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Author AppearancesOne of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of Heartland Fall Forum is meeting authors and learning more about their forthcoming books. We're hosting ongoing opportunities to connect with authors during Heartland Summer. Attend our Heartland Summer author events and head over to the Exhibits Gallery to request a galley, connect with publicists, and view titles on Edelweiss.
Booksellers: If you've read any of our featured books, please send us your blurbs. We've love to promote them. |
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Heartland Booksellers Award Celebration |
October 15th |
7:00 PM Central |
Join us at the Heartland Booksellers Award Celebration to hear this year's winners announced live! Hosted by author of How to be a Pirate, Issac Fitzgerald and Bookseller at Women & Children First, Ida Cuttler.
As well, we will be joined by special guest, author Hanif Abdurraqib to present the Voice of the Heartland award to Two Dollar Radio. Don't miss one of our most exciting events of the year!
As well, we will be joined by special guest, author Hanif Abdurraqib to present the Voice of the Heartland award to Two Dollar Radio. Don't miss one of our most exciting events of the year!
Past Events
Keynote: Allie Brosh |
October 14th |
6:00 PM Central |
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Allie Brosh in Conversation with Jenny Lawson
Wednesday, October 14 6:00-7:00 pm CDT / 7:00-8:00 pm EDT Allie Brosh will discuss Solutions and Other Problems with Jenny Lawson, author of Broken (in the best possible way) and owner of Nowhere Bookshop in San Antonio, following an introduction by Mary Laura Philpott, author of I Miss You When I Blink. There will be an opportunity for audience questions. “Gut-busting . . . . Brosh has a knack for seeding a small, choice detail that snowballs into existential chaos . . . [Her] spidery and demented digital portraits, a visual expression of fun-house mirror anxiety, fits her material perfectly. . . This achingly accurate and consistently hilarious comic memoir finds Brosh moving forward and becoming a stronger, braver storyteller page by page.” --Publishers Weekly, Starred Review |
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Allie Brosh’s critically acclaimed debut, Hyperbole and a Half, introduced readers to her inimitable voice, impeccable comic instincts, and preternatural ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple drawings. By turns moving, droll, and darkly funny—with unforgettable meditations on depression that somehow manage to be all of the above, the book was a #1 Indie Next Pick and #1 Indie Bestseller.
An Indie Next Pick for October, SOLUTIONS AND OTHER PROBLEMS is an entirely original, full-color collection of autobiographical, illustrated essays, encompassing hilarious stories from Brosh’s childhood; the adventures of her simple, yet sneaky, pets; a meticulous dissection of her own character flaws and drastic measures to eradicate them; incisive essays on powerlessness, loneliness, and grief; and reflections on the absurdity of everyday life. |
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Heartland Book Club: Sarah Smarsh |
October 8th |
7:00 PM Central |
"Smarsh and Parton are a perfect pairing for the kind of in-depth examination into gender and class and what it means to be a woman and a working class hero that feels particularly important right now." --Refinery29, most anticipated
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The first annual Heartland Book Club! Featuring Sarah Smarsh, author of She Come By It Natural
Hosted by Danny Caine of The Raven Book Store Thursday, October 8 at 7:00 pm New this year! The Heartland Book Club, a can’t-miss experience designed to meet a marquee author and spend time with your colleagues doing the thing we do best: talking about a book. |
"She Come By It Natural is a thoughtful, clear-eyed look at a complicated and fascinating cultural figure. Through the lens of Dolly Parton, Smarsh continues her important career-long investigation of class, place, and poverty in America." --Danny Caine
"Remember how we used to listen to albums? You'd place the needle on the first song then listen to the record all the way through in one sitting. That's how you'll want to approach She Come By It Natural. Author Sarah Smarsh insightfully explores Dolly Parton's universal popularity and cultural importance while telling an engaging story of female endurance that parallels Smarsh's own family saga. Personal yet profound. And just like with my favorite album, I want to go back to the beginning and start this book all over again." --Shirley Wells, Watermark Books
"Remember how we used to listen to albums? You'd place the needle on the first song then listen to the record all the way through in one sitting. That's how you'll want to approach She Come By It Natural. Author Sarah Smarsh insightfully explores Dolly Parton's universal popularity and cultural importance while telling an engaging story of female endurance that parallels Smarsh's own family saga. Personal yet profound. And just like with my favorite album, I want to go back to the beginning and start this book all over again." --Shirley Wells, Watermark Books
Keynote: Ayad Akhtar |
September 24th |
7:30 PM Central |
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Praise for Homeland Elegies "Passionate, disturbing, unputdownable." -- Salman Rushdie “This is the book of the year.”—Junot Diaz, O Magazine “It’s hard to convey the breadth and brilliance of this work.” --The Guardian “Tour de force…a phenomenal coalescence of memoir, fiction, history and cultural analysis.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post |
Join us for an evening of fascinating conversation with the Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Ayad Akhtar and bookseller Sarah Bagby (owner of Watermark Books in Wichita, Kansas). Homeland Elegies, published on September 15 to resounding acclaim, is the profound story of an immigrant father and his son searching for belonging—in post-Trump America and with each other.
A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Akhtar himself grew up in Milwaukee, and these Heartland ties are incorporated into the novel, a stunning work of autofiction that takes the reader from a journey from the Midwest to far reaches of the globe to explore issues of identity and belonging in today’s challenging and sensational world.
A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Akhtar himself grew up in Milwaukee, and these Heartland ties are incorporated into the novel, a stunning work of autofiction that takes the reader from a journey from the Midwest to far reaches of the globe to explore issues of identity and belonging in today’s challenging and sensational world.
