Drawing upon wisdom, leadership, parenthood, and a 35-year career as a sports marketing executive, author/speaker and local Southporter Stephen Panus shares his journey of turning pain into purpose, overcoming adversity and finding strength in vulnerability as chronicled in his highly acclaimed memoir, Walk On.
Stephen Panus suffered through every parent's most horrific nightmare — the loss of a child. On August 9, 2020, his 16-year-old son, Jake, was a passenger killed in a reckless and senseless crash on Block Island while away with his girlfriend and her family.
Walk On is an inspiring and emotionally powerful story which transcends grief, loss, and love, and provides hope for anyone suffering from any form of adversity, struggle, or hardship. Moreover, it's an authentic story of a father who honors that "our vulnerability is our strength" and therefore takes the reader where few men have gone — to the raw underbelly of surviving the sudden and tragic loss of his beloved son.
Joining Stephen for a conversation about Walk On is Westport's own Lindsay Czarniak of Fox Sports, who will lead the program and entertain questions from the audience.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension — a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into... Westport, Connecticut.
Award-winning author and resident Twilight Zone expert Arlen Schumer presents Westport in The Twilight Zone: A Symposium, a four-day event series that will explore Westport’s unique place in the unsettling, cerebral, and often macabre world of The Twilight Zone — and celebrate 100 years of Twilight Zone creator and iconic 20th century broadcast voice Rod Serling.
Starting Thursday, September 26, and running through Sunday, September 29, The Westport Library will host screenings of landmark episodes and films inspired by Serling’s signature series, punctuated by insightful discussions of all aspects of his life and work — including facts you never knew about Westport’s critical role in The Twilight Zone.
Thursday and Friday night’s presentations are 6 to 9 pm, Saturday is 5 to 9 pm, and Sunday is 1 to 5 pm. Tickets for this event are free. Register to attend here. Attendees are encouraged to come dressed in their best black and white Twilight Zone outfits — and enjoy black and white cookies throughout the symposium.
Schumer will spearhead the proceedings, along with fellow authors and Serling scholars Nick Parisi (Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination and America’s Twilight Zone: How Rod Serling Foreshadowed the Age of Trump) and Mark Dawidziak (Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone.)
Schumer’s intention for Westport in The Twilight Zone is to enlighten local attendees with thematic elements drawn from Serling’s own life, particularly regarding his time in Westport.
“Serling lived in Westport for three years during the mid-50s, when he won three Emmy Awards three years in a row,” Schumer said. “That creative clout enabled him to go out to Hollywood to create The Twilight Zone — and some of its greatest episodes might have been influenced by his time in Westport!”
Those episodes include ones like, “A Stop at Willoughby” and “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” which Schumer delved into in his new book, The Five Themes of The Twilight Zone. In it, Schumer described Westport’s influence in Serling’s alternate dimension as “traces of the town's suburban, commuter and pastoral elements, as well as its dark underbelly.”
Advanced hardcover copies are available for purchase through online registration or during the event prior to the book’s official date of publication on October 2, which marks the 65th Anniversary of The Twilight Zone’s debut.
Thursday, September 26, will kick off the symposium with “A Stop at Willoughby,” followed by the 1968 Burt Lancaster film, The Swimmer, based on John Cheever's 1964 New Yorker short story of the same name. The Swimmer was partially filmed in Westport.
Friday delivers “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” followed by “The Shelter,” its sister episode. The evening ends with a rare one-hour episode that was truly ahead of its time: “He’s Alive,” starring Dennis Hopper.
Saturday’s double feature is the Oscar-winning episode (Best Short Film) “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and the 1990 cult classic film Jacob’s Ladder, inspired by that same episode.
Sunday closes out the symposium in style with a pop-up art show of Staples High School students’ artworks, inspired by one of the most memorable Twilight Zone episodes, “Eye of the Beholder.” A screening of that same episode will precede another thematically similar one: “Number 12 Looks Just Like You,” complete with original commercials from its airdate in 1964. The 1975 film The Stepford Wives, also partially filmed in Westport, will tie it all together.
Westport? Whatever it is, it comes with sunlight and serenity… and is a part of The Twilight Zone.
