Rich family drama, a spiritual meditation on nature, a novel about a mother and son and what makes us human and a poet on the power of joy. Every one of these authors is a master of their craft!

Talking Volumes begins on Sept. 14 with Karen Armstrong. She is a seeker and a deep thinker about the role of religion in our lives, the power of compassion and the need for loving and ethical understanding between different faiths.

But her new book is an exciting departure from her canon. Armstrong is writing about the sacredness of nature and how the world’s religions can reconnect us to the natural world.

In late October, the Fitzgerald stage will blaze with two blockbuster novelists who appear in the same week!  

Celeste Ng, the author of “Little Fires Everywhere," which was made into a Hulu series starring Kerry Washington and “Everything I Never Told You,” which explores the relationship between a mother and her son and what happens when an authoritarian society tries to control free thinking. 

On Friday, Oct. 28, it’s a “date night” evening with memoirist and novelist Dani Shapiro. If you haven’t read “Inheritance,” the story of how Shapiro discovered the true breadth of her family’s secrets, dash over to your favorite indie bookstore and buy it. It’s riveting and so is her podcast about other people’s family secrets.

Shapiro is out with a novel called “Signal Fires” that has been a decade in the making. It’s told at the intersection of three people who are experiencing transformations in their lives.

We will close with poet Ross Gay, who electrified readers in 2019 with “The Book of Delights." He’s back with a collection of essays that asks what joy is made of, how to capture it and how to hold it.

See you at the Fitz!

— Kerri Miller | MPR News