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Image for event: Writing Womanhood: Nafissa Thompson-Spires and Monica Youn

Writing Womanhood: Nafissa Thompson-Spires and Monica Youn

National Book Award Program

2019-07-25 19:00:00 2019-07-25 21:00:00 America/New_York Writing Womanhood: Nafissa Thompson-Spires and Monica Youn Fiction writer Nafissa Thompson-Spires and poet Monica Youn will discuss writing diverse female stories, from girlhood to motherhood, that women can actually see themselves in. Free. Main Library - Auditorium

Thursday, July 25
7:00pm - 9:00pm

Add to Calendar 2019-07-25 19:00:00 2019-07-25 21:00:00 America/New_York Writing Womanhood: Nafissa Thompson-Spires and Monica Youn Fiction writer Nafissa Thompson-Spires and poet Monica Youn will discuss writing diverse female stories, from girlhood to motherhood, that women can actually see themselves in. Free. Main Library - Auditorium

Main Library

Auditorium

Fiction writer Nafissa Thompson-Spires and poet Monica Youn will discuss writing diverse female stories, from girlhood to motherhood, that women can actually see themselves in. Free.

This summer, the National Book Foundation hits the road for NBF Presents: Summer with the National Book Awards, bringing National Book Awards-honored authors to libraries across the country.

Join us for a conversation with fiction writer Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Heads of the Colored People, National Book Award Longlister) and poet Monica Youn (Ignatz, Blackacre, National Book Award Longlister & Finalist) on writing diverse female stories, from girlhood to motherhood, that women can actually see themselves in. Free and open to the public.

Nafissa Thompson-Spires earned a PhD in English from Vanderbilt University and an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Paris Review Daily, Dissent, BuzzFeed Books, The White Review, and other publications. She currently works as an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Cornell University. Her first book, Heads of the Colored People, was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize; was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize; and has won the PEN Open Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and an Audie Award. She is also the recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award.

Monica Youn is the author of three books of poems, most recently Blackacre (2016), which won the William Carlos Williams Award of the Poetry Society of America. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Award, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, Washington Post, and BuzzFeed. Her book Ignatz (2010) was a finalist for the National Book Award. A 2018 Guggenheim Fellow, she teaches at Princeton and in the MFA programs at NYU and Columbia. She is a former lawyer, a daughter of Korean immigrants, and is a member of the curatorial collective The Racial Imaginary Institute.

    

Main Library

Phone: 330.643.9000
Branch manager
Michael Bianchi

Hours
We're closed Sunday March 31
Mon, Mar 25 10:00AM to 8:00PM
Tue, Mar 26 10:00AM to 8:00PM
Wed, Mar 27 10:00AM to 8:00PM
Thu, Mar 28 10:00AM to 8:00PM
Fri, Mar 29 10:00AM to 6:00PM
Sat, Mar 30 10:00AM to 5:00PM
Sun, Mar 31 Closed

About the branch

Main Library, located in the heart of downtown Akron, combines compelling public space with meaningful and relevant public library services for all members of our community. Since opening in 2004, the downtown library welcomes more than one million visitors each year.

Subject divisions include: Business, Government & Science, Culture & AV, Magazines & Newspapers, Special Collections (local history & genealogy), TechZone@Main, Teen, and a 12,000 square feet Children's Library.

Special services available at Main Library include: a Patent & Trademark Resource Center; U.S. Passport and Notary services; a Microbusiness Center; a Maker Space; a resource lab for early childhood educators; and regularly scheduled computer training classes. Also available at Main Library are more than 125 public access computers, color photocopiers/printers, laminating, scanning, faxing, and free Wi-Fi.

Specialized spaces include a 425-seat auditorium, public meeting rooms, and a used bookstore. An interior glass block walkway leads to a 600-space parking garage owned by the City of Akron. An outdoor amphitheater and landscaped park complete the complex.

