Literary calendar for week of July 23

Mary Ann Grossmann, Pioneer Press
·2 min read

BILL FLETCHER JR.: Racial justice, labor and international activist, scholar and author discusses race, class and the crime novel, based on his new novel “The Man Who Changed Colors,” about a Cape Cod newspaper reporter who questions a shipyard worker’s death, exploring the complicated relationships between Cape Verdean Americans (from the West Africa country of Cape Verde) and African-Americans, the liberation movement in Cape Verde, and fascists emigrating to the U.S. Fletcher has been involved in the labor movement for decades and is a widely known speaker and writer in print and on radio, television, and the web. He has been in leadership positions with many prominent union and labor organizations, including the AFL-CIO. His previous book is the murder mystery “The Man Who Fell From the Sky.” Free. 7 p.m. Monday, July 24, East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St., St. Paul. Registration for in-person or virtual attendance at eastsidefreedomlibrary.org/events.

MICHAEL KORYTA: Discusses “An Honest Man,” about two men and a boy whose lives intertwine after seven dead bodies are found on a yacht. Virtual event presented by Once Upon a Crime mystery bookstore in Minneapolis. 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 25. For the event link go to onceuponacrime.com/events.

JASON WILLIS: Signs copies of “Alchemist’s Stone.” 10-11:30 a.m. Friday, July 28, Lake Country Booksellers, 4766 Washington Square, White Bear Lake.

What else is going on

Connie Wanek and Ted Kooser won the prestigious CLIPPA Award for their book “Marshmallow Clouds: Two Poets at Play Among Figures of Speech.” Presented by the British-based Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, it is the only award presented for outstanding published poetry for children in the United Kingdom. “Marshmallow Clouds” (Candlewick Press), illustrated by Richard Jones, is made up of 30 poems framed by the four elements and explores figures of speech in ways that encourage imagination. Iowan Kooser is a former U.S. poet laureate and award-winning Wanek lives in Duluth.

Little Free Library, based in Minnesota, is partnering with National Education Association to grant 500 Little Free Library book-sharing boxes to educators around the country to help provide greater book access in their communities, especially where children’s reading ability has been hampered by book bans, including “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, and “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks” by Jeanne Theoharis.

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