Saturday, Apr. 20 | 4pm | Chelsea First United Methodist Church | 128 Park St.

Wade Rouse, internationally bestselling author of fiction and memoir, writes under both his given name, and under Viola Shipman, a pen name inspired by his grandmother and meant to honor poor Ozarks seamstress whose sacrifices changed his family’s life and inspire his fiction. Rouse’s books have been NBC’s Today Show Must-Reads, Michigan Notable Books of the Year, featured in the Washington Post and USA Today, chosen three times as Indie Next Picks by the nation’s independent booksellers. And selected as part of the American Library Association’s inaugural “Rainbow List.”  (more…)

Saturday, Apr. 20 | 2:30pm | Chelsea First Congregational Church | 121 E. Middle St. 

Dr. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is the author of more than 20 books, including Mistress of Spices, Oleander Girl,  Before We Visit the Goddess, The Last Queen, and her most recent novel, Independence. With her novels and her poetry, Divakaruni captures contemporary life in America and India as well as history, and mythology. She has received an American Book Award, a PEN Josephine Miles award, a Premio Scanno (also known as the Italian Nobel) award, a Light of India award, and an Allen Ginsberg poetry among many others. Two of her novels, The Mistress of Spices and Ammar Maa, have been made into films.  (more…)

Saturday, Apr. 20 | 1pm | Main St. Church | 320 N. Main St.

Roz Chast is perhaps most well known for her work for The New Yorker, including covers and cartoons published consistently from 1978 to today. She is also the author of more than a dozen books, including Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant? and her latest, I Must Be Dreaming. Chast is a New York Times bestselling author, a National Books Critic Circle Award winner, a National Book Award finalist, and a recipient of a Reuben Award and a Heinz Award among many others. (more…)

Saturday, Apr. 22 | 4pm | Chelsea First United Methodist Church | 128 Park St.
Jamie Ford is the great grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated from Hoiping, China, to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the western name “Ford,” thus confusing countless generations. Jamie’s debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, spent two and a half years on the New York Times bestseller list and won the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. (more…)

Saturday, Apr. 22 | 2:30pm | Chelsea First Congregational Church | 121 E. Middle St.
Nationally recognized author Kristin Hersh has had a storied career. As a solo artist and a member of bands Throwing Muses and 50FOOTWAVE. Her breakthrough memoir, Rat Girl, chronicles her time with the alt-rock group Throwing Muses as well as her manic depression diagnosis, and the birth of her first born child. Named number 8 in Rolling Stones’ list of 25 Greatest Rock Memoirs of All Time, Rat Girl delves into Hersh’s songwriting process, her musical inspirations, and the Throwing Muses rise to fame. 

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Saturday, Apr. 22 |1pm | Main St Church | 320 N. Main St.
Tyehimba Jess is a Cave Canem and NYU Alumni, received a 2004 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and was a 2004–2005 Winter Fellow at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.  He is the author of two books of poetry, Leadbelly and Olio. Olio won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, The Midland Society Author’s Award in Poetry, and received an Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. (more…)