Please join the Aspectuck Land Trust and the Library as award-winning journalist and author of Village of the Dammed, James Lomuscio, tells the story of the rise and fall of Valley Forge, Connecticut.
Known for manufacturing steel and iron for the Civil War, the stone walls, hitching posts, foundations, and roads of this once-thriving ghost town are now 100 feet below the surface of the Saugatuck Reservoir.
Tickets are free and open to the public. Please register.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Connecticut History
History 101
Celebrate the book launch of Westporter Diane Parrish's debut novel Something Better at The Westport Library. Diane will be joined in conversation with her daughter and acclaimed author, Amanda Parrish Morgan.
About Something Better:
Diane Parrish is originally from the Midwest and now lives with her husband and their elderly Corgi in Connecticut, where they raised their two children. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in various literary journals and magazines. Something Better is her first novel.
Amanda Parrish Morgan is the author of Stroller (Bloomsbury) which The New Yorker named one of the best books of 2022, noting that “the central strength of the book is not comprehensiveness but the way the stroller, and Morgan’s experience of her own strollering years, become an omnidirectional magnet, pulling disparate material into friendly proximity.”
Some of Amanda’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Wired, The Rumpus, LitHub, Guernica, The Millions, n+1, The American Scholar, The Washington Post and elsewhere. Amanda lives in Connecticut with her husband and two kids, where she teaches at Fairfield University, The University of Chicago’s Graham School, and the Westport Writers’ Workshop.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
NoveList Plus
READ Like A Librarian
The Westport Library and the Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County are excited to host Naama Shefi, founder of the Jewish Food Society, and food writer Liz Rueven in conversation about Jewish recipes and culinary heritage, highlighting Shefi's cookbook, The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long.
Copies of the cookbook will be available for purchase and signing.
Naama Shefi is a kibbutznik and New Yorker whose work sits at the intersection of food, culture, community building, and art. In 2017, she founded the Jewish Food Society, a nonprofit organization, which preserves and celebrates Jewish culinary heritage through a digital recipe archive and dynamic events. In the summer of 2021, she launched Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel, a center in Tel Aviv dedicated to exploring the diverse and creative food culture of Israel.
Liz Rueven is a Connecticut food writer with more than 18,000 readers following her snippets, Jewish holiday inspiration, and drool-worthy recipes. She mixes it up with stories about producers and small businesses she supports, cookbooks that make her want to stay in the kitchen, and adventures at farmers' markets everywhere she visits. Find her on Instagram @kosherlikeme.
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“This book carefully unravels diverse Jewish traditions with great skill and depth. I love how personal it is, and how generous and delicious.” ―Yotam Ottolenghi, cookbook author
“This cookbook is like a family reunion told across tables that cross borders, time, tastes, and seasons. It tells our story in a way that is uniquely Jewish, joyful and sparkling with life. It’s a must-have.” ―Michael W. Twitty, winner of the James Beard Award and the National Jewish Book Award and author of The Cooking Gene and Koshersoul
“The Jewish Holiday Table is a reminder that food and culture are inextricable — and our most cherished dishes endure through breathless storytelling and a deep, abiding love of gathering and community.” ―Natasha Pickowicz, chef and author of More Than Cake
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
The Westport Library and Westport Country Playhouse present Matthew Greene in conversation about his new mystery, There's No Murder Like Show Murder.
Tasha Weaver has seen her fair share of divas come and go while working as the costume shop head at the Eastbrook Playhouse, but her beloved theater is put at risk when the star of the show is killed in this fun but deadly debut.
Weaver is most at home in the cozy backstage world of the Eastbrook Playhouse. As the costume shop head at the charming regional theater, she’s used to watching dramatic acts of love and revenge from the shadows. But when Kurt Mozer — the insufferable Broadway reject who stars in their production of Annie Get Your Gun — is shot center stage, the spotlight turns to her. With the help of her friends, her longtime crush Bruno Machado, and her feline colleague Hilly, Tasha must catch a murderer before the shining lights of the playhouse go out forever.