Keynote: Reverend Al Sharpton |
September 15th |
3:30-4:30 PM Central |
Heartland is teaming up with the other regional associations to present Reverend Al Sharpton as he discusses his important, timely book RISE UP: Confronting a Country at the Crossroads (Hanover Square Press; 9/29/20), on Tuesday, September 15, from 3:30 to 4:30 pm CDT.
Rev. Al Sharpton is the host of MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation” and the founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), one of the leading civil rights organizations in the world. With over 40 years of experience as a community leader, politician, minister and advocate, the Rev. Al Sharpton is one of America’s most-renowned civil rights leaders. Sharpton also hosts the nationally syndicated radio show, “Keepin’ It Real”, which broadcasts in 40 markets, five days a week. |
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Meet the Authors |
September 10th |
1:00-2:00 PM Central |
Images with active links lead to ARC request forms.
An Evening with Picture Books |
August 27th |
7:00-8:00 PM Central |
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Children's picture books are as much a balm to children as they are to adults, as the story and art come together to convey a powerful message about the world. This event introduces booksellers to a beautiful array of forthcoming picture books directly from the authors and illustrators themselves. The much-loved children's book author Tricia Speed Shaskan will be joining us to help host the event and celebrate children's literature. Get a peek inside some of the most powerful children's books of the season and enter for a chance to win multiple giveaways of the final copies. We hope to see you there!
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Meet the Authors |
August 13th |
1:00-2:00 PM Central |
Images with active links lead to galley request forms.
Marquee Authors |
July 23rd |
7:00-8:00 PM Central |
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Booklist calls Vesper Flights “gorgeously composed, complexly affecting, and stunningly revelatory. Macdonald is both exacting and enthralled. There is abundant wonder and beauty here. Fans will rush to embrace this, as should all readers passionate about nature.”
—Booklist (starred review) "[R]emarkable, wise and potentially paradigm-shifting . . . [Braiding Sweetgrass] is a coherent and compelling call for what [Kimmerer] describes as 'restorative reciprocity', an appreciation of gifts and the responsibilities that come with them, and how gratitude can be medicine for our sick, capitalistic world." —James Yeh, the Guardian |
Watch Presentation |
Helen Macdonald and Robin Wall Kimmerer offer us considerable gifts of language and learning. Their beloved books have been lauded as necessary touchstones for themes celebrating the natural world.
Macdonald is a historian, philosopher, poet, and illustrator. H Is for Hawk took us into a private world where the heart is as feral as a hawk, and showed us how taming a headstrong goshawk can also tame the tensions of human grief. Her forthcoming Vesper Flights looks outward, giving us important and insightful essays about wildlife and what it teaches us about humanity. Kimmerer is a plant ecologist, writer, bryologist, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. To read Braiding Sweetgrass is to be in spiritual communion with the plant kingdom. This fall, Braiding Sweetgrass will be released as a lush special edition hardcover, honoring the beautiful and even sacred experience it has brought to countless readers. What Helen Macdonald teaches us about animals, Robin Wall Kimmerer teaches us about plants. Together, they create a powerful statement about the interconnectivity of life on this planet. Join as we discover what we can learn from their new books in a time when the human experience has become increasingly challenging. |
Meet the Authors |
July 9th |
1:00-2:00 PM Central |
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Meet the Authors is designed to introduce independent booksellers to a new crop of books poised to do well in indie bookstores. Ten authors will each have five minutes to introduce their new book to all attendees. The chat will be available for attendees to share their enthusiasm for new titles and to throw out questions. We'll address as many questions as we can fit in the time allotted.
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Images with active links lead to galley request forms
Marquee Authors |
June 25th |
7:00-8:00 PM Central |
An Evening with Ibi Zoboi & Yusef Salaam: Punching the Air
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“Punching the Air is the profound sound of humanity in verse. Utterly indispensable.”
--Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author “Zoboi and Salaam have created nothing short of a masterwork of humanity, with lyrical arms big enough to cradle the oppressed, and metaphoric teeth sharp enough to chomp on the bitter bones of racism.” --Jason Reynolds, award-winning, bestselling author of Long Way Down |
Our inaugural Heartland Summer author event features powerhouse duo Ibi Zoboi, a New York Times bestselling author whose work has been called "fierce" and "breathtaking," and Dr. Yusef Salaam, a poet, activist, and inspirational speaker who was wrongly convicted in the Central Park Jogger case and is now one of the Exonerated Five.
When he was just 15, Salaam and four other Black and Latino young men spent between seven and thirteen years of their lives behind bars, after which their sentences were overturned and they were fully exonerated. Their story has been documented in the award-winning film The Central Park Five by documentarians Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon and in Ava DuVernay’s highly acclaimed series When They See Us, one of Netflix’s most-watched original series of all time. Yusef is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama, among other honors.
When he was just 15, Salaam and four other Black and Latino young men spent between seven and thirteen years of their lives behind bars, after which their sentences were overturned and they were fully exonerated. Their story has been documented in the award-winning film The Central Park Five by documentarians Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon and in Ava DuVernay’s highly acclaimed series When They See Us, one of Netflix’s most-watched original series of all time. Yusef is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama, among other honors.
About Punching the Air
Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. “Boys just being boys” turns out to be true only when those boys are white.
Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?
With spellbinding lyricism, award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Dr. Yusef Salaam tell a moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth in a system designed to strip him of both.
Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?
With spellbinding lyricism, award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Dr. Yusef Salaam tell a moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth in a system designed to strip him of both.
