A still from the screen adaptation of 'Call Me by Your Name'

Several high-profile authors of special interest to the LGBT community are appearing at Boswell and Outwords books over the next six weeks, including Andre Aciman, who penned the novel “Call My by Your Name.” Check out the schedule below.

John August, author of Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire

Friday, February 16, 7:00 pm | Category

Event venue: Boswell

Publisher info: Roaring Brook Press, 2/6/18, $16.99, 9781626728141

Screenwriter and long-time-Tim-Burton collaborator John August's debut novel about a 12-year-old boy who joins a special scout team to learn how to survive in both the wilds of the forest and the magical world that lies within it. This event is cosponsored by Milwaukee Filmmaker Alliance. It’s a great evening for creatives and their families.

When Arlo Finch moves to Pine Mountain, Colorado, he has no idea what's in store for him in this tiny town full of mystery and magic. When he joins the Rangers, Pine Mountain's version of the Boy Scouts, it leads him into adventures he never thought possible. Wilderness and magical powers collide throughout the beautiful, dense forest surrounding his new home, and as Arlo begins to learn the way of the Rangers, he also discovers courage, strength, and a destiny he never knew he possessed.

Boswell’s Jenny Chou is a fan. She writes: “Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire has everything middle grade readers’ love, from magic to outdoor adventure to eccentric grownups and laughs. Highly recommended for anyone who wishes they lived a bit closer to a magical forest!”

Also Interesting to Know: In addition to his public event, August will be making school appearances in Wauwatosa and Shorewood. This book is great for readers 8 and up.

About the Author: Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, John August earned a degree in journalism from Drake University and an MFA in film from USC. As a screenwriter, his credits include Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, and Frankenweenie. In addition to his film career, he hosts a popular weekly podcast, Scriptnotes, with Craig Mazin. He also created the Writer Emergency Pack, an educational storytelling tool that was distributed to over 2,000 classrooms in partnership with non-profit literacy groups like 826LA and NaNoWriMo. John and his family live in Los Angeles.

André Aciman, author of  in conversation with Suzanne Jurva of Milwaukee Filmmaker Alliance

Monday, Februrary 19, 7:00 pm | Fiction/literary, Movie tie-in

Event venue: Boswell

Publisher info: Picador, $17.00, 9780312426781 (2008) and 9781250169440 (2017 tie-in)

We are thrilled to present André Aciman, the author of Call Me by Your Name, as well as the just-released paperback edition of The Enigma Variations. This event is cosponsored by Milwaukee Filmmaker Alliance as well as the Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival. Our event will feature a conversation between Aciman and Suzanne Jurva, discussing Call Me by Your Name’s long journey (ten years) from page to screen.

Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera. During the restless summer weeks, unrelenting but buried currents of obsession, fascination, and desire intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them and verge toward the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy. André Aciman's critically acclaimed debut novel is a frank, unsentimental, heartrending elegy to human passion.

The film version of Call Me by Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer, has been nominated for four Oscars including best picture, best actor (Chalamet), best adapted screenplay (James Ivory) and best original song (Sufian Stevens). The film has been also nominated for three Golden Globes, four BAFTA awards, and a SAG award. It is currently playing (as of January 29) at the Downer Theatre.

About the Author: André Aciman is the author of The Enigma Variations, Eight White Nights, Harvard Square, and the memoir Out of Egypt, and is the editor of The Proust Project. He teaches comparative literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and lives with his wife in Manhattan.

Suzanne Jurva is Director of Milwaukee Filmmaker Alliance. The creator of the research department at Dreamworks SKG, Jurva has been a feature film development executive on many Academy Award nominated and winning films, including Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln, and The Prince of Egypt. She is also an award-winning documentary director and producer.

