Events take place at the Main Library, 100 S. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
There are no events scheduled at this time, please check back.
Past Events
January 27, 4PM
South Florida Poetry Journal Presents: Poets Deborah DeNicola and Ziggy Pastor
Deborah DeNicola is the author of six books, most recently, Original Human
(2010). Her memoir, The Future That Brought Her Here, was a best-seller on
Amazon in Psychology. She compiled and edited the anthology Orpheus &
Company; Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology, from UPNE press. Previous books
include Where Divinity Begins from Alice James Books and four chapbooks, two of
which were award winners. Among other awards, she has been the recipient of an
individual artist's NEA grant.
Zoraida “Ziggy” Pastor, a first-generation American, has been writing poetry
since she was thirteen. While completing her bachelor's degree at Florida
International University, Zoraida was part of the Everglades Wilderness Writing
Expedition, where local aspiring writers learned about Everglades National Park.
Her Everglades themed poems were exhibited at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center
in the park. Zoraida's work has also been published in the international
bilingual magazine Mango La Revista, based in Cali, Colombia. She is the author
of Bare Echoes, a poetry chapbook sponsored by O, Miami and The Knight
Foundation. She is an active member of the South Florida Writer’s
Association. Currently, Zoraida is a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry candidate at
Converse College.
February 6
Lauren Doyle Owens, author of The Other Side of Everything
The Other Side of Everything is at once a gripping page-turner, a clever whodunit, and a sensitive, complex portrait of three neighbors, each from a different generation, and each struggling to cope with their own personal traumas. And with the ever-increasing demand for uplifting novels – The Guardian calls this literary trend Up Lit — that are optimistic, as opposed to feel good, and that center around “everyday heroism, human connection and love,” debut author Owens’s masterfully told story about a quiet neighborhood that is rocked by a series of murders and uncovers the ways in which grief and hope can connect us—feels especially fresh and timely.
Lauren Doyle Owens has an MFA in Creative Writing from Florida International University, where she won the Student Literary Award Student for Fiction in 2003. Her short fiction has appeared in various literary journals, most notably The Seventh Wave and Concho River Review. She lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
March 2
Con Lehane, author of Murder in the Manuscript Room
There’s a call number for cadavers at New York City’s iconic 42nd Street Library, and crime fiction curator Ray Ambler is on the case again. Author Con Lehane takes readers back to the stacks in Murder in the Manuscript Room. When a murder desecrates the somber, book-lined halls of New York City’s 42nd Street Library, Raymond Ambler, the library’s curator of crime fiction, has a personal interest in solving the crime. His quest to solve the murder is complicated by personal entanglements involving his friend — or perhaps more-than-friend — Adele Morgan. Not only does Adele’s relationship with the young woman staffer who was murdered get in the way of Ambler’s investigation, more disturbing for him is Adele’s growing interest in a darkly handsome Islamic scholar. No one else sees the connections Ambler is sure are there — not an unusual state of affairs for Ambler. But with the city’s law enforcement establishment determined to stop his investigation, the inquisitive and intrepid librarian faces challenges that may put his very life at risk.
Con Lehane is a mystery writer who lives outside Washington, DC. He's published three previous crime novels featuring New York City bartender Brian McNulty. Over the years, he has worked as a college professor, a union organizer, a labor journalist, and has tended bar at two dozen or so drinking establishments.
