A Workshop with Margaret Meehan, Writer-In-Residence 

The blank page can be scary, because we often don’t know how or where to start. Even the most seasoned writers panic at the dreaded blinking cursor—you’re not alone! Writing can feel like fumbling through a dark, unfamiliar room, but, good news, that’s part of the magic of great storytelling. 

In this workshop, we’ll embrace chaos and uncertainty. Through tips, prompts, and the wisdom and struggle of fellow writers (Kafka once wrote in his diary: “Again tried to write, virtually useless.”), you’ll learn how to fumble confidently, even joyfully, toward the light. We’ll also discuss practical steps for creating and sustaining a writing practice. Whether you’re embarking on a novel, memoir, short story, or journaling, you’ll walk away knowing EXACTLY what to do—no, just kidding! You’ll walk away accepting that no one, not even [insert your favorite genius author], knows exactly what to do, which, in turn, will free you of fear and free you to write.

Margaret Meehan is the 2023 Writing by Writers Writer-In-Residence at the Hemingway House. Meehan’s short stories have been published in Fence, Joyland, and Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading. She received her MFA in fiction from Columbia University, where she was awarded the Felipe P. De Alba Fellowship and taught in the undergraduate creative writing department. She won fifth prize in the 2020 Zoetrope: All Story Short Fiction Competition. In 2018, she was a Tin House Scholar.

More/register here.

Parenting is hard. Add in the complexities and uncertainties of the last couple of years and it can feel downright impossible. As a parent it is easy to feel unsure of how best to guide your children through their school experience, support their emotional wellness and know when it is time to seek additional support.

Join our panel of local experts as they share what to look for, what to do, and who to contact for those times when you or your child needs a little extra help. These local educators and mental health professionals can relate to the challenges you face as a parent and are ready to share tips and strategies to help you support your child through the sometimes rocky teenage years.

Panelists:

•    Ellie Newman – Parenting, divorce, teen and life coach, Ellie Newman Coaching
•    Jami Delgado – School Psychologist, Blaine County School District 
•    Naomi Runkel – Tutor & Educator, The Space
•    Ruby Garcia – Bilingual Community Outreach Coordinator, St. Luke’s 
•    Sara Shafer – Educator, Wood River Middle School
•    Tod Gunter – Social Worker, Hailey Elementary

In partnership with The Space. This program will be livestreamed and recorded for later viewing. Click here to register/watch online.

A live, in-person Spanish translation will also be available for this program. Este programa también contará con traducción al español en directo.

The Legacy Continues with Eduardo Chavez

As the grandson of both the legendary civil rights activist César Chávez and the Cuban revolutionary Max Lesnik, Eduardo Chavez is the scion of two revolutionary families. Eduardo’s political and activist background influenced his feature documentary, Hailing Cesar, released in April 2018. 

Since its debut, Eduardo has screened Hailing Cesar and spoken at 50+ universities in 3 different countries. In addition to being a director, speaker, and activist, Eduardo is the co-founder of Latindia Studios and a member of the Speakers’ Board for the Chavez Institute for Law and Social Justice. Eduardo is also the host of the podcast We Are Latinx. Launched this year, he interviews Latinx individuals about their work and how their culture shapes it. It is now streaming on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Eduardo will discuss his work with us as part of his second trip to the Wood River Valley. All are welcome to join. No registration required. This program will be in-person only.

Presented in partnership with the Hispanic Latin America Consortium and The Crisis Hotline.

…at the National Library of Israel with Dr. Stefan Litt 

The National Library of Israel has the honor of holding the third largest collection in the world of Franz Kafka’s original manuscripts, letters, and drawings; it represents a significant perspective of Kafka’s legacy. While Kafka did not foresee the sacred value of his work, his friend Max Brod, who was part of Kafka’s literary circle, did and he preserved Kafka’s material even when instructed not to do so. Dr. Stefan Litt, Humanities Curator of the National Library of Israel, will not only share highlights of the Kafka archives, but will tell the story behind the Kafka collection and how it ultimately came to the National Library of Israel. 

