As I wrote in my last post, What We Leave Behind received an award from the Library of Congress and was placed on the Great Reads from Great Places list for 2025. What a surprise and honor that was! My sincere thanks to any and all who have read my book and shared it. I am so thankful for people who write because I'm a reader, and without writers what would we readers do????
So I had shared a list of the the ND libraries that had requested a book talk on What We Leave Behind. And I was honored to do one at each of the libraries listed below! I met some incredible librarians, visited some remarkable libraries, and visited with hundreds of attendees. I had begun to keep track of how many were at each talk, but I guess I lost control of that! I just know that several of the libraries had 35+ attendees which tells me that people are still interested in books and stories. So if I met you at one of these, thanks for being there and sharing your thoughts. These things mean so much.
Here's a list of the libraries and the dates/times.
January13, 6:00 pm Griggs County Public Library, Cooperstown, ND
January 14, 10:30 am Maddock Community Library, Maddock, ND
January 14, 6:00 pm, Lake Region State College, Devils Lake, ND
January 17, 2:00 pm, Rolla Public Library, Rolla, ND
January 22, 10:00 am, Kidder County Public Library, Steele, ND (postponed due to the severe weather)
Rescheduled to March 10
January 22, 5:00 pm, Barnes County Public Library, Valley City, ND (postponed due to the severe weather)
Rescheduled to March 10, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
February 21, 10:30 am, Halliday Public Library, Halliday, ND
February 21, 4:00 pm, Bismarck Veterans Memorial Library, Bismarck, ND
February 23, 6:00 pm, Fargo Public Library, Fargo, ND
February 24, 6:30 pm, Mayville Public Library, Mayville, ND
February 25, 6:00 pm, North Dakota State College of Science, Mildred Johnson Library, Wahpeton, ND
March 5, 7:00 pm at Badlands Restaurant with Minot Public Library's Books & Brew
March 24, 2:00 pm, Minot State University Library Minot, ND
So, what's up next in my world? I'm trying to carve out some time to do some writing, and I find that I'm leaning into poetry. I'm not very good at it, and actually, I don't know how poets revise and reshape their work. That just might be another arena to dip into.
I hope you are still reading . . . and maybe thinking of taking a stab at writing? I sure hope so. I've always said to my writing students, "You just need to bleed on the page. That will get you started. No need to think there is early perfection!"
Happy spring . . . take some time to enjoy our world! And give thanks . . .
Keep reading!
Barb
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