Susan Meissner will discuss her new book, “A Bridge Across the Ocean,” at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 23, at Laguna Beach Books, 1200 S. Coast Highway.
The work follows the lives of three women, past and present connected by a 70-year-old tragedy that took place aboard the Queen Mary during the 13 voyages it made carrying war brides across the Atlantic to their American husbands.
It’s Poetry Time
Laguna Beach Library will accept submissions for its 19th annual poetry contest until April 30. The contest dovetails with OC Public Libraries’ community wide reading push spotlighting Julia Alvarez’ “In the Time of the Butterflies.”
The poetry contest takes its theme, Seaside Butterflies, from the book.
All winners will be invited to the poetry awards at the library on Saturday, June 3.
Entry forms are available at the library, 363 Glenneyre St. Submissions for cover art for this year’s booklet are also being accepted.
For more information call: 949-497-1733.
Library Series Features Standouts
The Newport Beach Public Library Foundation features anthropologist Dr. Wade Davis, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson and author Stephanie Danler.
Davis will lecture Friday and Saturday, April 7-8, on The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World. His lecture will explore the world’s indigenous cultures to answer a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive?
Davis is a professor of anthropology and chair in cultures and ecosystems at risk at the University of British Columbia.
Wilkerson’s talk Friday and Saturday, April 28-29, titled Our Racial Moment of Truth, addresses the persistence of racial injustice.
Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as The New York Times’ Chicago bureau chief, the first black woman in the history of American journalism to do so.
Danler will be discussing her debut novel “Sweetbitter” at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 18. The novel’s backdrop is the fast-paced and often chaotic Manhattan restaurant life where the author worked before enrolling in graduate school.
