The Sleeping Giant Reading Series brings writers and book lovers together on the third Thursday of the month. In the long shadow of Hamden’s Sleeping Giant, writers of every kind gather to hear professional readings, raise a glass, network, and support one another’s work. All are welcome, whether you’re a scribbler who hasn’t yet dared to call yourself a “writer” or an experienced published author.
Curated by local writers Alice Mattison, Sandi Shelton (aka Maddie Dawson), Kathy Czepiel, and Heather Jessen, the Sleeping Giant Reading Series happens every third Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. at Best Video Film and Cultural Center in Hamden, Connecticut. The Sleeping Giant Reading Series is free to attend. Donations at the door for our guest readers are always appreciated.
For November’s Installment, we have writers Antoinette Brim-Bell and Leslie Connor.
“I just love lots and lots of language,” Antoinette Brim-Bell said in an interview by Sandy Carlson. This charismatic writer of rich, deeply felt poetry is Connecticut’s 8th State Poet Laureate and the author of three collections, most recently These Women You Gave Me. She’s also written critical essays about literature, and is a printmaker and collage artist. Antoinette is a Cave Canem Foundation Fellow and a past President of the Creative Arts Workshop Board of Directors in New Haven. A sought-after speaker, editor, educator, and consultant, she is a Professor of English at CT State Community College, Capital.
Leslie Connor has always been a daydreamer with a headful of stories waiting to be told. (It took her a while to figure that out.) She holds a BFA in visual art from the University of Connecticut and is happily surprised to be a writer. She’s the author of (mostly) middle grade novels for young readers. Her fans include plenty of septuagenarians and octogenarians, who find her books through their grandchildren.
She’s a two-time winner of the CT Book Award, a two-time winner of the ALA Schneider Family Book Award for her depictions of the disability experience, and a National Book Award finalist. Leslie’s titles include Waiting for Normal, All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook (an E.B White Read Aloud finalist), The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle, A Home for Goddesses and Dogs, and most recently, Anybody Her Seen Frenchie?. Leslie lives with her husband and three rescue dogs in a little house in the Connecticut woods.