“Theater fans will appreciate the behind-the-scenes knowledge, along with the small details so essential to the atmosphere of this cozy mystery.” —Library Journal, starred review
“Greene’s deep dive behind the scenes will tempt mystery fans and theater buffs alike.” —Kirkus
“This former Thespian gives There’s No Murder Like Show Murder a standing ovation. M.S. Greene’s cozy debut is a bona fide hit. Four stars!” —Frank Anthony Polito, award-winning author of Rehearsed to Death
NoveList Plus
Get the Right Book for You
Jason Stanley, Yale professor and best-selling author of How Fascism Works, presents a kaleidoscopic, fact-based retort to the authoritarian right’s work to instill fascist culture in the United States. As he argues with clarity, it is their goal to make us forget what fascism looks like, feels like, and does to a nation. Most troubling of all, today’s authoritarian right-wing leaders look to be learning from the worst monsters of our past. For this event, he will be in conversation with Ethan Kleinberg, Professor of History and Letters at Wesleyan University.
Combining historical research with an in-depth analysis of our political landscape, Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future issues a warning for America and the world: the worst authoritarian movements of today, and of the past, found a soft target in a place we may least suspect: our schools. As Hitler himself once said, “he alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” As Stanley shows, modern-day authoritarian right-wing leaders have largely reached the same conclusion: If you want to roll back the clock on civil rights, equity, and inclusion, a great place to start is in our schools.
Hearts and minds are won early in life — and Erasing History shows that governments are currently ill-prepared to do the work of uprooting the fascist policies being foisted upon our children through school boards, in courtrooms, and in the boardrooms of the companies trusted to train our teachers and create the materials they’ll share with their students.
Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of six books, including How Propaganda Works. Stanley serves on the board of the Prison Policy Initiative and writes frequently about propaganda, free speech, mass incarceration, democracy, and authoritarianism for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and many other periodicals.
Ethan Kleinberg is the Class of 1958 Distinguished Professor of History and Letters at Wesleyan University and Editor-in-Chief of History and Theory. He is the author of Generation Existential: Martin Heidegger’s Philosophy in France, 1927-61 (Cornell University Press, 2006); Haunting History: for a deconstructive approach to the past (Stanford University Press, 2017); and Emmanuel Levinas’s Talmudic Turn: Philosophy and Jewish Thought (Stanford University Press, October 2021). He is co-author of the “Theses on Theory and History” with Joan Wallach Scott and Gary Wilder and they are completing a monograph titled History: Three Inquiries in the Politics of Knowledge for the University of Chicago Press Trios series. His current book length project is The Surge: Temporal Anarchy and the Pursuit of Dynamic History.
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center
History of the World
The New York Times best-selling author of Cork Dork returns to Westport and takes readers on another fascinating, hilarious, and revelatory journey — this time burrowing deep inside the secretive world of art and artists in Get the Picture. Bosker will be in conversation with one of Westport's contemporary artists, Miggs Burroughs to help us understand the art world.
An award-winning journalist obsessed with obsession, Bianca Bosker’s existence was upended when she wandered into the art world — and couldn’t look away. Intrigued by artists who hyperventilate around their favorite colors and art fiends who max out credit cards to show hunks of metal they think can change the world, Bosker grew fixated on understanding why art matters and how she — or any of us — could engage with it more deeply.
In the New York Times best-seller Get the Picture, Bosker throws herself into the nerve center of art and the people who live for it: gallerists, collectors, curators, and, of course, artists themselves — the kind who work multiple jobs to afford their studios while scrabbling to get eyes on their art. As she stretches canvases until her fingers blister, talks her way into A-list parties full of billionaire collectors, has her face sat on by a nearly naked performance artist, and forces herself to stare at a single sculpture for hours on end while working as a museum security guard, she discovers not only the inner workings of the art-canonization machine but also a more expansive way of living.
Probing everything from cave paintings to Instagram, and from the science of sight to the importance of beauty as it examines art’s role in our culture, our economy, and our hearts, Get the Picture is a rollicking adventure that will change the way you see forever.
Read a review of Get the Picture from The Washington Post.
Bosker is the New York Times best-selling author of Cork Dork and, most recently, Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See. A contributing writer at The Atlantic, she has also written for publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Her work has been recognized with awards from the New York Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, and more, and has been included in The Best American Travel Writing.
