teach working writers about the craft of writing, as well as hosting public events that highlight the importance of writing. a rich and diverse American literary culture and the authors who contribute to it. to that.
About Pascal Hall
The owners of Pascal Hall are committed to creating intellectually stimulating and inclusive cultural events. Book lovers, they also own the Barnswallow bookstore, which is a stone’s throw from the Halle. Once a church, then an art gallery, the historic building has brought the community together for decades. The new owner plans to continue this tradition.
