BY KAREN BOSSICK
Salvadoran poet Javier Zamora and bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld will speak at the 2023 Community Speaker Series offered by the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference and The Community Library.
The free talks will be held at 6 p.m. in the Community Library lecture hall with book signings following. Zamora will speak at Wednesday, July 19, and Sittenfeld on Tuesday, July 25.
Though free, registration is required for both. Register for Zamora’s talk at https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/10306150. Register for Sittenfeld’s talk at https://thecommunitylibrary.libcal.com/event/10566126.
- Zamora will discuss his debut memoir “Solito,” which details his 3,000-mile journey from El Salvador to the United States as a nine-year-old traveling by himself. He writes in the pitch-perfect voice of a child as he makes his perilous way on foot and by boat, bus and truck.
He will discuss how he was able to write his story and how he was able to heal from the trauma of his migration with Jenny Emery Davidson, the executive director of The Community Library.
Sittenfeld will attempt to dazzle her audience with her brand of humor, wit and female-focused social commentary as she discusses her latest novel “Romantic Comedy.”
Sittenfeld will discuss the complex women she brings to life on the page while dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the 21st Century with John Burnham Schwartz, a former professor of hers at the iowa Writers’ Workshop. Schwartz is the literary director of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.
Sittenfeld’s previous novels include “American Wife,” “Rodham,” and “Eligible.”
In addition to the summer speaker series bookending the Writers’ Conference, the Writers’ Conference and the Library partner on other free writers’ presentations throughout the year.
This year’s Sun Valley Writers’ Conference will be held Saturday through Monday, July 22-24. A few additional Full Conferences Passes have just become available from the conference’s donor pool. To find out more, call 208-726-5454 or visit https://www.svwc.com.