Elizabeth Strout is coming to Lancaster County! The award-winning author will appear at the 2018 Spring Author Luncheon on Thursday, April 19, 2018 at 12:00 noon at the Calvary Church, 1051 Landis Valley Rd, Lancaster, PA. The Council of Friends of Public Libraries, Aaron’s Books and the Library System of Lancaster County will host the luncheon, which is a fundraising event for public libraries in Lancaster County.
“Being able to host renowned authors such as Elizabeth Strout has been the highlight of our luncheons for the past 17 years. Strout will be no exception to the high-caliber writers that we seek for this special event.” says Mary Ann Heltshe-Steinhauer, public relations manager for the Library System and committee member on The Council of Friends.
About the Author
Elizabeth Strout was born in Portland, Maine, and grew up in small towns in Maine and New Hampshire. From a young age she was drawn to writing things down, keeping notebooks that recorded the quotidian details of her days. She was also drawn to books, and spent hours of her youth in the local library lingering among the stacks of fiction. During the summer months of her childhood she played outdoors, either with her brother, or, more often, alone, and this is where she developed her deep and abiding love of the physical world: the seaweed covered rocks along the coast of Maine, and the woods of New Hampshire with its hidden wildflowers.
During her adolescent years, Strout continued writing avidly, having conceived of herself as a writer from early on. She read biographies of writers, and was already studying – on her own – the way American writers, in particular, told their stories. Poetry was something she read and memorized; by the age of sixteen was sending out stories to magazines. Her first story was published when she was twenty-six.
Strout attended Bates College, graduating with a degree in English in 1977. Two years later, she went to Syracuse University College of Law, where she received a law degree along with a Certificate in Gerontology. She worked briefly for Legal Services, before moving to New York City, where she became an adjunct in the English Department of Borough of Manhattan Community College. By this time, she was publishing more stories in literary magazines and Redbook and Seventeen. Juggling the needs that came with raising a family and her teaching schedule, she found a few hours each day to work on her writing.
To learn more about Elizabeth Strout, visit her website: www.elizabethstrout.com
About Anything is Possible
Recalling Olive Kitteridge in its richness, structure, and complexity, Anything Is Possible explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others. Here are two sisters: One trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother’s happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton (the heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton, the author’s celebrated New York Times bestseller) returns to visit her siblings after seventeen years of absence.
Reverberating with the deep bonds of family, and the hope that comes with reconciliation, Anything Is Possible again underscores Elizabeth Strout’s place as one of America’s most respected and cherished authors. (Taken from Publisher)
About The Council of Friends
Established in 2000, the award-winning Council of Friends of Public Libraries is made up of volunteers who are avid readers and are committed to promoting reading countywide. The group has organized and hosted author events that have featured best-selling authors for the past 16 years. In 2010, they formed a partnership with Independent Bookstore Aaron’s Books in Lititz that brings authors to Lancaster County while they travel on their national book tours.
Tickets for the 2018 luncheon are on sale now. Cost is $50 per ticket, which includes luncheon, author presentation and a paperback copy of Elizabeth Strout’s latest book, Anything Is Possible.
Contact Cathy Doremus at 717-627-3772 or email at cdoremus@ptd.net to purchase tickets. Checks should be made payable to The Council of Friends. Please be sure to include a SASE (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope) with your ticket order!
For more information, including library hours, visit the Library System of Lancaster County’s website at www.lancasterlibraries.org to access system-wide events as well as your local library’s web page!
successful Philadelphia funeral home, they move to the city optimistic that they can now give their three daughters—Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa—a wonderful, carefree life. Just months later, however, the Spanish Flu descends, turning their lives and the world around them upside down. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst tragedy and challenges, Pauline and her daughters learn what they cannot live without—and what they are willing to do about it.
The Library System is pleased to announce that they have been awarded a Five Star Status by Library Journal. Each year the professional publication looks at national statistics from Annual Reports submitted by each state and then selects distinguished libraries and Library Systems. The Library System is the only system in Pennsylvania that received the 2017 award. Only one library, Corry Public Library in Erie County received a Five-Star rating. Three other public libraries in PA received Three-Star ratings: Baden Memorial Library (Beaver County); Chester County Library (Chester County); and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.