Next month, the North Carolina Humanities Council (NCHC) continues its Statewide Read program, a virtual book club for residents across the state that dives headfirst into a highly topical subject, climate change, through preselected works of fiction.
On February 16, at 6:30 pm, join NCHC for a Breakout Book Discussion of The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi.
Come ready to talk, listen, and learn in this highly interactive session! Join us as we break out into small groups to discuss The Water Knife. Group discussions will be led by book leaders, who will lead you through a set of discussion questions about the book and how the humanities, literature, and journalism build understanding about important issues in North Carolina. The NC Writers’ Network Membership Coordinator, Deonna Kelli Sayed, is one discussion leader, along with NC public librarians, writers, and others.
Register here.
Order your book copy from your local indie bookstore, or check it out from your local library.
In The Water Knife, in the near future, the Colorado River has dwindled to a trickle. Detective, assassin, and spy Angel Velasquez “cuts†water for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, ensuring that its lush arcology developments can bloom in Las Vegas. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in Phoenix, Angel is sent south to hunt for answers that seem to evaporate as the heat index soars and the landscape becomes more and more oppressive. There he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with her own agenda, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas migrant, who dreams of escaping north. As bodies begin to pile up, the three find themselves cast as pawns in a game far bigger and more corrupt than they could have imagined. When water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand and the only truth in the desert is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.†Paolo Bacigalupi is a Hugo, Nebula, and Michael L. Printz Award winner, as well as a National Book Award finalist. He is also a winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the John W. Campbell Award, and a three-time winner of the Locus Award. The Water Knife is a New York Times Bestseller.
A final event is scheduled to be held on Earth Day, April 22, 2021, at the Discovery Place in Charlotte.
The Statewide Read is the keystone program of “Watershed Moments,†a two-year initiative by NCHC that explores our varied relationship with the environment, culturally and historically. Other “Watershed Moments†programs include an environmental journalism panel, film discussion series, and the statewide tour of the Smithsonian exhibit, Water/Ways. Learn more at www.nchumanities.org.
The North Carolina Humanities Council is a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through grant-making and public humanities programs, the Council serves as an advocate for lifelong learning and thoughtful dialogue about our shared human experience. The Council operates the North Carolina Center for the Book, an affiliate program of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. To learn more visit www.nchumanities.org.