Chris Lincoln
Chris Lincoln of Thetford, a Middlebury College grad, whose book is The Funny Moon, is joined in conversation by Mike McKenna of Weybridge. Lincoln has been recognized with a Clio, advertising’s Oscar. He is also the author of the widely praised non-fiction book, Playing the Game: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League. A graduate of Middlebury College and participant at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, he lives in Vermont with his wife. The Funny Moon is his first novel. Recorded 5/14/24
Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.
Alma wants her characters to rest in peace. But they have other ideas and soon begin to defy their author: they talk back to her and talk to one another behind her back, rewriting and revising themselves. Filomena, a local woman hired as the groundskeeper, becomes a sympathetic listener to the secret tales unspooled by Alma’s characters. Among them, Bienvenida, dictator Rafael Trujillo’s abandoned wife who was erased from the official history, and Manuel Cruz, a doctor who fought in the Dominican underground and escaped to the United States.
The Cemetery of Untold Stories asks: Whose stories get to be told, and whose buried? Finally, Alma finds the meaning she and her characters yearn for in the everlasting vitality of stories. Julia Alvarez reminds us that the stories of our lives are never truly finished, even at the end.
About Julia:
Julia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. She has taught and mentored writers in schools and communities across America and, until her retirement in 2016, was a writer in residence at Middlebury College. Her work has garnered wide recognition, including a Latina Leader Award in Literature from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, the Woman of the Year by Latina magazine, and inclusion in the New York Public Library’s program “The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez.” In the Time of the Butterflies, with over one million copies in print, was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its national Big Read program, and in 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling.
Julia will appear on stage in conversation with Carolyn Kuebler, editor of the literary journal based in Middlebury, New England Review. Kuebler’s debut novel, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable will go on sale May 7.
Join us for quarterly talks with local experts and participate in roundtable conversations in a convivial atmosphere over light snacks and with a beverage (cash bar). Conceived by VBS owner Becky Dayton as a way for Middlebury College and other professional communities to come together with townspeople of all walks of life to share ideas, Up for Discussion has, thanks to the hard work of Town Hall Theater’s executive director Lisa Mitchell, been underwritten by Vermont Humanities.
Former Dean of the Middlebury Language Schools and Professor Emeritus of Russian and east European studies Michael Katz joins Professor of Film and Media Culture Chris Keathley to discuss “Reimagine Stories: Translation and Adaptation.”
Thanks to a grant from Vermont Humanities, Vermont Book Shop and Town Hall Theater present a new, free, quarterly series designed to spark community conversation. “Up for Discussion” features local experts in their fields, many of whom are Middlebury College professors, sharing timely topics that span literature, art, film, and contemporary issues.
The Town of Middlebury holds an informational session on Monday, May 6, 2024 at 7pm at the Town Offices (77 Main Street) regarding the proposed bond vote for the proposed expansion/renovation of the Ilsley Library. More information about the proposed library project and the details of the bond vote, can be found here.
Producer: MCTV
Public, Educational, and Governmental Access for Middlebury, Vermont
