Josiah Hesse
Glenn Ross
Forget all the patriotic plays on words; leave those to commercials about granite countertops and discount furniture. Instead, consider spending some of your free time on local literary pursuits. Take in a reading, hang out and talk about writing and publishing, or do some writing yourself. Here are your best bets for some independent creativity activity the week of July 4:
Booktropolis With Josiah Hesse
Tuesday, July 2, 7 p.m.
The Goods Restaurant
2550 East Colfax Avenue
Free
Booktropolis — which bills itself as “authors. community. conversation.” — lives up to its slogan with an in-depth conversation with Josiah Hesse, author of the Carnality series. The Tattered Cover teams up with the Goods restaurant, right next door, to host this evening with Hesse, who also runs the local Suspect Press. The talk will be stimulating, the appetizers delicious, the environment stylish — exactly the sort of literary night to which Denver aspires.
Steven Wingate, Of Fathers and Fire
Tuesday, July 2, 7:30 p.m.
Boulder Book Store
1107 Pearl Street, Boulder
$5
Steven Wingate might no longer live in Colorado, but he’s still a Colorado author. As evidence, look no further than Of Fathers and Fire, a coming-of-age story with a magical-realist twist, which is inspired by Wingate’s own upbringing in 1980s Colorado Springs. Wingate brings his new novel, which Robert Olen Butler called “deeply felt, subtly innovative, [and] utterly compelling,” to the Boulder Book Store for a reading and signing. The $5 tickets are good for a $5 credit on any purchase the day of the event.
Erica Hoffmeister, Lived in Bars
Daniel Klawitter, The Trickster
Saturday, July 6, 6 p.m.
BookBar
4280 Tennyson Street
Free
There’s something for everyone at BookBar’s First Saturday Poetry series, which features two talented and very different poets. Denver poets Erica Hoffmeister’s newest collection is Lived in Bars, an “exquisite road trip across America’s still-feral landscapes and people”; Daniel Klawitter’s collection The Trickster: Poems for Very Clever Children and Silly Adults is chockful of Shel Silverstein-style charming, thoughtful and funnybone-tickling poetry. The happy-hour mingling starts at 4:30 p.m., the readings at 5:30.
Writing Meet-Up…for Grownups
Sunday, July 7, 10:30 a.m. to noon
BookBar
4280 Tennyson Street
Free
By popular demand, BookBar and Denver Writes join up to provide a writing meet-up for adults. If you’ve been wanting to get back into writing, and if you also want to do it with the support of helpful and talented shared-goal peers, come to BookBar for a devoted time to just write, write, write every first and third Sunday. The bottomless mimosas and drip coffee will help. Seriously.
Marissa Orr, Lean Out
Monday, July 8, 7 p.m.
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
$28
More than a half-century since the passage of the Equal Pay Act, the gender wage gap is still around 80 percent; only 5 percent of CEOs in the Fortune 500 are women. Author Marissa Orr comes to the Tattered Cover to discuss and sign her new book, Lean Out: The Truth About Women, Power, and the Workplace. The book is based on both research and personal experience from Orr’s fifteen-year career working with the world’s top tech giants while being a single mom. What’s the systemic dysfunction at the heart of the female experience in the corporate world? Find out here. Tickets include a copy of the book and a spot in the autograph line.
Have a literary event you think should be included on this list? Send details to [email protected].
