Mansfield Author Wally Lamb to Speak at Connecticut Book Festival

Any event that promotes literature and reading is one with which Wally Lamb is proud to be associated. So when the critically-acclaimed Connecticut author was asked to serve as honorary chair of the upcoming Connecticut Book Festival, he enthusiastically agreed.

Book Festival organizers Suzy Staubach, general manager of the , and Kat Lyons, formerly of the Hartford Public Library, “fired me up with excitement,” laughed Lamb in a phone interview Wednesday from his home near Storrs.

Lamb will be a featured speaker at the Festival, to be held Saturday-Sunday, May 21-22, at the UConn Greater Hartford campus, located at Trout Brook Drive and Asylum Avenue. More than 30 authors will appear at the festival and many will participate in panel discussions and sign autographs of their books.

“I really like that the authors are not just the seasoned veterans, but some of the younger, newer writers,” said Lamb. “There will be a real diversity in the presenters.” As an example, he mentioned Alice Mattison, author of a book of connected stories called “In Case We’re Separated,” and Chandra Prasad, an Indian-American whose most recent novel is “Breathe the Sky,” based on the life of Amelia Earhart, as up-and-coming writers.

The author of the award-winning novels “She’s Come Undone,” and “I Know This Much Is True,” Lamb will speak on Saturday, May 21 at 3 p.m., in the auditorium on campus. Autographed books will be available in the Zachs Community Room bookstore.

Lamb, 60, will talk about the “satisfaction and challenges of writing novels and balancing a life of teaching and writing.”

Fame came from Oprah Book Club

Lamb’s first two novels were #1 New York Times bestsellers and featured titles of Oprah’s Book Club, which helped rocket Lamb to international fame. “I Know This Much Is True” was the June 1999 featured selection of the Bertelsman Book Club, the national book club of Germany, in addition to being a Book of the Month Club main selection.

Lamb’s third novel, “The Hour I First Believed,” is set in the fictional town of Three Rivers – a combination of Norwich, New London and Willimantic, Conn. –  and tackles serious real-life events such as the Columbine High School shootings of 1999, the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina, combined with the story of several generations of a fictional Connecticut family.

Born in Norwich, Connecticut, Lamb was the director of the Writing Center at Norwich Free Academy from 1989-98 and was an associate professor of creative writing in the English Department at UConn. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Education from UConn and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College. Lamb currently resides in Mansfield.

Warm and generous of spirit, Lamb is proud of his volunteer work at York Correctional Institute, a maximum security prison for women in Niantic. He is the editor of the nonfiction anthologies “Couldn’t Keep it to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters” and “I’ll Fly Away,” which evolved from a writing workshop he facilitates at the prison.  He noted that he has been running his volunteer program at York for 12 years.

Currently, Lamb is working on a new novel, entitled, “We Are Water,” which centers around the Norwich Flood of 1963 (which Lamb vividly recalls) and the story of one family caught in the raging waters. Also mixed in is a character based on Ellis Ruley, an African-American laborer who became a painter.

“I’m almost scaring myself…it’s going well,” said Lamb, who hopes to finish by 2012, even though his deadline is 2014.

So, in his limited spare time, what is he reading?

Lamb said he doesn’t typically read novels while he’s writing one, but he praised “The Lonely Polygamist,” by Brady Udall as one of the best books he’s read recently. Lamb also reads the “New Yorker” magazine “cover-to-cover” and is enjoying a Mickey Mantle biography. (But he hastens to point out that he is a Red Sox fan.)  As just another thing on his to-do list, he’s writing a blurb for Alice Hoffman’s new book, “The Dovekeepers.”

The ever-busy author is always in demand and the day of the Book Festival is no exception. After he speaks Saturday afternoon, he must dash to Trinity College for a dinner at which he is a guest of honor. The next day, he will receive an honorary doctorate at the Trinity College commencement.

Among the more well-known presenters expected to read from their works and sign autographs at the festival are: Dick Allen, Connecticut Poet Laureate; Gina Barreca, humorist and professor of English at UConn; Diane Smith, an Emmy-award winning TV journalist; and Steve Rushin, a writer for “Sports Illustrated.”

A complete schedule of presenters and fun activities for all ages (storytimes, dance performances, troubadours, balloon artist and more) is available at www.ctbookfestival.org, or call (860) 704-2214.