Westport's Artistic Legacy
Visual Arts Collection
Meet Alisyn Camerota when her memoir, Combat Love, launches at The Westport Library. Alisyn will be in conversation with fellow memoirist and Westporter Gabi Coatsworth.
CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota’s memoir Combat Love is her story of growing up longing for stability and attachment as the foundation of her family crumbled. Set on the Jersey Shore in the free-range 1980s, Camerota finds the belonging she craves courtesy of a local punk rock band named Shrapnel and their diehard fans. Combat Love chronicles her near-misses and misadventures at clubs like CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, coupled with the sex, drugs, and punk rock of 1980s New Jersey. By the time she leaves home at 16, it feels like home had left her long ago.
Combat Love is also the story of two women, mother and daughter, trying to forge their own paths and independence, and find their own happiness, success, and wholeness. Camerota’s story searches for the line between shelter and risk, nurture and neglect, parenting and personal freedom. What are we willing to sacrifice for self-actualization and happiness? What if the answer is your mother, or your daughter?
The two-time Emmy Award-winning Camerota retraces her steps down an often gritty path toward her dream of becoming a journalist. At times heartbreaking and pulse-pounding, Combat Love is an inspiration for anyone who’s ever searched for that elusive place called home.
"A candid chronicle of hard-won survival." —Kirkus Reviews
"Combat Love is far more than an audacious coming of age story. It’s a reminder that beneath a successful adult’s polished exterior is the wildness of youth, vulnerability and loss. Camerota shows us the hard-earned work of finding your voice. So, while you might pick up Combat Love because of the author’s familiar face, you won’t be able to put it down for her candor, wit, and storytelling. In an embarrassment of riches, Alisyn Camerota is as singular a writer as she is a broadcast journalist." —Adrienne Brodeur, bestselling author of Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Alisyn Camerota is a journalist, author, anchor, and correspondent for CNN. In her three decades in journalism, Camerota has covered stories nationally and internationally, earning two Emmy Awards and the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award. Her debut novel, Amanda Wakes Up, was selected by National Public Radio as one of the best books of 2017, and by Oprah Magazine as “a must read.”
Gabi Coatsworth is the author of a memoir, Love's Journey Home (May 2022), and a novel, A Beginner's Guide to Starting Over (April 2023), as well as a contributor to several anthologies. She runs monthly meetings for writers at The Westport Library.
Non-Fiction 101
Biography & Memoir
Resources for Writers
SELF!SH: An actress, a psychologist, and a branding guy walk into a library - it’s not the start of a joke, it’s the SELF!SH event.
Actress Stephanie Szostak shares insights from her new workbook SELF!SH: Step Into a Journey of Self-Discovery to Revive Confidence, Joy, and Meaning with Tasha Eurich, organizational psychologist and New York Times best-selling author, along with John Nunziato of LITTLE BIG BRANDS.
Discover how self-care and human-centric branding converge to nourish and elevate your personal growth. Learn how to create your own Playbook, reconnect to the best You, and bring more of what you cherish and value to life and to those around you. That’s SELF!SH.
Stephanie Szostak is an actress, author, and an ambassador for the mental health organization Give an Hour. Szostak left her native France to study business and play varsity golf at The College of William & Mary. At twenty-nine years old, after a brief stint at Chanel in New York City, she gave the acting world a try. Her most notable projects include The Devil Wears Prada, Iron Man 3, Dinner for Schmucks, and ABC’s A Million Little Things. Stephanie is a Westport resident, mom, and competitive golfer.
John Nunziato is the founder of Little Big Brands, an award-winning branding firm. Over a 30 year career, he’s led pivotal brand creation and rebrands for a blue chip list of clients including Burger King, Little Spoon and Chicken of the Sea. Closer to home, he regularly donates his design talents to local schools and organizations in Westport.
Dr. Tasha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, researcher, and New York Times best-selling author (Bankable Leadership, Insight, Shatterproof: coming in 2025).Tasha has worked directly with more than 20,000 leaders at companies like Google, the NBA, Deloitte, Walmart, and White House Leadership Development Program. Her TEDX Talk has been viewed more than 8 million times.
