Quick Bites – Short media discussed over lunch hour

Decorah Public Library staff are hosting seven book discussions in March, including a new Speculative Fiction Novella Group. The groups are open to the public and newcomers are encouraged to attend. Anyone interested should call the library at 382-3717 to learn more or to reserve a book. Zoom links are available on the Library’s website or you can email ktorresdal@decorahlibrary.org to be added to any of the seven groups’ email distribution lists. Funds for multiple copy sets were generously provided by Friends of Decorah Public Library.

The Quick Bites group will meet in a hybrid format on April 12 and April 26 from 12:15-1 p.m.  Quick Bites is a new discussion group focused on short form media. This group will discuss short stories, essays, poetry, and audio/visual materials over the lunch hour on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month. Participants can attend in person in the Library’s Public Meeting Room in the lower level of the library.  

We’re headed Southwest for the April 26 Quick Bites discussion with a short story by Claire Vaye Watkins and a poem or two by Jake Skeets. 

Claire Vaye Watkins has been credited with creating a new genre of fiction – Nevada Gothic. “Wasteland, Wasteland, Wasteland” is set in the shadow of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Depository and wrestles with how a community is supposed to deal with a threat that lasts for thousands of years. Claire Vaye Watkins’s award winning short story collection, Battleborn, was published in 2012 and was named one of the best books of the year by NPR and other publications. Since then she has published two novels, most recently I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness. 

Text – https://kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/2013-spring/selections/claire-vaye-watkins-342846/ 

Jake Skeets is Black Streak Wood, born for Water’s Edge, a Diné poet from New Mexico whose award winning collection Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers was published in 2019. His beautiful, visceral, searing poetry is deeply rooted in the landscape of the Navajo Nation and explores the history of violence “done to it, done on it, done for it.” Skeeks holds an MFA in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts. 

Text – http://www.spilledmilkmagazine.com/issue08 

For more information, contact Tricia Crary (Friday Book Group), Zach Row-Heyveld (Cookbook and Quick Bites Groups) or Kristin Torresdal (Happy Hour, History, and Speculative Fiction Book Groups) at 563-382-3717.

Zoom Invitation 

Decorah Public Library is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. 

Topic: Quick Bites 

Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime 

Join Zoom Meeting 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83617988317?pwd=d0FOWWh3eXQ2UjlhdTVTSklwWktPQT09 

Meeting ID: 836 1798 8317 

Passcode: 316638 

Dial by your location 

        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) 

Meeting ID: 836 1798 8317