Visiting Professor Series: Claudia Traudt

Join us Friday, May 22 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. for the latest installment of our Visiting Professor Series. Claudia Traudt will present In the Beginning was the word: Entering Melville, Joyce, Faulkner, and Walker.

The openings of literary works are critical. They have one shot to arrest, engage, pique interest and begin to teach or have a reader discover how to read them. Ms. Traudt will briefly explore the gripping openings of four revelatory works: Moby Dick, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Sound and the Fury, and The Color Purple.

Ms. Traudt holds an MA from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and teaches at the University's Graham School. She is the recipient of the Graham School's Excellence in Teaching Award for its Basic Program. An artist, her work, research, and teaching explore modes of creation and perception in word and image. Ms. Traudt is also a lecturer at Columbia College.

The Visiting Professor Series is made possible by the generous support of the Friends of the Glencoe Public Library.

The College Freshman Experience

Congratulations! You’ve been accepted into college. The hard part’s over, right? We hope so! But for some students, the first semester away from home can be a rude awakening. New relationships, heightened academic expectations - and homesickness - all can be tough to negotiate.

So how can you make the most of your freshman year? Join us Thursday, May 14 from 7:30 to 8:30 pm to find out. Hanna Stotland, a college admissions consultant and frequent speaker here at the library, will offer advice on how to have a great experience across your academic, social, and residential life during your first year - and throughout college.

Author Event: Libby Fischer Hellmann

Join us on Thursday, May 7 at 7 pm to hear best-selling crime fiction writer Libby Fischer Hellmann. 

Hellmann claims that she is, "writing her way around the genre." She has published 11 novels and 10 short stories including thrillers, suspense mysteries, police procedurals, historical, amateur sleuth, and even a cozy mystery. Her work has been nominated (twice) for an Anthony Award, the Agatha Award, and Foreword Reviews' "Thriller of the Year" (twice). It has also won awards multiple times from the Murder is Lovey conference.

Her newest mystery, Nobody's Child, is the fourth in her series about Georgia Davis, a Chicago private investigator. Publishers Weekly writes that the book is, "thrilling... Hellmann ratchets up tension with every chapter and the reader is constantly keep wondering about the fate of both sisters."

Hellmann will read from her work and speak about writing genre fiction, her creative process and why she switched to self-publishing from traditional publishing.