The fall season of Club Book will be held partly in person and partly virtual this fall as it hosts internationally renowned writers Mohsin Hamid, Nick Hornby, Jamie Ford and others. Club Book is a free author series that brings notable writers to libraries throughout the metro area.
Events begin Sept. 13 and run through the end of November. All are free and will be recorded and archived on the Club Book website, YouTube channel and Facebook Live pages.
Here's the lineup:
Boyah J. Farah, 7 p.m. Sept. 13. A virtual event hosted by the Hennepin County Library.
Somali essayist Farah immigrated to the United States in the mid-1990s, expecting a land of freedom and liberty and finding, instead, systemic injustices and racism against Black people. His memoir, "America Made Me a Black Man," is one of the first book-length essays about racism in the United States from the point of view of an African immigrant. Farah is also founder of the Abaadi School in Garowe, Somalia, which teaches children science and math.
Peng Shepherd, 7 p.m. Sept. 26. A virtual event hosted by Anoka County Library.
Shepherd's 2019 novel "The Book of M," a speculative fiction tale about people losing their shadows and then their memories, won the Neukom Institute Award for debut speculative fiction. Her second book, "The Cartographers," was published in March.
Jamie Ford, 6:30 p.m. Sept. 29. An in-person invent at R.H. Stafford Library, 8595 Central Park Place, Woodbury.
Ford is the author of "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet," about Asian Americans during World War II. It was on the New York Times bestseller list more than two years and won the Asian/Pacific Award for Literature. (It was also chosen for the Lakeville One Book/ One Lakeville program in 2013.) His new novel, "The Many Daughters of Afong Moy," was selected by the "Today Show" for the Read With Jenna book club.
Mohsin Hamid, noon, Oct. 3. A virtual event hosted by Ramsey County Library.
Hamid has been shortlisted twice for the Man Booker Prize and "How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia" won the Tiziano Terzani International Literary Prize. "Exit West" was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle fiction prize. His new novel, "The Last White Man," is an allegory on U.S. race relations as white characters slowly turn brown.
Kristin Harmel, 7 p.m. Oct. 4. An in-person event at Prior Lake Public Library, 16210 Eagle Creek Av. SE., Prior Lake.
Harmel is a bestselling writer of historical fiction, including "The Book of Lost Names," based on a true story of World War II in which a forger helps Jewish children escape the Nazis. Her latest novel, "The Forest of Vanishing Stars," is also based on a true story about hundreds of Jewish people who fled to the forests to elude the Nazis.
Harmel is also co-founder of the podcast "Friends and Fiction," which she hosts with other writers.
Leila Mottley, 7 p.m. Oct. 17. A virtual event hosted by Dakota County Library.
Mottley is the author of the debut novel "Nightcrawling," the story of a young Black girl who turns to sex work to avoid homelessness. The book was named a pick for Oprah's Book Club 2.0, was an instant bestseller, and has been nominated for the Booker Prize.
Marie Myung-Ok Lee, 7 p.m. Nov. 9. A virtual event hosted by St. Paul Public Library.
Lee grew up in Hibbing, Minn., the daughter of immigrants from Korea. Her young-adult novel, "Finding My Voice," was one of the first YA novels to feature an Asian-American protagonist. Her latest novel for adults, "The Evening Hero," is set partially on Minnesota's Iron Range, the story of a Korean immigrant doctor who faces rural hospital closings, racism and war trauma.
Lee is also co-founder of the Asian American Writers' Workshop.
Nick Hornby, 10:30 a.m. Nov. 19. A virtual event hosted by Carver County Library.
British writer Hornby is known for his novels "High Fidelity," "About a Boy" and "Fever Pitch," some of which were turned into movies. His new book, "Dickens and Prince," explores the styles and similarities between Charles Dickens and Minnesota's own Prince.
Laurie Hertzel is the senior editor for books at the Star Tribune. On Twitter: @StribBooks.