Health & Wellness
Mindfulness & Meditation
Learn about female writers during the Renaissance when Ramie Targoff discusses her new book, Shakespeare's Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance, with Shannon Kelley PhD of Fairfield University.
Books will be available for purchase and signing.
About Shakespeare's Sisters:
In an innovative and engaging narrative of everyday life in Shakespeare’s England, Targoff carries us from the sumptuous coronation of Queen Elizabeth in the mid-16th century into the private lives of four women writers working at a time when women were legally the property of men. Few have heard of Aemilia Lanyer, the first woman in the 17th century to publish a book of original poetry, which offered a feminist take on the crucifixion, or Elizabeth Cary, who published the first original play by a woman, about the plight of the Jewish princess Mariam. Then there was Anne Clifford, a lifelong diarist who fought for decades against a patriarchy that tried to rob her of her land in one of England’s most infamous inheritance battles. These women had husbands and children to care for and little support for their art, yet against all odds they defined themselves as writers, finding rooms of their own where doors had been shut for centuries. Targoff flings those doors open, revealing the treasures left by these extraordinary women; in the process, she helps us see the Renaissance in a fresh light, creating a richer understanding of history and offering a much-needed female perspective on life in Shakespeare’s day.
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Ramie Targoff is the Jehuda Reinharz Professor of the Humanities, professor of English, and co-chair of Italian Studies at Brandeis University. She holds a BA from Yale University and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author, most recently, of Renaissance Woman, a biography of Vittoria Colonna, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Shannon Kelley (Duke, PhD) is Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Associate Professor of English at Fairfield University, where she teaches courses in lyric poetry and Shakespeare. Her work on gender and the poetics of trauma in the poetry of Andrew Marvell won the Monroe Kirk Spears Award from Studies in English Literature in 2015. Her current book manuscript under contract with Cornell University Press charts how race, gender, and trauma intersect by following the single metaphor of tree-becoming.
The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Celebrating 25 years writing mysteries about Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc and the 21st novel in her series, Murder at la Villette, Cara Black comes to Westport. Black will be in conversation with Westport's voracious mystery reader Kelle Ruden.
Aimée has been framed for the murder of her daughter’s father — now she’s on the lam, and must find the real killer to clear her name in this thrilling installment of Black’s New York Times best-selling mystery series.
Melac, Aimée's ex, has been hounding her for weeks, pressuring her to move little Chloé to Brittany, threatening to take her to court for custody — all but stalking her. Harassed and fed up, Aimée has stopped taking his calls. That’s why she doesn’t know as she’s leaving a client’s office late one night that Melac is waiting for her by the Bassin de la Villette — where an assailant attacks him just in time for Aimee to find his still-bleeding body in the canal. Interrupted, the killer knocks Aimée unconscious and plants the bloody knife in her hands for the police to find.
Now Aimée is in police custody, debilitated by her concussion, with overwhelming evidence working against her. She has to figure out who murdered Melac. Cut off from her typical network and forced to operate under multiple layers of cover, Aimée must go deep into the underbelly of Paris’s 19th arrondissement, where she rubs shoulders with biker gangs, paranoid journalists, grieving parents, and frustratingly tight-lipped ex-cops on her hunt for justice.
Cara Black is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of 20 books in the Private Investigator Aimée Leduc series, and two World War II-set novels featuring American markswoman Kate Rees. Black has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, a Washington Post Book World Book of the Year citation, the Médaille de la Ville de Paris — the Paris City Medal, which is awarded in recognition of contribution to international culture — and invitations to be the guest of honor at conferences such as the Paris Polar Crime Festival and Left Coast Crime. With more than 400,000 books in print, the Aimée Leduc series has been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew.
Kelle Ruden’s career in the book business has included bookstores, publishing, and libraries. She served as the manager and editor of the Discover Great New Writers program at Barnes & Noble, as a marketing director at Random House, and as the program director at The Westport Library from 2013 to 2016, where she planned and executed more than 400 cultural and educational programs each year. Ruden has been leading book discussions for more than 25 years, including 17 years spent with the Library’s mystery group, The Usual Suspects. She has been a Westport resident since 2000 and served two terms as a member of the Westport Arts Advisory Committee, appointed by the First Selectman.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
