Sunday Salon: A Booksih Spring to Celebrate in Des Moines

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The Sunday Salon.comI love living in Des Moines, but one of the things I miss most about Atlanta is the literary community. I absolutely adore the bookternet and the connections with readers and writers I've made through this blog, Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy, but I do miss that in-person bookish community. Authors don't come to Des Moines on book tours (some go to Iowa City, home of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, but that's two hours away.) We do have an excellent public library, and they sponsor an annual series of events called AViD: Authors Visiting in Des Moines. There's usually one or two authors I'm interested in seeing, and it's wonderful. This week, the 2019 line-up was announced, and it's a great one. It's also the first year of the DSM Book Festival, which is really exciting. Without leaving Des Moines, these are the authors I plan to see this spring (in chronological order):


Nnedi Okorafor and Susan Orlean, Saturday March 30 
I reviewed The Library Book last week, and I'm excited to see her speak having already read it. I saw Okorafor speak at a library conference a few years ago, and she's an author I've been meaning to read ever since. I plan to get to at least one of her books before March 30th.

Laurie Frankel, Thursday, April 18
I've been meaning to read This Is How It Always Is since I first heard about it. It was also picked for the Hello Sunshine book club, so it's on my definite TBR list for 2019. Now I'll make time to read it before April.

Sarah Smarsh, Thursday, May 2
I bought Heartland from Audible and already planned to listen to it because it's about Kansas and was nominated for the National Book Award. I'm a sixth-generation Kansan with complicated feelings about the state, but I'm also drawn to the exploration of poverty, even without the Kansas connection.

Madeline Miller, Thursday, May 16
I read Song of Achilles when it was nominated for the Women's Prize (which it went on to win.) I've been meaning to read her new novel, Circe, and this event will give me a great deadline to do so. I also expect to see it longlisted for the Women's Prize (the longlist will be announced March 4.)

What a wonderful bookish spring it will be in Des Moines! If you want to see more, the full AViD lineup is here, and the DSM Book Festival website is here (full line-up to come.) If you're not in Des Moines, I do plan to post about each event I make it to. If you're in Des Moines and also plan to attend any of these, please say hi!

As an affiliate, I receive a small commission when you make a purchase through any of the above links. Thank you for helping to support my book habits that bring more content to this blog!

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