New England Authors Featured at York Public Library’s Writers Night
An award-winning novelist and memoirist, a short-story writer, and one of her students will be on hand at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 16, as the York Public Library presents another in its popular writers series.
Suzanne Strempek Shea is the winner of the 2000 New England Book Award, which recognizes the contribution to the region of a literary body of work. The author of five novels and three memoirs, she will read from her new memoir, Sundays in America. When Pope John Paul II died, Strempek Shea, who had turned away from the Catholic Church of her childhood, recognized in his mourners a faith-filled passion she wanted to recapture. She set out on a yearlong journey to visit a different church every Sunday to experience the broad spectrum of contemporary Christianity in this country. Her book begins with a rousing Baptist Easter service in Harlem and goes on to include a sing-along at the Cowboy Church in Colorado, a multimedia experience at the largest church in the United States, a service at a hot tub dealership turned Presbyterian church after Hurricane Katrina, and many more. Sundays in America describes the vibrant tapestry of Christianity in America and is both a guide for those seeking a new house of worship and a colorful road trip for the armchair explorer.
Dianne Benedict’s stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly and in numerous literary magazines and anthologies. John Updike chose one of her stories for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories. She has won grants from state arts councils and from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as The Iowa Short Fiction Award judged by Raymond Carver. Benedict lives in Prout’s Neck, Maine, and has taught creative writing at the University of Southern Maine since 1985.
Also appearing is Benjamin Rybeck, one of Dianne Benedict’s students at the University of Southern Maine, where he is managing editor of the literary journal Words and Images. His story “The Papermaker” recently appeared in Guernica.
Please join these authors as they read from their work. Following their presentations will be an opportunity for purchase and signing of Strempek Shea’s book, as well as a discussion of the state of Christian worship in America.
Admission is free, and refreshments will be served. The York Public Library is located at 15 Long Sands Road in York. For more information, call 207-363-2818 or visit www.york.lib.me.us.
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