Denver’s literary scene is full this week. For starters, April 23 is Book & Lovers Day, with celebrations at all Tattered Cover locations; April 27 is Independent Bookstore Day, with more celebrations at shops around town. In between, there will be stories of survival and women in the movies, some poems and pen-and-ink illustrations about an artistic life at a mile high, and social justice writing, too. Top all that vital and motivating literature with a masterful bestseller that’s pure and effective escapism? That’s one well-rounded week, my bookish friends, and one deserving of support.
Keele Burgin, Wholly Unraveled
Wednesday, April 24, 7 p.m.
BookBar
4280 Tennyson Street
Free
Boulder author Keele Burgin brings her riveting new memoir, Wholly Unraveled, to BookBar for a reading and signing. It’s the raw, intimate story of Burgin’s abuse at the hands of her own family, a boyfriend that family adored, and the cruel cycle of self-destruction in which she found herself thereafter — that is, until she found a place of healing, both in the physical world and within herself. In this era of #MeToo, it’s exactly the sort of message readers might need: Your voice matters.
Jill Tietjen and Barbara Bridges, Hollywood: Her Story
Thursday, April 25, 7:30 p.m.
Boulder Book Store
1107 Pearl Street, Boulder
$5
Inside Jill Tietjen and Barbara Bridges’s book Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies, readers will find over 1,200 female creative forces. Some are names everyone knows and loves — the movie legends. Others are lesser known: actresses, directors, stunt women, screenwriters, composers, animators, editors, producers and so on. Stunning photographs capture and document their influential and important work. Join Tietjen and Bridges as they bring this beautiful photo-treasury book to the Boulder Book Store for a discussion and signing. The $5 ticket is good for $5 off the purchase of this or any book the day of the event.
Charley Fasano, N.E. Every
Friday, April 26, 7 p.m.
Mutiny Information Cafe
2 South Broadway
Free
Charly Fasano brings his new illustrated book of poems N.E. Every to Mutiny Information Cafe for a launch party and reading. Fasano’s new book is about the old and new Denver, and the act of growing older while still obsessing with youth and commercialism. The night also includes readings by fellow Denver authors Hilary Leftwich (At the Inkwell), Brian Polk (Yellow Rake) and Jay Halsey.
David Baldacci, Redemption
Saturday, April 27, 2 p.m.
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
Free
Join Tattered Cover in welcoming best-selling author David Baldacci for the release of his newest book, Redemption (Memory Man Series #5), in which Detective Amos Decker discovers that a mistake he made as a rookie may have led to unintended — and seriously dangerous — consequences. The Washington Post calls Baldacci’s novels “a master class on the bestseller.” Find out why.
Jackie Wang, Carcerel Capitalism
Sunday, April 28, 7 p.m.
Counterpath Books
7935 East 14th Avenue
Free
Counterpath hosts a book talk on Jackie Wang’s Carceral Capitalism, a collection of contemporary essays on the continuum of incarceration, from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Following that will be a reading and performance by Wang (author of several punk zines and assistant professor of culture and media at the New School’s Eugene Lang College) and Andrea Brady, poet and professor of poetry at Queen Mary University of London. The event is free and open to the public…and it's not every day that you get both intellectual essays and poetry from the same seat. Best to take advantage of the opportunity.
Do you have an event you want included here? Send information to [email protected].