Aminatta Forna BABEL Program

Bringing the world’s greatest writers to Buffalo

2021 2022

Aminatta Forna was born in Scotland, raised in Sierra Leone and Great Britain and spent periods of her childhood in Iran, Thailand and Zambia.

She is the award-winning author of the four novels Happiness, The Hired Man, The Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones, as well as the critically acclaimed memoir, The Devil that Danced on the Water. Her most recent book, The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion, is a stunning new collection of essays crossing both literal and philosophical, our relationship with the natural world, and the stories that we tell ourselves.

The recipient of a Windham Campbell Prize, her fiction has won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award and the PEN Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and has been short-listed for the Neustadt Prize, the Orange Prize for Fiction, the IMPAC Award, the Warwick Prize and nominated for the European Prize for Fiction.

Currently, Forna is Director and Lannan Foundation Chair of Poetics at Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Barbara Cole is the Artistic & Associate Executive Director of Just Buffalo Literary Center.

A 2011 fellow in Poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), Cole received her M.A. in Creative Writing from Temple University in Philadelphia and Ph.D. in English with a specializa­tion in Poetics from the University at Buffalo.

Learn more about everyone at Just Buffalo at: justbuffalo.org

JUST BUFFALO LITERARY CENTER PRESENTS

FEATURING

Aminatta Forna THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14 | 2021 | 8pm WELCOME Laurie Dean Torrell, Executive Director

INTRODUCTION Barbara Cole, Artistic & Associate Executive Director

LECTURE Aminatta Forna

AUDIENCE Q&A with AMINATTA FORNA Moderated by Barbara Cole

BOOK SIGNING

BABEL PRESENTING SPONSORS

Erie County Cultural Funding

WITH MAJOR SUPPORT FROM

Allan & Melissa Baumgart Mark Chason & Mariana Botero Chason Robert J. & Martha B. Fierle Foundation Library Foundation of Buffalo & Erie County Elsie P. & Lucius B. McCowan Private Charitable Foundation Julian R. & Varue W. Oishei Foundation Corinne & Victor Rice

SPONSOR ORGANIZATIONS

OFFICIAL BOOKSELLER OF BABEL

Playlist curated by Govindan Kartha Flowers by Maureen

The Literary Leadership Circle is a distinguished group of supporters who have made a commitment of $5,000 or more over 3 years to support Just Buffalo Literary Center’s work.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO: Paul A. Battaglia Allan & Melissa Baumgart Dianne Bennett & William Graebner Sandra Block, M.D. & Patrick Long Mark Chason & Mariana Botero Chason Adele & George DeTitta Jean Doerr & Robert Kaplan Dr. Susan A. Mann Dolce and in loving memory of Frank Dolce Mary E. Farallo Geri Grossman in loving memory of Jimmie Gilliam Thomas & Sharon Hewner Lynda G. Kaszubski John N. Lipsitz & Maria Scrivani Kevin & Janet O’Leary Elizabeth Pascal in memory & honor of Martha Cember The Read-Colder Family in memory of M. Margaret Read Corinne & Victor Rice Robert & Susan Stephenson Anne & Dave Taylor Timothy Vukelic & Shelby Deck James M. Wadsworth, Esq.

2021 2022

READING GROUP:

CHANG-RAE LEE’S MY YEAR ABROAD FACILITATED BY JEEHYUN LIM

Jeehyun Lim is an Associate Professor of English at the University at Buffalo. Her book, Bilingual Brokers: Race, Literature, and Language as Human Capital (2017), explores bilingual personhood in Asian American and Latinx literature. Her current research is on the Korean War in US cultural memory through literary and visual representations of the war.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2021 7:00-8:30 PM (VIRTUAL) / $10

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We’re more than just books.

Buffalo & Erie County Public

LIBRARY eBooks, databases, music, makerspaces, programs & more!

www.BuffaloLib.org • 716-858-8900

VILLA MARIA COLLEGE Villa Maria College has 20+ academics programs, a 9:1 student to faculty ratio, and studio-based classrooms that will give you the personal attention you need to succeed.

Study Creative Writing, Filmmaking, Business, and more in our inclusive and support environment focussed on your success.

Apply at APPLY.VILLA.EDU or call/text 716.462.5037 to learn more.

YOUTH WORKSHOPS Oct 12

ANGLES OF IDENTITY IN POETRY Marcus Jackson

Oct 26

EXPLORING VISUAL STORIES Ariel Aberg-Riger

Nov 9

ROBOTIC POEMS Lillian-Yvonne Bertram

Nov 30

REFRIGERATOR NOTES & TROLL THREADS Joe Hall

Dec 14

TRANSLATION AS WILDNESS Laura Marris

+ OFFICE HOURS + OPEN MIC + YOUTH-LED WORKSHOPS

Fall 2021

VISIT JUSTBUFFALO.ORG FOR MORE INFO AND REGISTRATION

ADULT WORKSHOPS Fall 2021

TAROT WRITING Sherry Robbins

Saturdays, October 9, 16, 23 1:00-3:00pm $125

A Fool’s Journey from innocence through experience to insight, using the idea of fortune and oracle to see through your writer’s blocks. No knowledge of tarot required—just curiosity and a spirit of exploration. We will cover a brief history and cosmology of tarot, and then use the images and symbols of various decks to prompt your own creative responses.

BUFFALO WRITES Cornelius Fitzpatrick

Wednesday, October 27 6:30-8pm $10

Join us for drop-in writing time facilitated by a Just Buffalo teaching artist. You will be offered generative writing prompts and tips. You will have the opportunity to share your work. Come and write among fellow writers and creatives in the newly remodeled Just Buffalo Writing Center.

HOW TO TELL YOUR STORY Nishant Batsha

Wednesdays, Nov. 3, 10, 17 7:30-9pm $100

Want to tell your story but don’t know how? If you have an idea for a short story, personal essay, or historical short, this is the class for you! We will go over some of the best practices for getting your story from idea to page. You will then have the opportunity to workshop your stories in a supportive learning environment.

BUFFALO WRITES Julianne Neely

Wednesday, December 1 6:30-8pm $10

Join us for drop-in writing time facilitated by a Just Buffalo teaching artist. You will be offered generative writing prompts and tips. You will have the opportunity to share your work. Come and write among fellow writers and creatives in the newly remodeled Just Buffalo Writing Center.

USING VISUALS TO WARM UP YOUR WORDS with Ariel Aberg-Riger

Saturday, December 4 & 11 1:00-2:30 pm $60

In this two-part workshop we will explore the ways in which visuals—drawing, photography, found objects, collage—can open up the writing process. In the first session, we’ll experiment with exercises that obliterate the blank page by getting your pen moving and bringing worlds to life before searching for the right words. In the second session, we’ll build on those exercises to wander into a written story based on the images and characters we’ve created.

VISIT JUSTBUFFALO.ORG FOR MORE INFO AND REGISTRATION

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NOCO is a proud sponsor of BABEL!!

Thank you. Your friends at NOCO noco.com

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July 2021

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Bringing the world’s greatest writers to Buffalo

Thursday, November 18 2021 | 8 pm Kleinhans Music Hall

2021 2022

Novelist

Chang-rae Lee

Wednesday, March 16 2022 | 8 pm

Graphic novelist

Alison Bechdel

For 45 years, Just Buffalo Literary Center has brought the world’s greatest writers to Buffalo, hosted poetry events and readings, and supported the development of young writers.

We believe in the love of reading, the art of writing, and the power of the literary arts to transform individual lives and communities.

Whether you’re a new friend or a familiar face, become a member today & discover just how much is happening at Just Buffalo Literary Center.

justbuffalo.org