WOW Center and Straw Dog Writers Guild to present author Don Lesser!
WOW Center and Straw Dog Writers Guild to present debut author Don Lesser!
Westfield on Weekends (WOW) in association with Straw Dog Writers Guild and WhipCity Wordsmiths, will present debut author Don Lesser as part of the free “Writers Out Loud Guest Author Series.” The event will take place on Thursday, June 25th at 7:00 PM at The WOW Center, 105 Elm Street in Westfield’s Downtown Cultural District.
Don Lesser received his MFA in fiction from the University of Massachusetts. His food articles have won awards at the Greenbrier Symposium for Professional Food Writers. He has participated in workshops with the Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop and Straw Dog Writers Guild. Crystal Springs is his first published book.
This literary fiction debut celebrates a love of place, the bonds of found families, and the lasting connections, unbroken by secrets, between friends. BookLife by Publishers Weekly calls it “warm and alive…[an] incisive novel of aging, compromise, and Pioneer Valley life.”
Crystal Springs, set in western Massachusetts, follows the life of Steven Bennett, a historian, chef, and programmer. Rejected by his first love, he marries another woman and lives an ordinary life hosting barbecues and tip-toeing around his affair with the artist wife of his poet friend. After raising a family, the sudden suspected overdose of a young woman in town upends Steven’s life. He embarks on a quest to discover what really happened only to unearth buried scars and hard truths about old friends.
Crystal Springs (ISBN: 978-1-57869-222-4) is available for the book trade through Ingram and for the public everywhere books are sold or at www.rootstockpublishing.com, with autographed copies available from Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
The evening will feature a wide-ranging conversation with the author about her writing and creative process, along with selected readings from Crystal Springs. Attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in a Q&A and meet Don during a book signing immediately following the program.
The Writers Out Loud series also hosts monthly Open Mike nights on the second Thursday of each month, offering writers of all levels a welcoming space to share their work.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase.
This program is funded in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Westfield Cultural Council, supporting accessible literary and cultural programming for the Greater Westfield community.
Westfield on Weekends, a nonprofit organization that helps to define the cultural and creative vitality of the Greater Westfield community through accessible programming that celebrates its many neighbors; Straw Dog Writers Guild is a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to the craft and transformative power of writing and serving writers in Hampden and Hampshire Counties; and WhipCity Wordsmiths is a Westfield based writers’ social and support group committed to fostering connection and creativity among local authors.
