THE SUBMISSION CHOSEN AS LITHGOW PUBLIC LIBRARY’S 2013 A CAPITAL READ SELECTION; AUTHOR APPEARANCE SET FOR APRIL 30

Augusta, Maine - An appearance by author Amy Waldman will be the highlight of a month-long series of events celebrating Lithgow Public Library’s annual community-wide reading project, A Capital Read.  This year’s A Capital Read selection is Waldman’s acclaimed debut novel The Submission, which explores the controversy and complex emotions surrounding a memorial for the victims of 9/11.
      In addition to Waldman’s talk on Tuesday, April 30 at 7 p.m. at the University of Maine at Augusta, other programs in April will include a community art exhibit, a play adapted from The Submission, an evening of poetry and music, book discussions, and an appearance by author/human rights advocate Reza Jelali of USM.
     
A Capital Read is generously underwritten by the Friends of Lithgow Library in partnership with the University of Maine at Augusta.

“A decade ago, A Capital Read was launched to encourage the greater Augusta community to read and discuss the same book,” said Lithgow Library Director Elizabeth Pohl.  “This year’s selection of The Submission has inspired a wonderful variety of events offering something for just about everyone.  Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of Lithgow Library, we are thrilled to have Amy Waldman here on April 30 to talk with readers about her thought-provoking novel.”

         The Submission examines the controversy that results when a jury chooses a walled garden as the design for a Ground Zero memorial. Jurors discover, when they open the envelope with the anonymous winner’s name, that the designer is a young Muslim American architect.  In the conflicted response of the jury and the public, The Submission looks at the intersection of art, religion and politics, and asks some hard questions about the American values of tolerance, diversity and community.
       The Submission was named a New York Times Notable Book for 2011, one of NPR’s Ten Best Novels, Esquire’s Book of the Year, Entertainment Weekly’s #1 Novel for the Year, a Washington Post Notable Fiction Book, and one of Amazon’s Top 100 Books and Top Ten Debut Fiction. It was a finalist for the Guardian (UK) First Book Award.
      Waldman was a reporter for the New York Times for eight years, and a national correspondent for The Atlantic.  Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, the Boston Review and the Financial Times, and was anthologized in The Best American Non-Required Reading 2010.  She lives in Brooklyn with her family.
      Among the programs leading up to Waldman’s visit are a non-fiction book group discussing The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11; a non-juried art exhibit titled Recovering, Remembering and Memorializing; a play depicting scenes from The Submission; an evening of poetry and music that encompasses themes from the book; an event at UMA’s Holocaust/Human Rights Center with Reza Jalali, human rights activist and author of Moon Watchers: Shirin's Ramadan Miracle; and book discussion groups on The Submission at both Lithgow Library and at UMA.
      All events for A Capital Read are free and open to the public.  For more information about A Capital Read, contact Lithgow Library at 626-2415 or visit the library’s website at  www.lithgow.lib.me.us.