Upcoming Events
We are committed to providing our loyal customers and passionate readers to an ongoing series of author talks throughout the year. Scroll down to see some of the terrific authors—including Heather Cox Richardson, Louise Penny, Elizabeth Strout, Ann Hood, and Martin Walker— we hosted in 2024.
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Keep Posted
Free Event
Sarah Perry
WHEN: Friday, February 7, 2025 at 6pm
WHERE: Left Bank Books
Please join us to welcome memoirist and essayist Sarah Perry, author of the just-released Sweet Nothings, a fun, sophisticated collection of micro-essays that catalogs the simple and not-so-simple pleasures of the eclectic world of candy. Organized by seventeen different candy colors, from the chewy reds of Twizzler, to the purple of the jelly bonbon in the Whitman’s Sampler, and the pink of Good & Plenty, each entry is a meditation on taste and texture, a memory unlocked.
Sarah is also the author of the powerful 2017 memoir After the Eclipse: A Mother’s Murder, a Daughter’s Search, which was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Poets & Writers Notable Nonfiction Debut. She teaches in the graduate program in Creative Writing at Colorado State University, and her writing has appeared in the Huffington Post, Elle, and The Guardian among other outlets.
Sarah is the recipient of numerous prestigious writing awards and fellowships and holds an MFA in nonfiction from Columbia University. Her essay “In Praise of the Gas Station Pie,” published in Cake Zine, was nominated for a 2024 M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award.
Free Event
Toussaint St. Negritude
WHEN: Wednesday, February 12 at 6:30pm
WHERE: Left Bank Books
Toussaint St. Negritude, former poet laureate of Belfast, Maine, and 2024 nominee for Poet Laureate of Vermont, will read from Mountain Spells, his recently published debut collection of poetry. The late U.S. Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks described Toussaint’s body of work as “full of sweet sounds and surprises.”
Through the inspiration of life, jazz, and nature, Mountain Spells is about the intrinsic clarity of emancipation, expressing all found intersections of what the author sees and experiences, and how this Black/queer/high-hat-wearing artist envisions the world through the lens of spirituality, the African diaspora, and nature as his home. Each poem, written in Vermont, expresses the whole cosmos of collective liberation.
“The book is a culmination of writing I’ve been doing for almost 40 years,” writes Toussaint. “It’s a book about liberation. It’s inspired by nature, by the surrounding mountains. It addresses everything from hope, to racism, to swimming in Lake Willoughby.”
Toussaint is also a bass clarinetist and leader of the band Jaguar Stereo!, a free-form ensemble of his own poetry and improvisational jazz. His works have been widely published and recorded. On an alpine sanctuary facing east, Toussaint continues to thrive in the farthest elevations of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
Free Event
Tess Gerritsen
WHEN: Thursday, March 20 at 6:30pm
WHERE: Left Bank Books
New York Times bestselling novelist Tess Gerritsen joins us to celebrate The Summer Guests, the just-released (March 18) second book in her espionage series set in midcoast Maine. Intrigue and spycraft combine in a classic Tess Gerritsen book—a well-plotted page-turner with endearing characters you’re compelled to cheer for.
The Summer Guests brings back retired CIA operative Maggie Bird and her colleagues in the Martini Club we met in The Spy Coast, the first book in this series. It also features local police chief Jo Thibodeau, with whom Maggie and her friends have an uneasy alliance.
Tess has said “Of all my projects, this series feels the most personal to write because the story reflects my own feelings about growing older. I’m far more aware that the world considers older people, especially women, invisible. My heroine, Maggie Bird, is still sharp and capable, and it’s fun to see how she uses that invisibility to her advantage.”
Tess has written more than thirty books that have been published in more than forty countries, and many have been bestsellers in the U.S. and abroad. Her series of police procedurals featuring Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the TNT hit television series Rizzoli and Isles.
Recently at LBB
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Elizabeth Strout and Lily King
Almost 300 people filled The First Church in Belfast to hear Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Strout discuss her latest book Tell Me Everything, in which she brings together three of her greatest characters: Bob Burgess, Lucy Barton, and Olive Kitteridge.
Fans learned that Olive came to Liz “fully formed” while she was unloading the dishwasher, and that she never starts a book at the beginning—instead, she writes, in longhand, “scene by scene with no idea where I’m going. If a scene has a heartbeat, it stays. If not, it ends up on the floor.”
In speaking about how much she loves Bob Burgess, the character we first met in The Burgess Boys (2013), Liz read the opening paragraph from Tell Me Everything:
“This is the story of Bob Burgess, a tall, heavyset man who lives in the town of Crosby, Maine. . . [who] has a big heart, but he does not know that about himself; like many of us, he does not know himself as well as he assumes to, and he would never believe he had anything worthy in his life to document. But he does; we all do.”
After a standing ovation, more than one-hundred people stood in line for Liz’s signature and to have their pictures taken with her. It was a stellar night, filled with laughter, admiration, and all things literary.
Recently at LBB
Monday, September 30, 2024
Martin Walker
An almost-full house was enthralled as Martin shared stories about the Perigord region in France where he and his wife, Julia, live and where he has set his wildly popular Bruno mystery series.
“The Perigord,” Martin said, “never fails to inspire me.” He spoke at length about thow the world-famous Lascaux caves, discovered in 1940, are especially moving for him. “The caves show us that the Perigord is home to ancient archaeological vestiges that extend back nearly 350,000 years.” Martin also spoke about how the caves show us their original inhabitants were “so sophisticated” and “share so many connections with us.”
