Literary Calendar: Three Book and Poetry Events in Metro Denver May 18-24

Even before Denver Comic Con hits town, this week you you can pick up a comic collection that tells early American history’s real stories, or grab a solid work of fiction from an author who’s made a living reading the novels of the greats. Or you can just sit back...

By Susan Froyd

May 18, 2015

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Even before Denver Comic Con hits town, this week you you can pick up a comic collection that tells early American history’s real stories, or grab a solid work of fiction from an author who’s made a living reading the novels of the greats. Or you can just sit back and enjoy a set of from one of Denver’s slam-poetry legends. Here are the details.

Jason Rodriguez, Colonial Comics: New England 1620-1750

Boulder Book Store
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 20
$5 voucher required for entry

Tattered Cover Aspen Grove
7 p.m. Thursday, May 21
Free

The idea of comic books with historical themes isn’t a new one, but in the age of sophisticated graphic novels, they’ve been made over as classroom tools with a fresh look. Golden-based Fulcrum Publishing’s Colonial Comics, edited by Jason Rodriguez and the first in a series, explores the stories of real people — free thinkers, Pequots, Jewish settlers, female business owners and more. Rodriguez introduces the book with help from contributor Virginia Anderson May 20 at the Boulder Book Store and alone at the Tattered Cover on May 21, in preparation for Denver Comic Con.

Heidi Pitlor, The Daylight Marriage

Tattered Cover Colfax Avenue
7 p.m. Wednesday, May 20
Free

Boulder Book Store
7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 21
$5 voucher required for entry

BookBar
7 p.m. Friday, May 22
Free

Heidi Pitlor has already made a name for herself in the book world as an editor for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, working with such celebrated authors as Geraldine Brooks, Salman Rushdie, Richard Russo, Alice Sebold, and others. But she’s also a published novelist herself, who will be making the rounds on the Front Range to sign her newest book, The Daylight Marriage, the story of a marriage that erodes and finally evaporates when the wife disappears. Pitlor will be joined by Lighthouse Writers Workshop instructor and fellow novelist Erika Krouse (Contenders) May 20 at the Tattered Cover Colfax, before moving on solo readings at the Boulder Book Store and BookBar.

Denver Mercury Slam featuring Ken Arkind
Mercury Cafe
7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Sunday, May 24
Free

Denver poet Ken Arkind mentors and cheerleads for young poets locally without drawing attention to his own accomplishments: A national slam-poetry champion who’s traveled the nation and the world as a performer, as well as founding director of the youth-slam organization Denver Minor Disturbance, a co-founder of SlamNuba! and a member of six Mercury Cafe slam teams, he’s the author of Denver (Fast Geek Press, 2013) and Coyotes (Penmanship Books, 2014) and the current poetry editor for Suspect Press — among other things. So it will be a treat for the eyes and ears when Arkind stands in as the featured poet at the May 24 Denver Mercury Slam.

What's on the next page in Denver's literary world? Visit Westword's Literary Event listings for this week.

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

Contact: Susan Froyd

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