Library to Host Acclaimed Author Robert Morgan

Tompkins County Public Library, in partnership with Cornell University’s Department of English’ Creative Writing Program, will host “ ‘Chasing the North Star’ An Evening With Robert Morgan,” Thursday,  May 5 at 6 p.m. in the BorgWarner Community Room.

An award-winning poet, novelist and educator, Morgan will read from and discuss his latest novel, “Chasing the North Star,” a gripping tale of survival and perseverance.

“Chasing the North Star” follows runaway slave, Jonah, on an epic journey of faith, fear and determination in pursuit of freedom, which ultimately leads him to Ithaca.  This critically-acclaimed novel masterfully melds adventure and adversity to create a timeless work of historical fiction and is laden with the poetic prose and psychological trenchancy readers have grown to expect from Morgan.

A recipient of the Academy Award in Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award and the William “Singing Billy” Walker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Southern Letters, Morgan is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame in 2010.  He has been a member of the faculty in Cornell University’s Department of English since 1971.  His bestselling novel, “Gap Creek” was an Oprah’s Book Club selection.

Morgan’s library program is free and open to the public and will include introductory presentations by Tompkins County Historian Carol Kammen, Eric Acree, director of Cornell University’s John Henrik Clarke Africana Library, and acclaimed poet, Kenneth McClane, retired W.E.B. DuBois Professor of Literature at Cornell University.

Copies of “Chasing the North Star” will be available for purchase at the event, courtesy of Buffalo Street Books.

For more information, contact Carrie Wheeler-Carmenatty at cwheeler@tcpl.org or (607) 272-4557 extension 248.