Announcing Our Spring Line-Up: Save the Dates! What I’m Up To: Happy new year! We are just about to enter the deepest, darkest part of winter—or, as I like to call it, reading season. As things slow down this time of year, the world seems to give us permission to get quiet, stay in, and cozy up with a good book. I find I read more in January than I do pretty much any other time of year. You know that Scandinavian saying, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing,”? My version would be something like, “no bad weather, only bad books.” As you prep your own TBR piles and select your book-club reads for the upcoming months, here are two I highly recommend: Jung Yun’s fantastic novel O, Beautiful and Lawrence Weschler’s mind-blowing book of essays, Everything that Rises. Shore Lit is hosting both of these incredible authors in partnership with the Academy Museum of Art this season and we hope to see many of you there! Also, please save the date for Saturday, April 22—Earth Day. We are working on a very special eco-poetry event, presented in collaboration with The Shore Poetry journal and Talbot County Free Library, featuring several fantastic poets. More details to come on that soon! For now, keep scrolling for more info on our spring events at AAM.  Jung Yun, O Beautiful 6:00 Thursday February 9 @ Academy Art Museum Free Jung Yun was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. Her first novel, Shelter (2017, Picador), was a Finalist for the 2016 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Good Reads Best Fiction Book of the Year, the Boston Authors Club's Julia Ward Howe Award, and long-listed for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. Her most recent novel, O Beautiful (2021, St. Martin’s Press), interrogates the North Dakota oil boom through the lens of Elinor Hanson, a half-Korean, half-caucasian journalist who returns home to write about changes in the Bakken. The book is a New York Times editor’s choice selection and one of the San Francisco Chronicle’s “15 Best Books of 2021.” Yun will be in conversation with Shore Lit Founder Kerry Folan.  Lawrence Weschler, Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences 6:00 Friday March 3 @ Academy Art Museum Free From a cuneiform tablet to a Chicago prison, from the depths of the cosmos to the text on our T-shirts, art historian and journalist Lawrence Weschler finds strange connections wherever he looks. Weschler, a staff writer at the New Yorker from 1981-2002, combines his keen insights into art, his years of experience as a chronicler of the fall of Communism, and his triumphs and failures as the father of a teenage girl into a freewheeling lecture based on his award-winning book Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences. This event is part of AAM’s Kittredge-Wilson lecture series, made possible by the generous support of Paul Wilson, and presented in partnership with Shore Lit.  What Else I’m Reading: At least once each winter, usually on a day when it’s particularly horrible outside, I make a fire, pour a bourbon, and indulge in reading a book in a single sitting. It’s a totally luxurious winter indulgence. The trick is to pick a book that is a) utterly compelling from start to finish and b) short enough to complete in an afternoon—which, for me, usually means a narrative-driven novel under 200 pages. Last year was John Banville’s Snow, which was perfect on all levels. From my TBR pile, here are this year’s contenders: Foster, Claire Keegan (92 pages)—A new novel from an Irish writer critics are comparing to Chekov (!) Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf (108 pages)—Haven’t read it since high school and am inspired by the new opera to revisit Train Dreams, Denis Johnson (116 pages)—Never read it, but it was an absolute bible for the fiction writers in my MFA program Time Is a Mother, Ocean Vuong (113 pages)—Poetry, not fiction, but a buzzed-about book from last year that’s been on my coffee table for months Madder: A Memoir in Weeds, Marco Wilkinson (183 pages)—Also not fiction, but I was so impressed with Wilkinson’s Fall for the Book author talk I’m willing to make an exception Who Will Run the Frog Hospital, Lorrie Moore (148 pages)—A classic and a birthday gift from a friend, also been on my coffee table for months Kick the Latch, Kathryn Scanlan (129 pages)—Based on Leslie Jamison’s review in the New Yorker, this lyric, hybrid fiction-nonfiction book is right up my alley  What Else I’m Looking Forward To on the Shore this Month: White Noise @ Cinema Arts Theater, Lewes 2:00 Wednesday, January 4 $11.50 General Admission Bad news is I could only find one theater on the entire Shore screening Noah Baumbach’s highly anticipated adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel. Good news is it’s also available on Netflix as of this month. Mary Cassatt: Labor and Leisure Opening Reception @ Academy Art Museum, Easton 5:30 Friday, January 20 Free Some major loans give weight to this exhibition featuring everyone’s favorite American Impressionist. Enjoy drinks and snacks at the opening reception. Josh Christina Band @ Academy Art Museum, Easton 7:00 Saturday, January 21 $20 WHCP, Cambridge’s public radio station, will soon be expanding to serve the entire Mid-Shore. Hear more about that preceding a high-energy performance by young rockabilly star Josh Christina. Kameelah Janan Rasheed @ Washington College’s Kohl Gallery, Chestertown 5:30 Monday, January 30 Free A 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, the multi-media artist kicks off the opening of her Smooooooooooooooth Operator exhibition and winter residency with an artist talk and reception. Support Shore Lit’s Programs: One of our core values is building inclusive community. For that reason, Shore Lit events are always free. To keep them that way, we are grateful to newsletter subscribers like you who help fund our programs. If you have the means and you value our mission of bringing literary authors to the Eastern Shore, please consider a $25 gift to support the Fall 2022 program. If you have more or less to offer, we are grateful for your generosity; no gift is too big or too small. If you aren’t in a position to offer monetary support, you remain a crucial part of this community, and we thank all of you for your consideration. Shore Lit aims to enhance cultural offerings on the Eastern Shore with free community author events. This newsletter is written by Shore Lit Founder and Director Kerry Folan.
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