A Night of Readings About Social Justice
DATE: Thursday, December 17th
TIME: 7pm to 8:30pm
PLACE: Open Book Bookstore, 7900 High School Rd., Elkins Park, PA 19027
What do Genetically Modified foods, Freedom Summer of 1964 and building community through urban agriculture all have in common? They are themes that can be found in the novels and short stories of The Head & The Hand Press. Of course these themes are also all social justice issues. But as The Head & The Hand Press upholds its mission to tell stories that have the power to “change and entertain,” this Philadelphia publisher has added a literary depth to these issues that are at the forefront of progressivism in the United States.
If your love of literature intersects with your passion for social justice, then please join The Head & The Hand Press and The Open Book Bookstore as we welcome Jon McGoran reading from his food advocacy essay “Long Range Meal Planning,” Simone Zelitch reading from her civil rights novel Waveland and Nic Esposito reading from his urban farming essay collection Kensington Homestead.
Jon McGoran is the author of six novels, including the biotech thrillers Drift and Deadout, as well as their forthcoming sequel, Dust Up (April 2016), all from Tor/Forge Books, as well as the novella After Effects, from Amazon StoryFront. Writing as D. H. Dublin, he is also author of the forensic thrillers Body Trace, Blood Poison and Freezer Burn, from Penguin Books. His short fiction and nonfiction can be found in a variety of anthologies, and his short story “Bad Debt” received an honorable mention in Best American Mystery Stories, 2014. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, and a founding member of the Philadelphia Liars Club, a group of published authors dedicated to writers helping writers.
Simone Zelitch’s previous books include Louisa, which gained a starred review from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus as well as praise from the New York Times. She also the author of Moses in Sinai and The Confession of Jack Straw. Once a Peace Corps Volunteer in Hungary, Simone is now a professor at the Community College of Philadelphia where she coordinates the English Degree and established the Creative Writing Certificate Program.
After developing urban farm projects in West Philadelphia with the organization Philly Rooted, Nic Esposito now c
o-manages Emerald Street Community Farm with his wife Elisa as well as their own homestead populated by their son, Luca, a dog, a cat, and a whole bunch of chickens. He writes about social change, urban farming and sustainability for blogs and magazine and spoke on urban farming at the 2010 TED X conference in Philadelphia. He is the author of the novel Seeds of Discent and the essay collection Kensington Homestead. Nic is the founder of The Head & The Hand Press and The Head & The Hand Workshop.