Stefan Litt received his PhD in Pre-Modern History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has researched and taught at the universities of Erfurt, Duesseldorf, Graz and Bar-Ilan in Israel, and has published on the history of early modern European Jewry and on Jewish archives and book culture. He was awarded the Rosl and Paul Arnsberg Prize for his research. Since 2010, he has worked as an archivist at the National Library of Israel, responsible for the foreign language holdings. In 2018, Dr. Litt assumed the position of Humanities Curator of the National Library of Israel.

In partnership with the Wood River Jewish Community. This program will be livestreamed and available to view later. Click here to register/get Vimeo link to view online.

Photo of Dr. Litt courtesy of NLI, photographer: Yorai Lieberman. Kafka collection images courtesy of National Library of Israel.

DNA Sleuthing with Barbara-Rae Venter 

For twelve years the Golden State Killer terrorized California, stalking victims and killing without remorse. Then he simply disappeared, for the next forty-four years, until an amateur DNA sleuth opened her laptop.

In I Know Who You Are: How An Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked The Golden State Killer And Changed Crime Fighting Forever, Barbara Rae-Venter reveals how she went from researching her family history as a retiree to hunting for a notorious serial killer—and how she became the nation’s leading authority on investigative genetic genealogy, the most dazzling new crime-fighting weapon to appear in decades.

Rae-Venter leads readers on a vivid journey through the many cases she tackled, often starting with little more than a DNA sample. From the first criminal case she ever solved to the search for the Golden State Killer, Rae-Venter shares haunting, often thrilling accounts of how she helped solve some of America’s most chilling cold cases in the span of just three years.

I Know Who You Are captures both the exhilaration of the moment of discovery and the sheer depth of emotion that lingers around cold cases, informing Rae-Venter’s careful approach to her work. It is a story of relentless curiosity, of constant invention and reinvention, and of human beings striving to answer the most elemental questions about themselves: What defines identity? Where do we belong? And are we truly who we think we are?

Barbara will be joined in conversation for this program with Steve Broback of Dent. Book signing to follow. In partnership with Dent.

More/register here.

This program will be livestreamed and available to view later. Click here for Vimeo link to watch online.

A Conversation with Peter Mann

Join us for a conversation with Peter Mann, Writer-In-Residence at the Hemingway House and author of The Torqued Man: a brilliant debut novel, at once teasing literary thriller and a darkly comic blend of history and invention, set in wartime Berlin and propelled by two very different but equally mesmerizing voices: a German spy handler and his Irish secret agent, neither of whom are quite what they seem. Named one of the Best Books of 2022 by The New Yorker. Mann will be in conversation with the Library’s executive director, Jenny Emery Davidson. A book signing will follow.

Berlin—September, 1945. Two manuscripts are found in rubble, each one narrating conflicting versions of the life of an Irish spy during the war. 

One of them is the journal of a German military intelligence officer and an anti-Nazi cowed into silence named Adrian de Groot, charting his relationship with his agent, friend, and sometimes lover, an Irishman named Frank Pike. In De Groot’s narrative, Pike is a charismatic IRA fighter sprung from prison in Spain to assist with the planned German invasion of Britain, but who never gets the chance to consummate his deal with the devil. 

Meanwhile, the other manuscript gives a very different account of the Irishman’s doings in the Reich. Assuming the alter ego of the Celtic hero Finn McCool, Pike appears here as the ultimate Allied saboteur. His mission: an assassination campaign of high-ranking Nazi doctors, culminating in the killing of Hitler’s personal physician.

The two manuscripts spiral around each other, leaving only the reader to know the full truth of Pike and De Groot’s relationship, their ultimate loyalties, and their efforts to resist the fascist reality in which they are caught.

The program will be livestreamed and available to view later. Find the link to watch online/view the Vimeo recording here.

Peter Mann has a PhD in modern European history and is a past recipient of the Whiting Fellowship. He teaches history and literature in Stanford’s Master of Liberal Arts program. He is also a graphic artist and cartoonist.

More/register here.