Big Read to present virtual reading with author Naomi Novik on Thursday

Naomi Novik

As the culminating event in this year’s Big Read program, Naomi Novik, author of "Spinning Silver," will deliver a virtual reading and Q&A session on Thursday (Nov. 12).

"Spinning Silver" is a fantasy novel that re-envisions the fairy tale “Rumpelstiltskin,” interweaving it with Jewish, Russian, and eastern European folklore influences. The novel tackles topics ranging from legacies of the Jewish Diaspora and European anti-Semitism to coming of age, romance, the ravages of poverty, and more in an engrossing fantasy world.

"Spinning Silver" was a finalist for the Nebula and Hugo awards and won the Mythopoeic Award. Novik’s book has been described by the New Times Book Review as “a perfect tale … rich in both ideas and people, with the vastness of Tolkien and the empathy and joy in daily life of Le Guin.” Novik is the New York Times bestselling and fantasy award-winning author of "Uprooted," the historical fantasy "Temeraire" series and "A Deadly Education," the first volume in her ongoing “Scholomance” trilogy.

This event will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. It will be free and open to the public. The link for the livestream will be accessible on the Big Read webpage. The first 150 registrants will receive free author-signed bookplates (must be residents of Tippecanoe County). Registration is required for the bookplates but not to watch the livestream.

This event is sponsored by the Department of English, the Harriet M. Crews and Sandra K. Biggs Endowment for the Department of English in Support of the Big Read, Modern Fiction Studies, and a grant from Indiana Humanities in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities.