Laureate Writers Series – April 2018

Nickolas Butler to Read at Blue Heron

Tuesday | April 3 | 7:00pm
Blue Heron Coffee House

The Laureate Writers Series will feature Nickolas Butler who will read from his new novel The Hearts of Men. The reading is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a book signing and open mic. The theme for the open mic is Horses.

Nickolas Butler is the author of the bestselling and prizewinning novel Shotgun Lovesongs and the acclaimed short story collection Beneath the Bonfire. He was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and educated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Butler’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Christian Science Monitor, The Kenyon Review Online, Narrative, The Progressive, and many other publications. Along the way he has worked as a meatpacker, a Burger King maintenance man, a liquor store clerk, a coffee roaster, an office manager, an author escort, an inn-keeper (twice), and several other odd vocations. He presently lives on 16 acres of land in rural Wisconsin adjacent to a buffalo farm.

New York Times reviewer Christina Baker Kline says “The Hearts of Men—as its title beautifully suggests—is a wry, tenderhearted novel about men: their families and friendships, their vulnerabilities and foibles, their secrets and lies. Part coming-of-age narrative, part meditation on masculinity, part war story, this novel had me spellbound all the way to its riveting conclusion.” The Hearts of Men considers the importance of a code of moral conduct. Despite the novel’s title, it’s very much about women too, as well as the Boy Scouts, baseball, and our rapidly deteriorating natural world.

This event is co-sponsored by Winona’s Fine Arts Commission and The Blue Heron and is free and open to the public.

The Laureate Writer’s Series is sponsored by the City of Winona’s Fine Arts Commission. The City of Winona is a partner of River Arts Alliance.