Friendly City Reading Series

Last Thursday I went to a book reading by the authors Mary Beth Keane and Gina Welch. Keane's novel, The Walking People, is about Irish-American immigrants and the culture of Irish travelers. Welch's book is about her time spent in an evangelical Christian church in Lynchburg, Virginia. The book is a memoir of the deep understanding she gains while posing as fundamentalist Christian and hiding her atheism.

At the event, each author read an excerpt from their book and then answered questions from the audience. The questions where about everything from researching the book to the publishing process. Keane described how her parents provided her with a great source of knowledge for her novel. She also described the pain of having to throw away over 100 pages of work after deciding that she wanted her book to go in a different direction. Welch told the audience about the moral dilemmas she faced when lying to her newfound friends in the church. Fortunately, she eventually told the church that she was undercover. Some were angry, but she still keeps in touch with others. In the short exerpt that she read, we got glimpses into places that most secularists will never go, such as Jerry Falwell's office or mission trips to Alaska.

This was the first book reading if ever been to, and I found it to be quite educational. Hearing and seeing an author read their own work really helps to bring life to the novel or work of non-fiction. The question and answer session gives the audience a great insight into the years of work, research, and planning that it takes to create a single book.