Joseph Cassara, author of The House of Impossible Beauties

Tuesday, February 27,  7:00 pm | Fiction, LGBT history

Event venue: at Outwords Books, Gifts, & Coffee, 2710 N Murray Ave

Publisher info: Ecco, $26.99, 9780062676979

Boswell is pleased to cosponsor a special evening with Iowa Writers Workshop grad and debut novelist Joseph Cassara, in conjunction with Outwords Books, Gifts, & Coffee. The House of Impossible Beauties is a gritty and gorgeous debut that follows a cast of gay and transgender club kids navigating the Harlem ball scene of the 1980s and ’90s. The story is inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza, made famous by the seminal documentary Paris Is Burning.

It’s 1980 in New York City, and nowhere is the city’s glamour and energy better reflected than in the burgeoning Harlem ball scene, where seventeen-year-old Angel first comes into her own. Burned by her traumatic past, Angel is new to the drag world, new to ball culture, and has a yearning inside of her to help create family for those without. When she falls in love with Hector, a beautiful young man who dreams of becoming a professional dancer, the two decide to form the House of Xtravaganza, the first-ever all-Latino house in the Harlem ball circuit. But when Hector dies of AIDS-related complications, Angel must bear the responsibility of tending to their house alone.

As mother of the house, Angel recruits Venus, a whip-fast trans girl who dreams of finding a rich man to take care of her; Juanito, a quiet boy who loves fabrics and design; and Daniel, a butch queen who accidentally saves Venus’s life. The Xtravaganzas must learn to navigate sex work, addiction, and persistent abuse, leaning on each other as bulwarks against a world that resists them. All are ambitious, resilient, and determined to control their own fates, even as they hurtle toward devastating consequences. Told in a voice that brims with wit, rage, tenderness, and fierce yearning, The House of Impossible Beauties is a tragic story of love, family, and the dynamism of the human spirit.

About the Author: Of Puerto Rican and Italian lineage, Joseph Cassara was born and raised in New Jersey. He holds degrees from Columbia University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been a writing fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Outwords Books contact: Carl Szatmary, (414) 963-9089

Victoria Price, author of The Way of Being Lost: A Road Trip to My Truest Self

Wednesday, March 14, 7:00 pm | Memoir, Spirituality

Event venue: Boswell

Publisher info: Ixia Press, $26.95, 9780486816050

After a tumultuous period of crisis, Victoria Price, author of The Way of Being Lost: A Road Trip to My Truest Self, rebuilt her life by embracing a daily practice of joy, healing childhood wounds and reconnecting to the example set by her father Vincent, the famed actor. Her journey involved stepping away from externalities and into her father's legacy -his love for people and compassion for others, his generosity of spirit and simple kindnesses, his enthusiasm for new experiences, and his love of life 

"As I've gotten older, I've come to understand that every day, in everything we do, we have a choice - between expanding into our lives or contracting into our fears, into saying Yes! to life … or saying No," Price observes. This intimate and inspiring book shares the lessons learned from a powerful family heritage of remaining curious, giving back, and saying Yes. Join her as she shares the stories, experiences, and lessons that led her back to her truest self, including her lifesaving daily practice of joy.

From Christiane Northrup, bestselling author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom: "The Way of Being Lost takes us on the most exquisite journey that one can take - the road home to one's true self … told through the particular lens of the author's life. Though it takes great courage to make this trip, the rewards are beyond measure. And in the case of The Way of Being Lost, the journey is beautifully told, universally relevant, and deeply meaningful." 

About the Author: Victoria Price is the author of the critically acclaimed Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography. A popular inspirational speaker on topics ranging from art collecting and design to creativity and spirituality, as well as the life of her famous father, Price’s work has been featured in USA TodayTravel & Leisure, and The New York Times. She is also an interspiritual and interfaith minister.

