The annual Hemingway Distinguished Lecture is presented each year, honoring the month of Ernest Hemingway’s birth and death. The event celebrates the power of words and the creative spirit in a landscape that Hemingway loved.

This year, The Community Library welcomes LUIS ALBERTO URREA: hailed by NPR as a “literary badass” and a “master storyteller with a rock and roll heart,” Urrea is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph.  

A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Urrea is the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 17 books, including “Good Night, Irene” (2023), “The House of Broken Angels” (2018), “Into the Beautiful North” (2009), “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” (2005), and “The Devil’s Highway” (2004).

Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, Urrea is most recognized as a border writer, though he says, “I am more interested in bridges, not borders.”

Urrea attended the University of California at San Diego, earning an undergraduate degree in writing, and did his graduate studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder.  After serving as a relief worker in Tijuana and a film extra and columnist-editor-cartoonist for several publications, Urrea moved to Boston where he taught expository writing and fiction workshops at Harvard. He also taught at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. 

The lecture will be presented outdoors on the Library’s Donaldson Robb Family Lawn.

More/register here.

Literature, lectures, art, discussions, food, and fellowship

Each year, the Ernest Hemingway Seminar focuses on a particular text or theme and its literary and historical context.

---

This year’s Ernest Hemingway Seminar will be held September 7-9, 2023.

Our theme is FATHERS & SONS, and we will focus on six short stories: “Indian Camp,” “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife,” “My Old Man,” “Ten Indians,” “Fathers and Sons,” and “An African Story.”

Speakers will include Dr. Verna Kale, Assistant Research Professor in English at the Pennsylvania State University and Associate Editor of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, Dr. Marc Seals, Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Baraboo, and Boise State University presenters Dr. Stacey Guill and Dr. Clyde Moneyhun.

The seminar opens Thursday, September 7, at 5:00 p.m. with a reception and our opening keynote at 6:00 p.m., then runs all day Friday and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with a closing reception on Saturday from 4:30-6:00 p.m. A full schedule of events will be announced in July.

Tickets to attend in person are $95. Space is limited.

Tickets to attend in a fully virtual format via Vimeo and Zoom are $30.

More/register here.

Exploring Our World

Looking for a fun way to read more during the summer? Join The Community Library for its Adult Summer Reading Program!

The Community Library, Hailey Public Library, and Bellevue Public Library are collaborating to host the 2023 Valley-wide Adult Summer Reading program. The theme, Exploring Our World, aims to expand and inspire your experience of the extraordinary and diverse world in which we live.

The program runs from Saturday, May 26 to Tuesday, September 5. In-person and on-line registration opens Saturday, May 25, 2023.

“Summer in the Northern Rockies invites each of us to enjoy the mountain lifestyle in our own way,” says Circulation Manager Pam Parker. “This year’s Adult Summer Reads theme of “Exploring Our World” leaves a lot of room for creativity—whether it’s a visit to an Idaho park or a novel set in a far-away place, the activities to encourage a journey of discovery for participants.

“I always look forward to hearing about our readers’ explorations when they drop into the library to get more summer reads and get their passports stamped.”

After registering, participants will receive a passport, which is available in either English or Spanish. For each book read or activity completed, readers will get a page in their passport stamped at their ‘home’ library and receive one ticket per page to enter drawings for great prizes—including gift certificacts to the Gold Mine Thrift store. In addition, two participants will be selected from each library to enjoy a casual dinner at the historic Ernest and Mary Hemingway House on Monday, September 18, 2023.

Participants must be 18+ and will need a library card with The Community Library — visit Get a Library Card to get started. Children and Teens should register in the Children and Teen programs.

Drawing: Prize winners will be drawn randomly on September 6, 2023 and will be notified by telephone.

REGISTER HERE

with Todd Schwarz

In the late 1970s, Todd Schwarz made his first excursions into the Pioneer Range just east of Sun Valley. He climbed a number of peaks including Hyndman, Cobb, and Old Hyndman in short order, then noticed a notation on the USGS topo map he’d been studying: Pioneer Cabin. Knowing nothing about it and expecting a collapsed, hardscrabble structure, he made his first trek up the Corral Creek Trail to the cabin and fell hard for the view as well as Pioneer Cabin’s character. Over the next nearly 50 years, he’s returned again and again and learned more about the origins and history of the place. In the course of his exploration, he’s created a photographic record including early photos from the very first guided trip to the cabin in the winter of 1938 (courtesy of The Community Library).

Todd will share his own experiences while including a geographic overview of the cabin’s namesake Pioneer Range, a bit of Sun Valley history around the Alpine Touring operation, seasonal route information, and attempt to explain the allure of a place that has compelled him to return dozens of times over several decades.

This program will be livestreamed and available to view later.

Todd Schwarz splits time between Hailey and Twin Falls and serves as the Provost of the College of Southern Idaho where he’s worked for nearly 35 years. A frequent visitor to the Pioneer Range and habitual peakbagger, he’s accumulated a large photographic record of his longtime outdoor journey and loves sharing it while encouraging others to create their own story.

Image credit: F 06271, Dorice Taylor Collection, Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History.

More/register/get livestream link here.

Writers & Readers on Hemingway’s Art with Writer-In-Residence Jennifer Haigh 

Join us for an in-person and virtual event with Jennifer Haigh, Writer-In-Residence at the Hemingway House, and contributor to the new book One True Sentence: Writers and Readers on Hemingway’s Art.

Jennifer joins us in person, and we’ll connect virtually with writer and fellow contributor Andre Dubus III and editor Mark Cirino, who will be in person at Porter Square Books in Boston.

A streaming link for those wishing to join virtually will be available soon. Registration is required to attend in person at The Community Library.

Presented in partnership with Porter Square Books, Godine (publisher of One True Sentence), and Grub Street Creative Writing Center in Boston.

More/register here.

 

Are you a memoir writer? An aspiring memoir writer? Have you participated in a one-time class or workshop, but now you’re looking for ongoing support and peer writers to continue your momentum? 

The Wood River Valley Writers’ Roost is a lightly structured group, focused on memoir, where writers convene to share their writing, have an opportunity to read aloud to a group, and receive feedback. The group is a self regulating entity open to all community members and meets the 4th Wednesday of each month.

Meeting in the Library’s Idaho Room. No registration needed. Attendees can also join virtually through Microsoft Teams (no download needed – Teams will run in any browser).

More here.