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 are always appreciated.
The Authors for our October installment are Reginald Dwayne Betts and Rachel Pastan.
Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, lawyer, and the Founder & CEO of Freedom Reads, an initiative to radically transform access to literature by opening libraries in prisons. The author of a memoir and five collections of poetry, Dwayne's latest poetry book is Doggerel. Dwayne transformed his 2019 collection of poetry, the American Book Award Winning Felon, into a solo theater show that explores the post incarceration experience and lingering consequences of a criminal record through poetry, stories, and engaging with the timeless and transcendental art of papermaking. A National Magazine Award recipient in the Essays and Criticism category, Dwayne has been a MacArthur Fellow and has been awarded fellowships from Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, the National Endowment of the Arts, Emerson Collective, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Dwayne holds a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Rachel Pastan “writes with the energy of a sociologist and the soul of a poet,” Christina Baker Kline said about Rachel’s new novel, We Are So Lucky to Live Here, in which a bereaved daughter moves with some friends into her childhood home, where she stages The Cherry Orchard and tries to figure out how they can live there. Rachel’s four earlier novels include In the Field, which won the Science + Literature award from the National Book Foundation. She has taught widely; now she’s literary director of Celia Bookshop in Swarthmore, PA.