Friday, February 22, 2013

Tea and Conversation with Poet Anne Marie Macari

Join us for tea and conversation as Julie Maloney, Director of Women Reading Aloud, conducts an up-close and personal interview with award-winning New Jersey poet Anne Marie Macari at Bernardsville Public Library on Sunday, March 24 at 2:00 pm. Audience members will have a rare opportunity to ask the author questions about her work and her writing process.  A short reading as well as a book signing will follow the interview. 
 
The Poetry Center at Smith College calls this literary visionary a "questioner, a truth-seeker and a modern soothsayer."  A resident of Lambertville, her most recent book is “She Heads Into the Wilderness” (Autumn House Press, 2008).  Her first book, “Ivory Cradle,” won The APR/Honickman First Book Prize in Poetry.  She is also the author of “Gloryland” (Alice James Books).  In 2005, Ms. Macari won the James Dickey Prize from Five Points Magazine, and her poems have appeared in numerous other magazines such as The Iowa Review, The American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, and Field, and in anthologies including “From the Fishouse” (Persea Books, 2009) and “Never Before: Poems About First Experiences” (Four Way Books).  A graduate of Oberlin College, she holds an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence.  Ms. Macari founded and teaches in the Drew MFA Program for Poetry & Poetry in Translation.  She has also taught on the faculty of the Prague Summer Seminars.  

Interviewer Julie Maloney has worked in the arts as a performer and educator her entire life.  She is a poet and writer and founder/director of Women Reading Aloud (WRA), a not-for-profit organization that promotes women writers in New Jersey and beyond.  WRA holds workshops, special events, writing retreats, conferences and an on-going writing workshop series each spring and fall during which women writers of all genres hone their work in a salon type setting.  The annual Writer’s Weekend Retreat is held each April in Sea Girt, NJ.  In June, WRA returns for its third Greece Writer’s Retreat on the island of Alonnisos in the North Sporades.

There is no charge to attend the program at the library, but advance sign-up is requested.  Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link from Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

Be Prepared for a Choking Emergency


Choking is one of the leading causes of accidental death among children aged three years and younger.  In order to better prepare people for such an emergency, Michelle York of Somerset Hills CPR, LLC will offer a short overview on choke management of a conscious person at Bernardsville Public Library on Wednesday, March 20 at 7:00 pm.  The class is non-accredited, but follows American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines. 

Ms. York is an American Red Cross Instructor, an AHA Basic Life Support Instructor, and owner of Somerset Hills CPR, LLC, who has recently moved to Bernardsville.  This month, she will be inducted into the Bernardsville First Aid Squad.  She was an EMT in New York City for over ten years, and has been educating and certifying residents under the AHA guidelines in CPR and First Aid since 2009 with the Mine Brook Search and Rescue Training Center. 

There is no charge to attend the program, but space is limited.  Advance registration is required at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org.  For more information, call the library at 908-766-0118.

Saturday Crafters, a monthly craft group organized by Bernardsville Public Library, will meet on Saturday, March 16 at 3:00 pm.  Individuals are invited to bring their own handwork projects to the Library and work together in a comfortable, communal setting while enjoying the benefits of shared tips and conversation. They can also take advantage of the many books available at the library on different types of crafts.

There is no charge to attend the meeting, and no sign-up is needed.  For more information, call the library at 908-766-0118.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Rain Barrels and Rain Gardens

Learn about easy solutions for conserving, capturing, sinking and managing water on your property in a program at Bernardsville Public Library on Tuesday, March 12 at 7:00 pm.  Wanda Knapik, owner and founder of My Local Garden, will talk about rain barrels, drip irrigation, rain gardens and landscape solutions for your home and backyard, as well as simple and practical steps to keep water in your landscape, out of your basement, and out of the streets.  Find out how to be part of the solution to prevent storm water runoff and conserve water.  There will also be a demonstration of rain barrel installation and a slide show with rain garden examples, all followed by a Q and A session.

There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested.  Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link from Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

Saturday Samplers Book Group to Meet

Bernardsville Library’s book discussion group, Saturday Samplers, will meet on Saturday, March 2 at 3:30 pm to discuss My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier.  Published in 1951, the book is a mystery-romance set on a large estate in Cornwall.  A New York Times reviewer wrote of the book, "Miss du Maurier is...a storyteller whose sole aim is to bewitch and beguile.  And in My Cousin Rachel she does both, with Rebecca looking fondly over her shoulder."

Led by Evelyn Fischel, Saturday Samplers is a book discussion group dedicated to sampling various kinds of literature, including short stories, nonfiction, new and old novels, and even teen fiction. Its goal is to search out interesting, noteworthy, and sometimes overlooked books. Readers can find information about the group and about the books and authors on the reading list at http://saturdaysamplers.blogspot.com. No sign-up is needed to join the discussion. Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.

 

Monday, February 11, 2013

The University of "Can-Do" Master's Program


The next session of the "University of Can-Do Master's Program" will meet on Wednesday, February 27 at 7:00 pm at Bernardsville Public Library. "Do you have a goal that you think you can't make happen?" asks Ms. Mastrobattista, "Well, you can, because you have what it takes to accomplish it."

This workshop runs throughout the year, and each month participants discover more skills for cultivating and maintaining the "can-do" determination to make a dream come true.  In this installment of the Can-Do Master’s program, they will master the art of dealing with thoughts and feelings so they stop overwhelming the ability to act.

There is no charge to attend the library workshop, but advance registration is requested.  Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org, and follow the link from Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

The Future of Work: Collaboration & Communication Skills


The next program in the library series, "The Future of Work," will cover collaboration and communication skills necessary to stay current in the technological age.  Mike Landau, retired CEO of SetFocus, a technology school, will speak at Bernardsville Public Library on Tuesday, February 26 at 7:00 pm and discuss the newer means of communicating at and for work.  This will include topics like blogging, video, document sharing, and understanding RSS data feeds.

Mr. Landau has started a number of successful small businesses since 1987, prior to which he was the Director of Strategic Planning at AT&T. SetFocus, a technology school, specialized in training and placing IT professionals.  Mr. Landau has an undergraduate degree in Economics and an MBA from New York University.
           
There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested.  Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link under Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Memoirs & Coffee Book Group to Meet


The next meeting of Bernardsville Public Library’s book discussion group, Memoirs and Coffee, will be held on Tuesday, February 26 at 10:30 am in the library’s Community Room.  Pat Kennedy-Grant, Readers’ Services Manager for the library, will lead the discussion of " Elsewhere: A Memoir” (2012) by Richard Russo. [The author will not be present.]

Richard Russo is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of eight works of fiction which preceded this memoir--a hilarious, moving and always surprising account of his life, his parents and the upstate New York town they all struggled to escape.  Michael Schaub of NPR.org said the book is “One of the most honest, moving American memoirs in years... Russo's straightforward writing style is even more effective in "Elsewhere" [and his] intellectual and emotional honesty are remarkable.”

There is no charge and no sign-up is needed to join the discussion.  Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.