Visiting Speaker Series
Aminatta Forna
Award-winning author of several novels and the essay collection, The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion
Join the Writers Guild for a special event with celebrated author, Aminatta Forna when she presents “The Power of Storytelling” at the Monroe County Public Library Auditorium on Saturday, November 15, 2025 at 7pm. View full event details here.
Book sales/book signing/and reception to take place next door at the Monroe County History Center after the talk.
Aminatta Forna is an award winning writer. Through fiction and non-fiction she has examined the effects of war and trauma. Formerly a journalist for BBC TV, her first book, The Devil that Danced on the Water, was an investigation into the murder of her father, a political activist and Amnesty Prisoner of Conscience, in Sierra Leone in the 1970’s. There followed three novels, including the multi award winning and bestselling The Memory of Love. A firm believer in the resilience of the human spirit, Aminatta’s last novel is titled, Happiness.
Born in Scotland to a Scottish mother and West African father, Aminatta’s childhood was spent moving between worlds and even included spells in Iran and Thailand. She first came to the United States as a Harkness Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley in 1996. Aminatta is widely traveled and her boundary-crossing life provides the context for her understanding of history, culture and politics. Her adventures are the subject of her most recent book, an essay collection, The Window Seat.
The recipient of a Windham Campbell Award from Yale University, Aminatta has won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award, the Hurston Wright Legacy Award, the Liberaturpreis in Germany and the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize and been a finalist for the Neustadt Prize for Literature (widely regarded as the most prestigious international literary award after the Nobel).
Aminatta has written and presented television documentaries including “The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu” (BBC Television, 2009) and “Girl Rising” (CNN, 2013). She is a frequent contributor to BBC radio arts and current affairs programs.
Her essays have appeared in Freeman’s, Granta, The Guardian, LitHub, The Nation, The New York Review of Books and Vogue.
Local Author Book Fair
As we seek new funding sources, the Local Author Book Fair is currently on hold. We hope to continue this event in the future, so stay tuned!
Local Author Book Fair 2024
Saturday, November 2, 2024, 10am to 3pm
Monroe County History Center, 202 E. 6th Street, Bloomington, IN
Thirty LOCAL authors! Fifteen different genres! Music! Food! Prizes! Free and Fun for All!
Check out the authors! WG Book Fair Author Catalog 2024
Printed copies will be at the Book Fair.
Special Guests:
Children’s authors Keiko Kasza, Teresa Robeson, Tanya Konerman (all signing books 1pm to 2pm)
Graphic novelist Nate Powell and graphic /middle grade fiction novelist Rob Harrell (signing books 10am to 3pm)
Five different musical groups!
10:30am First Presbyterian Bell Choir
11:30am Busman’s Holiday
12:30pm Chris Barth/Singer songwriter
1:30pm Erika Stoner Edelberg/Harp
2:30pm JDRS Jazz Quartet
Tamales by Bivis Torres!
FREE cake and cookies by Two Sticks Bakery!
FREE coffee by Needmore Coffee!
FREE raffle, with gifts from LOCAL businesses!
