Book It: The Five Best Literary Events This Week

It’s a big week if you’re a fan of the University of Colorado Denver’s faculty, as three members are involved in readings and discussions. And that’s not all — you can also hear local novelists and learn about ways that literature is helping to give voice to the silenced in both local and national politics and social issues. If you’re looking for a way to make a difference, you have a plethora of options. Literature can change the world. Here are five ways to help, writ both worldwide and personal.

Joanna Luloff, Remind Me Again What Happened
Tuesday, June 26, 7 p.m.
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
Free
Join the Tattered Cover in welcoming CU Denver assistant professor Joanna Luloff, who will discuss and sign her newest book, Remind Me Again What Happened. The novel is a finely wrought examination of characters wading through the transience of memory and time, and how their relationships shift and reconfigure day by day, moment by moment.

Laird Hunt, The Evening Road
Thursday, June 28, 6 p.m.
Boulder Book Store
1107 Pearl Street, Boulder
Free
The ZEE JLF Summer Book Club kicks off at the Boulder Book Store with author Laird Hunt discussing his book The Evening Road. Don’t miss the chance to discuss this novel, which focuses on “two women, two directions: one dark, extraordinary day,” not only with your fellow book aficionados, but with the author himself. Free to the public (but registration is required) as part of the lead-up to Boulder’s ZEE JLF, a celebration of world literature coming up in September.

Nick Arvin, Mad Boy
Thursday, June 28, 7 p.m.
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
Free
Acclaimed Denver author Nick Arvin (Articles of War, The Reconstructionist) comes back to the Tattered Cover to discuss and sign his newest novel, Mad Boy: An Account of Henry Phipps in the War of 1812. The picaresque historical novel examines issues of family, international politics and perseverance during America’s “Forgotten War" in a span of only 238 pages — what the Denver Post dubbed a "mini-epic." 

Catherine Wiley, Sheltered
Saturday, June 30, 5:30 p.m.
McNichols Civic Center Building
144 West Colfax Avenue
$10
Denver’s Athena Project presents an uplifting night of real-life stories and ideas about the circumstances that lead women and their families to experience homelessness. The multi-part event begins with a powerful personal account of homelessness from the Close to Home Storytellers Network, followed by a staged reading of CU Denver professor of English Catherine Wiley’s play Sheltered (directed by Kate Folkins), which gives voice to the complex stories of homeless women at a local temporary shelter. And the evening closes with a conversation led by CU Denver Sociology professor Dr. Esther Sullivan, discussing the issues of tenant eviction and homelessness. All proceeds from the event go to benefit the important work of both the Athena Project and Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.

Community Read-In
Saturday, June 30, 1 to 3 p.m.
BookBar
4280 Tennyson Street
Free
Join BookBar for this inventive and important event — perhaps the first in a long series — that seeks to let literature do its job in creating empathy, building community and diminishing the concept of “the other.” The first half of the event will be a silent reading period, as a form of peaceful protest; the second half will be a public reading from participants in which they share a quote or brief passage from their favorite culture-barrier-busting book. The event includes a 20 percent discount on featured “read-in” titles; an additional 20 percent of all proceeds will be donated to the ACLU. The power of the written word: Come out and let those words (and freedom) ring.

Have an event you think belongs here? Email information to [email protected].