A Community Read of Tracy Kidder’s book Rough Sleepers

Goal: To broaden and deepen our community’s understanding of what it might be like to experience homelessness. To highlight a key author and book from the Brattleboro Literary Festival. The community read is further intended to illustrate and remind us all that no two individuals or their circumstances are the same, and to examine the impact of thorough and holistic medical care for people in vulnerable situations within a community.

The Brattleboro Literary Festival, now in it’s 22nd year, will take place at venues across Downtown Brattleboro this October 13-15th. Each year the festival chooses a theme, or idea to tie each author, and the whole festival together. This year’s festival is the story of us: what it means to be human, the importance of family and friends and what it means to be marginalized and how we are surviving the issues we are faced with today. Because we are all in this together. Each author will be paired with another person and the two will have a conversation during their session- please go to brattleborolitfest.org to find the full schedule.

Downtown Brattleboro, in conjunction with Groundworks Collaborative, Brooks Memorial Library, and the Literary Festival, are pleased to invite you to join us for a community read of a book by one of the festival’s most anticipated authors. Tracy Kidder graduated from Harvard and studied at the University of Iowa. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, and many other literary prizes. Hisnew book, Rough Sleepers, is the inspiring story of a doctor who helped to create a medical system for people experiencing homelessness in Boston.

This community read will be broken into three sessions:

Session 1: Saturday October 14th 12:30pm- Tracy Kidder & Robbie
Gamble at Centre Congregational Church for the Literary Festival event. Gamble is the Poetry Editor for Solstice magazine. He worked for twenty years as a nurse practitioner with Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.

Session 2: Monday October 23rd 7-8:30pm-Brooks Memorial Library (Upstairs Meeting Room)

Session 3: Wednesday November 8th 7-8:30pm- Brooks Memorial Library (Upstairs Meeting Room)

Session 2 & 3 will be round table discussions moderated by Eileen Parks, librarian of Academy School, and Starr Latronica, director of Brooks Memorial Library, both members of the Literary Festival Committee.

All three sessions are free and do not require registration. While we would love for you to read the book, there is no assigned or suggested amount of reading, participants can read at their own pace.

Copies of Rough Sleepers are available via area libraries and bookstores. If you wish to purchase the book, but cannot afford it, please email Erin at erin@brattleboro.com for assistance

https://www.facebook.com/events/332594515832068/