Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

Terry McMillan, New York Times bestselling author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting to Exhale, is back with the inspiring story of a woman who shakes things up in her life to find greater meaning.

In I Almost Forgot About You, Dr. Georgia Young's wonderful life -- great friends, family, and successful career -- aren't enough to keep her from feeling stuck and restless. When she decides to make some major changes in her life, quitting her job as an optometrist, and moving house, she finds herself on a wild journey that may or may not include a second chance at love.

Terry McMillan is the author of seven novels, four of which have been made into movies. She is the editor of Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction.

Recorded On: Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Diane Guerrero, star of "Orange is the New Black" and "Jane the Virgin," shares her personal story of the plight of undocumented immigrants in this country. Guerrero was just 14 years old the day her parents and brother were arrested and deported while she was at school. Born in the U.S., she was able to remain in this country and continue her education, depending on the kindness of family friends who took her in and helped her build a life and a successful acting career.

In the Country We Love is a moving, heartbreaking story of one woman's extraordinary resilience. Written with Michelle Burford, this memoir casts a much-needed light on the fears that haunt the daily existence of families like Guerrero's and on a system that fails them.

Diane Guerrero volunteers with the nonprofit Immigrant Legal Resource Center. She was named an Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization by the White House.

Diane Guerrero will be in conversation with Liz Bowie, award-winning education reporter at the Baltimore Sun.

Recorded On: Thursday, June 2, 2016

Second House from the Corner is the story of a woman who is torn apart by the secrets she struggles to keep. Felicia Lyons is a 36-year-old stay-at-home mom of three, drowning in the drudgeries of play dates, lost pacifiers and potty training, when an unexpected phone call brings her hidden past into her tenuous present. Her deception forces her to return to the Philadelphia inner city of her childhood to wrestle with an ex-lover and family demons.

Sadeqa Johnson, a former public relations manager who worked with many well-known authors, is the author of Love in a Carry-on Bag.

Recorded On: Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Join Ann Bracken and Barbara Morrison as they explore the intersection of poetry and memoir. They will read from their most recent collections, in which they use poetry to unearth the secrets of the past. The readings will be followed by an open discussion.

Ann Bracken’s memoir in verse, The Altar of Innocence, was released in 2015 by New Academia Publishing. Her poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in anthologies and journals, including Little Patuxent Review, The New Verse News, Scribble, Reckless Writing: The Modernization of Poetry by Emerging Poets of the 21st Century, and Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence. Ann serves as a contributing editor for Little Patuxent Review, lectures at the University of Maryland, College Park, and leads workshops for creativity conferences, book clubs, schools, and adult education programs. Learn more at www.annbrackenauthor.com.

Barbara Morrison, who writes as B. Morrison, is the author of two poetry collections, Terrarium and Here at Least, and a memoir, Innocent: Confessions of a Welfare Mother. Her award-winning work has been published in anthologies and magazines. An editor, teacher, and publisher, she conducts writing workshops and speaks on women’s and poverty-related issues as well as publishing and marketing. For more information, visit her Web site and blog at http://www.bmorrison.com.

Recorded On: Wednesday, May 11, 2016

In the Marshall Islands, an island-nation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that was once a testing ground for nuclear bombs, American engineers and programmers are making and testing missiles while their "hosts," the indigenous Marshallese, sweep their streets and clean their houses. It's 2004, the Iraq war is heating up, and 9/11 is fresh in everyone's minds.

Following four interconnected story lines -- the meltdown of a burned-out cultural liaison who has "gone native" and bitterly resents his role in keeping the Marshallese down; a young programmer who has lost his leg in a reckless solo sailing journey; the struggles of a young widow with two children whose husband drowned in a mysterious diving accident; and the destructive spiral of a Marshallese teenager whose American girlfriend rejects him when she returns to the States -- Missile Paradise is an epic, heartbreaking, and satirical novel about the clash of cultures between the Americans trying to realize their American Dream in this seeming paradise, and the Marshallese who are both angered and bedazzled by that dream.

Ron Tanner's awards for writing include a Faulkner Society gold medal, a Pushcart Prize, a New Letters Award, a Best of the Web Award, a Maryland Arts Council grant, and many others. He is the author of A Bed of Nails (stories), Kiss Me Stranger (illustrated novel), and From Animal House to Our House (memoir). He teaches writing at Loyola University Maryland and directs the Marshall Islands Story Project.

Recorded On: Sunday, May 1, 2016

In this groundbreaking work of history, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed and the country's leading Jefferson scholar Peter S. Onuf present an absorbing and revealing character study that finally clarifies the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson. Tracing Jefferson's development and maturation from his youth to his old age, the authors explore what they call the "empire" of Jefferson's imagination -- his expansive state of mind born of the intellectual influences and life experiences that led him into public life as a modern avatar of the enlightenment. Jefferson often likened himself to an ancient figure -- "the most blessed of the patriarchs."

Annette Gordon-Reed is the author of The Hemingses of Monticello, which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. She is the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School.

Peter S. Onuf is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia.

Recorded On: Thursday, April 28, 2016

Robert "Sonny" Wood will read selections from his poetry collection, The Eye of the Poet.

Mr. Wood was a long-time member of The Arena Players and also appeared in the HBO series "The Wire."

Recorded On: Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Recorded On: Wednesday, April 20, 2016

With the outbreak of the Civil War, the small social Southern town of Washington, DC found itself caught between warring sides in a four-year battle that would determine the future of the United States.

After the declaration of secession, many Southern women left Washington, leaving their friends -- such as Adele Cutts Douglas and Elizabeth Blair Lee -- to grapple with questions of safety and sanitation as the capital was transformed into an immense Union army camp and later a hospital.

With their husbands, brothers, fathers marching off to war, whether on the battlefield or in the halls of Congress, the women of Washington joined the cause as well. And more women went to the capital city to enlist as nurses, supply organizers, relief workers, and journalists.

Cokie Roberts chronicles these women's increasing independence, their political empowerment, their indispensable role in keeping the Union unified through the war, and in helping heal it once the fighting was done.

Cokie Roberts is a political commentator for ABC News and NPR. She has won countless awards and in 2008 was named a "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress. She is the author of the bestsellers We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, Founding Mothers, and Ladies of Liberty.

Recorded On: Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Recorded On: Thursday, April 14, 2016