The Warren County Memorial Library has been awarded a Let’s Talk About It grant to host a reading and discussion program at the library. Let’s Talk About It is a discussion series that brings scholars and community members together to explore how selected books, films, and poetry illuminate a particular theme. This year’s theme, entitled Making Tracks: Focusing on Railroads in America, explores the ways in which the railway transformed the American landscape and helped determine where settlements and industry would develop.
The series for 2012 will take place March 15 and 29 and April 12 and 26 at the Warren County Memorial Library, 119 S. Front St., Warrenton, from noon to 1 p.m. Feel free to bring your lunch or enjoy a light lunch provided by the Library.
At each session, a visiting scholar will discuss that week’s book and author in the context of the Railroad theme. Participants then have the opportunity to share their thoughts and viewpoints during a discussion lead by the scholar. Discussion leaders include Willie Nelms (for two sessions) and Bes Spangler (for two sessions).
The reading selections chosen for this year’s series are: Nothing Like It in the World by Stephen Ambrose and poetry selections by Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg, Theodore Roethke, May Swenson, Mark Van Doren, and Ezra Pound (March 15), Rising from the Rails by Larry Tye (March 29), the film Riding the Rails, directed by Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell (April 12), and Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (April 26). Copies of the books are available at the library on a first-come, first-served basis. Books are returned to the library after the book discussion. There are a limited number to books to distribute.
Let’s Talk About It is free and open to the public. For more information or to register, please call the library at (252) 257-4990 or email eshaw@co.warren.nc.us.
This project is made possible by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, in partnership with the North Carolina Center for the Book, a program of the State Library of North Carolina.