An Evening with Hearth
From Country Bookshelf’s newsletter
We are delighted to welcome editors Annick Smith and Susan O’Connor, alongside contributor Gretel Ehrlich, on Wednesday, November 7th at 6pm for a special evening of reading and discussion of their new anthology Hearth: A Global Conversation on Identity, Community, and Place. This powerful multicultural collection of essays, poetry, stories, and more examines the enduring importance and shifting associations of the hearth in our world.
A hearth is many things: a place for solitude; a source of identity; something we make and share with others; a history of ourselves and our homes. It is the fixed center we return to. It is just as intrinsically portable. It is, in short, the perfect metaphor for what we seek in these complex and contradictory times — set in flux by climate change, mass immigration, the refugee crisis, and the dislocating effects of technology.
Featuring original contributions from some of our most cherished voices– including Terry Tempest Williams, Bill McKibben, Pico Iyer, Natasha Trethewey, and Chigozie Obioma– Hearth suggests that empathy and storytelling hold the power to unite us when we have wandered alone for too long.
This essential anthology challenges us to redefine home and hearth: as a place to welcome strangers, to be generous, and to care for the world beyond one’s own experience. Please join us for what is sure to be a packed evening full of great conversation.
Hearth is featured in the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Holiday Catalog. Browse the catalog online or watch for the paper version at your favorite stores soon!