Literary Calendar: Three Book Events in Denver August 10-14

Some of the best books tell true stories of hardship overcome: Bob Yehling's Just Add Water follows the incredible career of Clay Marzo, a world-class surfer who just happens to have Asperger's syndrome; while Megan Feldman Bettencourt's Triumph of the Heart: Forgiveness in an Unforgiving World, shows how a man's forgiveness of the boy who killed his son inspired the author to seek stories of forgiveness from all over the world. And Denver native Bobby LeFebre, who's overcome plenty to become a leading literary light in this town, offers a taste of La Habana's spoken word.


Bob Yehling: Just Add Water
Tattered Cover LoDo
Monday, August 10, 7 p.m.
Bob Yehling grew up in San Diego with a love of surfing and went on to become a career biographer, so when he got offered access to autistic world-champion surfer Clay Marzo, plus Marzo's whole family, he jumped at the chance. It paid off: The family held nothing back, and the project turned into one of the hardest — and most rewarding — of the Denver-based author's forty-year career. He's joined tonight at the Tattered Cover by Jesse Ogas of Firefly Autism, a Denver autism school, who will open with a discussion of the challenges of living within the autism spectrum. Yehling will read and sign copies of the book.

Megan Feldman Bettencourt: Triumph of the Heart: Forgiveness in an Unforgiving World
Tattered Cover Colfax
Wednesday, August 12, 7 p.m.
On January 22, 1995, police called to tell Azim Khamisa that his twenty-year-old son had been shot and killed. That kind of news would devastate anyone — and devastate Khamisa it did — but it also led him to a remarkable conclusion: "There were victims at both ends of that gun." Bettencourt reported on that story many years after the fact, when Khamisa had become known for the talks he'd been giving with Ples Felix, the grandfather of the boy who killed his son, and it was his story that inspired Denver-based journalist Megan Feldman Bettencourt to write Triumph of the Heart: Forgiveness in an Unforgiving World, an exploration of forgiveness culled from research and interviews with people all over the world.  It's been excerpted in Psychology Today, and it hits shelves with a reading and signing Wednesday night. 


Spoken Word Poetas en La Habana, Cuba
URBN Media
2400 Curtis Street
Friday, August 14, 7 p.m.
It's been over ten years since Cafe Cultura debuted as an open mic night; since then, local spoken-word pillar Bobby LeFebre has seen it grow into a nonprofit and full-fledged Denver phenomenon — and the National Poetry Slam finalist just keeps going.  Lately, LeFebre has been into Cuba, literally and figuratively: He's been connecting with poets and spoken-word artists in Havana and traveled there earlier this summer as an exploration of how to connect poetic cultures in Cuba and the U.S. Friday's presentation, which features a discussion of upcoming cross-border projects and a sneak-preview of a documentary in the works, is the story of what he found.

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