The UWM Visiting Writer Series presents Dan Kois, coauthor of The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America 

Thursday, March 15, 7:00 pm | Theater history, LGBT interest

Event venue: UWM’s Curtin Hall, Room 175, 3243 N Downer Ave

Publisher info: Bloomsbury, $30.00, 9781635571769

Boswell is honored to cosponsor a special talk from journalist Dan Kois, part of the UWM Visiting Writer Series. When Tony Kushner’s Angels in America hit Broadway in 1993, it won the Pulitzer Prize, swept the Tonys, and changed the way gay lives were represented in popular culture. Mike Nichols’s 2003 HBO adaptation with Meryl Streep and Al Pacino was itself a tour de force, winning 11 Emmys and introducing the play to an even wider public 

Now, on the 25th anniversary of that Broadway premiere, Dan Kois and Isaac Butler offer the definitive account of Angels in America in the most fitting way possible: through oral history, nearly 200 voices in vibrant conversation and debate. The intimate storytelling of actors (including Streep, Mary-Louise Parker, and Jeffrey Wright), directors, producers, and Kushner himself reveals the turmoil of the play’s birth - a hard-won miracle in the face of artistic roadblocks, technical disasters, and disputes both legal and creative. Historians and critics help situate the play in the arc of American culture, from the activism of the AIDS crisis through civil rights triumphs to our current era, whose politics are a dark echo of the Reagan ’80s.

The World Only Spins Forward is both a rollicking theater saga and an uplifting testament to one of the great works of art of the past century, from its gritty San Francisco premiere to the starry revival that electrified London in 2017. It is a moving account of the AIDS era, vital queer history, and an exuberant backstage tale.

About the Author: Whitefish Bay native Dan Kois is an editor and writer for Slate, where he launched the Slate Book Review, and a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. He is a frequent guest on Slate’s Culture Gabfest. 

UWM Visiting Writer Series contact: Peter Burzynski, , (414) 229-4511

Sonya Renee Taylor, coauthor of The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

Saturday, March 31, 7:00 pm | Self-help, personal growth, body image

Event venue: Boswell

Publisher info: Berrett-Koehler, $22.95, 9781626569768

Humans are a varied and divergent bunch with all manner of beliefs, morals, and bodies. Systems of oppression thrive off our inability to make peace with difference and injure the relationship we have with our own bodies.

The Body Is Not an Apology offers radical self-love as the balm to heal the wounds inflicted by these violent systems. World-renowned activist and poet Sonya Renee Taylor invites us to reconnect with the radical origins of our minds and bodies and celebrate our collective, enduring strength. As we awaken to our own indoctrinated body shame, we feel inspired to awaken others and to interrupt the systems that perpetuate body shame and oppression against all bodies. When we act from this truth on a global scale, we usher in the transformative opportunity of radical self-love, which is the opportunity for a more just, equitable, and compassionate world—for us all.

“Poet and activist Taylor (A Little Truth on Your Shirt) packs important ideas into this concise volume on body empowerment. “Radical self-love is not a destination you are trying to get to; it is who you already are,” she counsels…The author’s sensible and empathetic tone will lend comfort to readers and help them to see that no matter what their body type, they are beautiful.”

-Publishers Weekly 

The Body Is Not an Apology is a radical, merciful, transformational book that will give you deep insights, inspiration, and concrete tools for launching the revolution right inside your own beloved body. Written from deep experience, with a force of catalytic energy and so much love.”

—Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues and In the Body of the World

This event is free. Registration is requested at sonyareneetaylor.bpt.me 

About the Author: Sonya Renee Taylor is the founder and radical executive officer of TheBodyIsNotanApology.com. She has been featured on BET, NPR, and PBS, in The New York TimesNew York Magazine, and USA Today.

Taylor is a former national and international poetry slam champion, author, educator and activist who has mesmerized audiences across the United States, as well as in prisons, mental health treatment facilities, homeless shelters, universities, festivals and public schools across the globe. 

Believing in the power of art as a vehicle for social change, Sonya has been widely recognized for her work as a change agent. She was named one of Planned Parenthood's 99 Dream Keepers in 2015 as well as a Planned Parenthood Generation Action's 2015 Outstanding Partner awardee.

For more information, visit boswellbooks.com/upcoming-events for the latest info.

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