Upcoming Events

Mon, Apr 01, 10:30am - 11:00am
Children's Library Programming Room

Mon, Apr 01, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Computer Lab 1

Tue, Apr 02, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Computer Lab 1

Wed, Apr 03, 10:30am - 11:00am
Children's Library Programming Room
This event is full

Wed, Apr 03, 2:00pm - 2:30pm
Children's Library Programming Room
This event is full

Wed, Apr 03, 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Meeting Room 1

Thu, Apr 04, 10:30am - 11:00am
Children's Library Programming Room

Thu, Apr 04, 1:00pm - 7:00pm
Microbusiness Center

Thu, Apr 04, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Computer Lab 1

Thu, Apr 04, 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Teen Meeting Room

Thu, Apr 04, 6:15pm - 8:00pm
Auditorium

Mon, Apr 08, 10:30am - 11:00am
Children's Library Programming Room

Mon, Apr 08, 12:00pm - 4:00pm
Auditorium,Atrium,Library Park/Amphitheater

Mon, Apr 08, 1:00pm - 2:00pm
TechZone

Tue, Apr 09, 1:00pm - 2:00pm
TechZone

Tue, Apr 09, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Computer Lab 1

Wed, Apr 10, 10:30am - 11:30am
Meeting Room 2AB

Wed, Apr 10, 1:00pm - 2:00pm
TechZone

Wed, Apr 10, 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Wed, Apr 10, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Meeting Room 2AB

Wed, Apr 10, 5:30pm - 6:30pm

Wed, Apr 10, 6:00pm - 7:30pm
TechZone
This event is full

Thu, Apr 11, 10:30am - 12:00pm
Children's Library Programming Room,Children's Library Educators Lab

Thu, Apr 11, 11:30am - 1:00pm
Meeting Room 1

Thu, Apr 11, 1:00pm - 2:00pm
TechZone

Thu, Apr 11, 1:00pm - 7:00pm
Microbusiness Center

Thu, Apr 11, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Computer Lab 1

Thu, Apr 11, 3:00pm - 4:45pm
Teen Meeting Room

Thu, Apr 11, 6:15pm - 8:00pm
Auditorium

Thu, Apr 11, 8:00pm - 9:00pm

Sat, Apr 13, 10:00am - 2:00pm
Auditorium

Sat, Apr 13, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Children's Library Programming Room

Sat, Apr 13, 3:00pm - 4:00pm
TechZone

Mon, Apr 15, 10:30am - 11:00am
Children's Library Programming Room

Tue, Apr 16, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Computer Lab 1

Wed, Apr 17, 10:30am - 12:00pm
Meeting Room 2AB

Wed, Apr 17, 10:30am - 11:00am
Children's Library Programming Room
This event is full

Wed, Apr 17, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Zoom

Wed, Apr 17, 2:00pm - 2:30pm
Children's Library Programming Room
This event is full

Wed, Apr 17, 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Teen Meeting Room

Thu, Apr 18, 10:30am - 11:00am
Children's Library Programming Room

Thu, Apr 18, 1:00pm - 7:00pm
Microbusiness Center

Thu, Apr 18, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Computer Lab 1

Thu, Apr 18, 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Teen Meeting Room

Thu, Apr 18, 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Auditorium

Fri, Apr 19, 10:00am - 6:00pm

Sat, Apr 20, 8:30am - 11:30am
Special Collections

Sat, Apr 20, 10:00am - 5:00pm

Sat, Apr 20, 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Auditorium

Sun, Apr 21, 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Auditorium,Meeting Room 3

Mon, Apr 22, 10:30am - 11:00am
Children's Library Programming Room

Tue, Apr 23, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Computer Lab 1

Wed, Apr 24, 10:30am - 12:30pm
Meeting Room 2AB

Wed, Apr 24, 10:30am - 11:00am
Children's Library Programming Room
This event is full

Wed, Apr 24, 2:00pm - 2:30pm
Children's Library Programming Room
This event is full

Thu, Apr 25, 10:30am - 11:00am
Children's Library Programming Room

Thu, Apr 25, 11:30am - 1:00pm
Meeting Room 1

Thu, Apr 25, 12:00pm - 4:00pm
Quiet Study Room 1

Thu, Apr 25, 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Meeting Room 2AB,Meeting Room 3,Atrium,Auditorium

Thu, Apr 25, 1:00pm - 7:00pm
Microbusiness Center

Thu, Apr 25, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Computer Lab 1

Thu, Apr 25, 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Teen Meeting Room

Thu, Apr 25, 6:15pm - 8:00pm
Auditorium

Sat, Apr 27, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Meeting Room 2AB