Midwest Literary Walk

Roz Chast

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.

I Must Be Dreaming is a comic exploration of, as Publishers Weekly describes it, “the weird joy of dreaming.” Cataloging dream theories as well as chronicling her own dreams and creative process, Kirkus calls this book “Easy on the eyes and witty” and Library Journal lauds the work as “Truly fascinating, frequently hilarious, and not to be missed.”

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

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

(4/18) Due to unforeseen circumstances, Divakaruni is unable to travel and will join us live virtually. We will still have an engaging interview, books available for purchase, and live opportunities for Q&A at the Chelsea First Congregational Church. We apologize for this inconvenience.

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.

Independence “captures the upheaval and devastation of the partition of British India in [a] dazzling tale of three Hindu sisters caught up in the violent events” (Publishers Weekly). Follow Deepa, Priya, and Jamini, once sheltered daughters of a respected doctor, whose paths split as one follows a career, one a new love, and one fights to hold the family together during the historic moment of the independence of India. Described as engaging and a “moving depiction of family life” by Kirkus.

Wade Rouse (Viola Shipman)

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.”

2023 Michigan Notable Book Award winner Magic Season is a memoir of a gay son and a conservative father who bond over their shared love of baseball and the St. Louis Cardinals. Kirkus lauds this book as a “poignant memoir of pain and hope.”

Viola Shipman’s delightful 2023 novels, Famous in a Small Town and The Wishing Bridge capture small Michigan Towns with charm and nostalgia. Famous in a Small Town is “a delightful summer read for those wanting a little magic in their lives” while The Wishing Bridge is a winter read “full of nostalgia for the charms of a simple, small-town life full of friends and family” (Booklist).