Featured Bookfest Author: Luis Urrea

The Downtown Glen Ellyn Bookfest is proud to announce that Luis Urrea will be one of its Featured Authors at this year's festival on Saturday, June 18th, 2011.

Luis will join Brigid Pasulka, Cristina Henriquez and Sarah McCoy in a Literary Luncheon called "Inspired by Our Ancestry" at the Glen Oak Restaurant from 12:00pm to 1:30pm. Tickets are $15 and are now available at The Bookstore or the Downtown Glen Ellyn Alliance website. It will be a perfect event for your entire book club. Space is limited, so purchase your tickets early.

Friends of The Bookstore may know Luis from one of The Bookstore's most interesting events last year, our Cinco de Mayo party. Luis is one of the best storytellers around, and now he is finished with the sequel to The Hummingbird's Daughter. The sequel is called The Queen of America, and although it won't be released until December, we hope Luis will be sharing bits and pieces of it with us. In both books, Luis explores the history of his Mexican ancestor, Saint Teresita, in a captivating blend of history, magic and miracles.

We are especially thrilled that Luis will be paired with two other Chicago area authors whose books share a similar theme. In A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True, Brigid Pasulka writes about her own Polish ancestry, and in Half the World, Cristina Henriquez writes about a girl discovering her roots in Panama, the home of her grandparents. Finally, author Sarah McCoy will be joining the luncheon to discuss her own Puerto Rican ancestry, which is the subject of her first novel, The Time It Snowed In Puerto Rico.

All of these featured books, as well as Luis' many other books, are available at The Bookstore now - pick them up and read it before the luncheon, and enjoy the discussion even more. In the meantime, please follow the Glen Ellyn Bookfest on Facebook and Twitter for updates and information.

Featured Bookfest Author: Brigid Pasulka

The 2nd Annual Downtown Glen Ellyn Bookfest is proud to announce that Brigid Pasulka will be one of its Featured Authors at this year's festival on Saturday, June 18th, 2011.

Brigid will join authors Luis Urrea, Cristina Henriquez and Sarah Mccoy in a Literary Luncheon called "Inspired by Our Ancestry" at the Glen Oak Restaurant from 12:00pm to 1:30pm. Tickets are $15 and are now available at The Bookstore and on the Downtown Glen Ellyn Alliance website. Purchase of the book(s) is separate.

Brigid is a Chicago area author, English teacher and graduate of the Dartmouth College and the University of Illinois at Chicago Program for Writers. Her first book, A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True won the PEN/Hemingway Award in 2010, and was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. It also earned a blue staff pick card at The Bookstore!

We are very excited about Brigid's appearance, particularly since we read and reviewed A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True during our Chicago Writers Month project last October. Brigid based the book on her own travels to Poland after college, where she researched and learned more about her own grandparents' story. For more information, our earlier blog post can be found here. Brigid has a wonderful website with more information about the book, including a Reader's Guide, glossary and map.

We will make an announcement as soon as tickets for the Bookfest Literary Luncheon are available. In the meantime, please follow the Glen Ellyn Bookfest on Facebook and Twitter for updates and information. The entire schedule and program will be available soon.

Bookfest Author: Cristina Henriquez

The Downtown Glen Ellyn Bookfest is proud to announce that Cristina Henriquez will be one of its Featured Authors at this year's festival on Saturday, June 18th, 2011.

Cristina will join authors Luis Urrea, Brigid Pasulka and Sarah McCoy in a Literary Luncheon called "Inspired by Our Ancestry" at the Glen Oak Restaurant from 12:00pm to 1:30 pm. Tickets are $15 and are available at The Bookstore, 475 N. Main Street in Glen Ellyn, as well as the Downtown Glen Ellyn Alliance website. Purchase of the book(s) is separate.

Cristina is a Chicago area author and a graduate of Northwestern University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has written two books: her first, a short story collection called Come Together, Fall Apart, and the second, a novel called The World in Half. Her first book was a New York Times Editors' Choice selection, and Virginia Quarterly called her one of literature's "promising new luminaries." For more information about Cristina, check out her website or this Chicago Tribune profile.

The World in Half is based on Cristina's own childhood visits to her grandparents in Panama every summer. Her father grew up near the Panama Canal. In The World in Half, a young woman travels from Chicago to Panama to locate the father she never met, and discovers that it's not just the Panama Canal that cuts the world in half.

We are very excited about Cristina's appearance, particularly since Jen Karsbaek at Devourer Of Books gave The World in Half a glowing review during our Chicago Writers' Month last October.

A perfect event for your book club! Cristina's book is available at The Bookstore now - pick it up and read it before the luncheon, and enjoy the discussion even more.

In the meantime, please follow the Glen Ellyn Bookfest on Facebook and Twitter for updates and information.