On Wednesday, October 20th, 7:00pm to 8:00pm, legendary TV producer Norman Lear, creator of such groundbreaking sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Maude, will join Bethel’s Byrd’s Books, now the home of the prestigious online series, Write America, for a priceless evening of conversation.
The 99-year-old National Medal of Arts awardee will be joined by Roger Rosenblatt, the author behind Write America, which is presented over the Crowdcast channel. The bookstore’s owner, Alice Hutchinson, couldn’t be more pleased that Byrd’s Books has this opportunity to host such authors as Roger Rosenblatt and Norman Lear in conversation as her shop nears its 10th anniversary. She says, “To meet the authors who are sharing their words through Write America Is a privilege and quite the dream come true. And it’s a pleasure, always, to meet new readers and book enthusiasts.” To reserve a spot for this free special episode of Write America, go to https://bit.ly/3B7zN9g
For information on and registration for each Write America event, visit ByrdsBooks.com, on which the popular independent bookstore has posted the complete calendar of conversations to date, through April 25, 2022. There, you will also find extensive author bios and, whenever possible, signed copies of the writers’ books to purchase in advance.
Norman Lear needs little introduction. He has received four Emmy awards, a Peabody, and most recently, was the subject of the PBS American Masters episode, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You. As a political and social activist, he founded People for the American Way in 1980, continuing to advocate for civic duty and progressive American values to this day. Significant to our current clime, in 2001, Lyn and Norman Lear purchased one of the few surviving original copies of the Declaration of Independence. During the decade that they owned it, they shared it with the American people by touring it to all 50 states.
In early 2021, Roger Rosenblatt created Write America, a weekly national reading series now calling Bethel’s Byrd’s Books its home, to foster the healing of political and racial divisions in the country. Born in 1940, Roger Rosenblatt is an American memoirist, essayist, and novelist. He is the author of five New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and three Times bestsellers. He has written seven off-Broadway plays and his essays for TIME magazine and the PBS Newshour have won two George Polk Awards, the Peabody, and the Emmy, among others. In 2015, he won the Kenyon Review Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. He held the Briggs-Copeland appointment in the teaching of writing at Harvard. A resident of Quoque, Long Island, he is currently Distinguished Professor of English and Writing at SUNY Stony Brook/Southampton. In October 2020, Roger joined Byrd’s Books for an author’s talk on his book “Cold Moon,” which in part led to Write America choosing Byrd’s Books as its new home. Recently, he was honored by the Fulbright Association on its 75th anniversary.
Byrd’s Books is located at 178 Greenwood Avenue, across from the Bethel Public Library. Author discussions and Book Group gatherings are regularly added to Byrd’s Books’ calendar of events at ByrdsBooks.com Open Tuesdays through Saturdays 10:00am to 6:00pm, Sundays 12:00 noon to 4:00pm, for browsing, touch-free purchasing and pick-up, Byrd’s Books also welcomes private shopping by appointment. Byrd’s Books requires masks and provides a hand sanitizer for everyone’s safety. For directions to the store or more information, call Byrd’s Books at 203-730-2973. To review the shop’s expanded catalog of new titles, go to Byrds