Traverse City News and Events

National Writers Series Announces Fall Lineup

By Beth Milligan | July 22, 2019

The National Writers Series has announced its fall 2019 lineup of authors - an event calendar that kicks off with two summer reading events and leads into an autumn roster featuring such guests as Susan Orlean, Mitch Albom, and Karl Marlantes.

The complete lineup of events and guests is included below. Tickets for all events go on sale to Friends of NWS on Monday, July 22, and to the general public on July 29. For more information, including on tickets, click here.

August 11, 2019
Karl Marlantes - Deep River
New York Times bestselling author Karl Marlantes, who appeared at NMW in 2010 to talk about his Vietnam novel Matterhorn, will return to discuss his new novel Deep River, a family saga chronicling Finnish immigrants to the Pacific Northwest. Inspired by his own family history—including his communist activist grandmother—the story follows three siblings who flee Russian aggressors and poverty in Finland and settle in Washington, where loggers are harvesting the old-growth forest. Using vivid historical detail, Marlantes illuminates what it means to be a logger, an immigrant, a woman and a labor activist in a young America. Guest host Benjamin Busch will conduct the stage interview.

August 29, 2019
Tanya Anne Crosby - Everyday Lies
Third Annual Summer Book Club Social Featuring Snacks, Prizes, And Cash Bar
A Free Event in Partnership with Horizon Books and the Traverse Area District Library
Veteran novelist Tanya Anne Crosby has penned over thirty books in eight languages, from women’s lit and historical romance to fantasy and suspense. Throughout the years, her untamable heroines have been led by passion, self-discovery, and determination. Her latest book, Everyday Lies, traces the life of Gillian Frazer, whose life is in a rut. Desponded over a failed marriage and a stagnant job, Gillian all too often nurses her wounds with alcohol. When she gets the call that her beloved grandmother has suffered a stroke, she goes home to help. Gillian re-discovers her past, her grandma’s true history, and all that she’s taken for granted. Guest Host Rose Hollander will conduct the stage interview.

September 5, 2019
David Maraniss - A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father
Is it possible to be a good communist, a good father, and a good American? Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss has written books about some of recent history’s most important figures, including Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and New Gingrich. Now he has turned his attention to the life of his own father, Elliott Maraniss—a newspaperman, a World War II veteran who commanded an all-black company, and an accused communist informant during the McCarthy era. Called to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he paid a high price for his beliefs within a supposedly free society when he was fired and blacklisted for five years. Guest Host John Bacon will conduct the stage interview.

October 6, 2019
Aarti Shahani - Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares
Born in India, NPR correspondent Aarti Shahani's new heartfelt memoir explores her family’s immigration story—her father’s unjust imprisonment and her enrollment in one of the country's most exclusive prep schools. Shahani writes thoughtfully about how American culture glorifies the “deserving” while demonizing the “undeserving" - in her family's case, relentlessly. After her dad opens a shop in New York City and unknowingly sells watches and calculators to a notorious drug cartel, he is given bad legal advice to plead guilty. With the arrival of their green cards, her family thought they had it made. This is the story of how they did, and didn’t.

October 9, 2019
Randall Sullivan - The Curse of Oak Island: The Story of the World’s Longest Treasure Hunt
Author Randall Sullivan will take the Opera House stage to talk about the mystery of the curse of Oak Island, along with Marty Lagina, who created and stars on the History Channel’s television reality show. Sullivan’s new book charts Marty and Rick Lagina’s exploration of this strangely fascinating island and their attempts to find its hidden treasures. Sullivan also writes about treasure hunters throughout the centuries who have driven themselves to financial ruin, psychotic breakdowns, and even death.

October 16, 2019
Susan Orlean - The Library Book
In partnership with Friends of the Traverse City Area District Library and Interlochen Public Radio
On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As moments passed, the patrons and staff cleared out of the building, realizing that this was not the usual fire alarm. As one firefighter recounted, “Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.’” Weaving her lifelong love of books into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times best-selling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that tells the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. Guest Host Anne Strainchamps will conduct the stage interview.

November 17, 2019
Mitch Albom - Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family
New York Times best-selling author Mitch Albom returns to nonfiction to celebrate Chika, a Haitian orphan whose short life forever changed his heart. Chika Jeune was born three days before the earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. When her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to the Have Faith Haiti Orphanage operated by Albom in Port Au Prince. As a self-assured three-year-old, Chika delighted the other kids and teachers. But at age five, she became critically ill. Mitch and his wife, Janine, brought Chika home to Detroit for medical help, but were unable to save her from an inoperable brain tumor. Yet Chika taught them that a relationship built on love, no matter what blows it takes, can never be lost. Told in hindsight, this is Albom at his most poignant and vulnerable. Guest Host Nick Edson will conduct the stage interview.

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