Of course, he couldn’t talk about his beloved Perigord without telling us tempting stories about the delicious foods the region is known for. He loves crafting the food scenes but gives full credit for those to Julia, an award-winning internationally known food writer.
From caves to caviar, Bruno’s love life to Martin’s love of history, gardening and cooking, and above all, friends and laughter, the evening was an overwhelming delight.
Signed copies of A Grave in the Woods, the latest Bruno mystery, are available at the bookshop. (And we’re happy to ship!)
Recently at LBB
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Ronald C. White
A large crowd greeted New York Times bestselling historian and biographer Ron White to learn how he came to write the acclaimed biography, On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Ron, who has also written biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, explained how he wanted to write a “cradle-to-grave” biography of Chamberlain instead of “simply” focusing on the general’s accomplishments at Gettysburg.
On Great Fields has been widely hailed as the definitive biography of Chamberlain, Maine’s own history-altering Civil War hero. But as Ron explained, Chamberlain was also a stuttering young boy who came to be fluent in nine languages and a trained minister who found his way to the battlefield. From his youth in rural Maine to his tenacious, empathetic military leadership, presidency of Bowdoin College, and governorship of Maine, Ron eloquently traced the narrative arc of Chamberlain’s life.
Chamberlain is familiar to millions from Michael Shaara’s now-classic novel of the Civil War, The Killer Angels, and Ken Burns’s timeless miniseries “The Civil War,” but in this book, Ron captures the complex and inspiring man behind the hero. Following his talk, Ron took questions that further illuminated the work of a biographer and the incredibly rich life of Joshua Chamberlain.
Recently at LBB
Thursday, August 8, 2024
Ann Hood
What grand and glorious fun to spend an hour with Ann, a multi-talented writer, gifted speaker, funny, and smart-about-all-things literary woman. Ann’s warmth and genuine interest in her audience gave everyone in attendance a memorable evening.
Ann is a prolific writer whose work crosses multiple genres. She’s written sixteen novels, four memoirs, multiple novels for children and young adults, and has edited some ten anthologies. This event was to celebrate the recent release of her newest novel The Stolen Child, which artfully braids elements of historical fiction and mystery with travel and romance.
The novel takes place in several different places, including Paris, small-town France, Rome, Tuscany, and Naples. Ann captivated the audience when she read from her book about the origin of the Museum of Tears, the life’s work of a lonely Italian craftsman.
Tears—both happy and sad—were on hand throughout the evening as Ann talked about her high school guidance counselor (“No one can make a living as a writer”) and the sudden death, in 2002, of her five-year-old daughter. Throughout, a love of writing, telling stories, and sharing good and not-so-good times permeated this very special evening.
Recently at LBB
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Sam Sifton & A.O. (Tony) Scott
Sam and Tony, two long-time colleagues at The New York Times, held a conversation that informed, entertained, and captivated the 150 audience members lucky enough to be in attendance. By evening’s end, fans were asking the two critics to “please return” for an encore.
Their wide-ranging conversation covered topics as diverse as the role of critics in the media, writing on deadline, how they came to write for the Times, differences between cooking professionally and cooking for family and friends, their shared love affair with the state of Maine, and a hilarious discourse on zucchinis and “quotidian carrots.”
Sam is the assistant managing editor of The New York Times, responsible for culture and lifestyle coverage, and the founding editor of New York Times Cooking. For two years he was the paper’s restaurant critic and shared some behind-the-scenes stories about that experience. Sam has also written three cookbooks: See You on Sunday: A Cookbook for Family and Friends, The New York Times Cooking No-Recipe Recipes, and Thanksgiving: How to Cook it Well.
Tony was the long-time (2000-2023) film critic for The New York Times before joining the Book review where he now writes essays that explore the intersection of culture, history, technology, and myth. In 2010 Tony was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. He is the author of Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth.
Recently at LBB
Thursday, May 9, 2024
Monica Wood
From her opening remark—”Please excuse the way I look. I’m having a bad hair day”—Monica enchanted and delighted a rapt and enthusiastic audience.
Monica’s talk and book signing was part of a whirlwind series of weeklong events to celebrate her long-awaited new novel, How to Read a Book (published May 7), which has received widespread glowing reviews. The New York Times wrote “This novel is a reminder that goodness, and books, can still win in this world,” and People magazine, which chose it as one of the “Best Books to Read in May,” called How to Read ”An utter gem; funny, sweet and moving.”
We couldn’t agree more and predict that How to Read a Book will be one of our shop’s best sellers this year. The story of how three disparate and lonely people form an unlikely friendship inspires laughter, tears, and love. This is a book to read more than once, and to give as a gift again and again. It’s that good.
Recently at LBB
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Heather Cox Richardson
Applause rang throughout the First Church of Belfast when internationally acclaimed historian, educator, and author Heather Cox Richardson entered the room. For the next hour and 15 minutes, she informed, educated, enlightened, and captivated the minds and hearts of the 250 lucky audience members. (The free event reached capacity enrollment three hours after it was announced.)
In addition to her wildly popular books—Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America and How the South Won the Civil War, among others—Heather writes a daily Substack newsletter, Letters from an American, that has some one-and-a-half million subscribers.
Through her self-deprecating humor, vast knowledge base, and passion for the lessons history teaches us, Heather explained why, despite the current political climate, she has hope for the future. At the end of an extensive question-and-answer period, this brilliant, warm, and funny woman was given a prolonged standing ovation. Brava, Heather. Brava!
Wall of Fame
We are deeply grateful to the hundreds of authors — of local, national and international acclaim — who have taken time to visit our bookshop, meet our faithful customers, speak about their work, and sign their books.
Thank you!
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