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CLSC Lectures
Reading together since 1878, the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle has remained a leader in adult education through quality programming.
Each summer, the CLSC chooses at least nine books of literary quality and invites the authors to Chautauqua present their work to an audience of approximately 1,000 readers.
Contact Information
CLSC Octagon
716-357-6293 (in-season)
clsc@chq.org
Department of Education
716-357-6255
Chautauqua Institution
Attn: Department of Education/CLSC
PO Box 28
Chautauqua, NY 14722
Young Readers program
The CLSC Young Readers program encourages the enjoyment of good reading. The books have been chosen for their quality, the variety of styles and subjects, and their appeal to young adult readers. A special program is offered at 1 p.m. each Sunday on the Hultquist Center Porch. Book selections and program information are fully described in the Young Readers brochure available in-season at the CLSC Octagon.
2024 CLSC Selections
July 24 @ 12:15 pm Week Five (July 20–27)
CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion — Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
Alumni Hall Porch
![CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion — Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Cactus_YR.jpg)
![CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion — Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Cactus_YR.jpg)
CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion — Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
Wednesdays at 12:15 p.m. on the Porch of the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall will now feature the CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion, geared toward educators, librarians, parents, and children’s literature enthusiasts, immediately followed by a Play CHQ event on the lawn of Alumni Hall for kids of all ages.
![Geraldine Brooks](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Brooks_Horse_CLSC_2023.jpg)
![Geraldine Brooks](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Brooks_Horse_CLSC_2023.jpg)
Geraldine Brooks
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Presentation — Horse: A Novel, by Geraldine Brooks
Kentucky, 1850: An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.
New York City, 1954: Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a 19th-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.
Washington, DC, 2019: Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse — one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.
Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse — a finalist for the 2023 Chautauqua Prize and the winner of a 2023 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award — is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.
Geraldine Brooks is the author of nine books, five of which — Horse, The Secret Chord, Caleb’s Crossing, Year of Wonders and March — have been named as CLSC selections. For March, Brooks was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. Her work as a journalist includes time at The Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. In 1990, with her husband Tony Horwitz, she won the Overseas Press Club Award for best coverage of the Gulf War. The following year they received a citation for excellence for their series, “War and Peace.” In 2016, she was named an Officer in the Order of Australia.
This program is made possible by The Stephen and Edith Benson CLSC Endowment.
![Geraldine Brooks – CLSC Book Signing](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Brooks_Horse_CLSC_2023.jpg)
![Geraldine Brooks – CLSC Book Signing](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Brooks_Horse_CLSC_2023.jpg)
Geraldine Brooks – CLSC Book Signing
July 29 @ 12:15 pm Week Six (July 27–August 3)
CLSC Book Discussion – Apple: Skin to the Core
Alumni Hall Porch
![CLSC Book Discussion – Apple: Skin to the Core](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/AppleBookDiscussion.jpg)
![CLSC Book Discussion – Apple: Skin to the Core](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/AppleBookDiscussion.jpg)
CLSC Book Discussion – Apple: Skin to the Core
Presenters Stephine Hunt and Dr. Donald Grinde will lead a community discussion on our Week Six CLSC selection, Apple: Skin to the Core by Eric Gansworth
July 31 @ 12:15 pm Week Six (July 27–August 3)
CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – Solo by Kwame Alexander
Alumni Hall Porch
![CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – Solo by Kwame Alexander](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Solo_YR.jpg)
![CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – Solo by Kwame Alexander](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Solo_YR.jpg)
CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – Solo by Kwame Alexander
Wednesdays at 12:15 p.m. on the Porch of the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall will now feature the CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion, geared toward educators, librarians, parents, and children’s literature enthusiasts, immediately followed by a Play CHQ event on the lawn of Alumni Hall for kids of all ages.
![Eric Gansworth](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Gansworth_Apple_CLSC_2023.jpg)
![Eric Gansworth](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Gansworth_Apple_CLSC_2023.jpg)
Eric Gansworth
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle and CLSC Young Readers Presentation — Apple: Skin to the Core, by Eric Gansworth
The term “Apple” is a slur in Native communities across the country. It’s for someone supposedly “red on the outside, white on the inside.” In his poetic memoir, Apple: Skin to the Core, Eric Gansworth tells his story, the story of his family — of Onondaga among Tuscaroras — of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds. As he covers these topics, Gansworth discusses common slurs against Indigenous Americans, shattering and reclaiming “Apple” in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.
Apple: Skin to the Core was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, a Michael L. Printz Award honor book, and the winner of the American Indian Youth Literature Award for Young Adult. It serves as a joint selection for the CLSC and the CLSC Young Readers program.
Eric Gansworth (Sˑha-weñ na-saeˀ) is a member of Eel clan, enrolled Onondaga, born and raised at the Tuscarora Nation. A writer and visual artist, he has published a dozen books and has had solo exhibitions at the Castellani Museum, Colgate University, Westfield State University, SUNY Oneonta and Bright Hill Center. A professor of English and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, Gansworth’s work has been supported by the Library of Congress, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others. He recently was selected for inclusion in LIT CITY, a public arts project celebrating Buffalo’s literary legacy.
This program is made possible by The Bess Sheppard Morrison CLSC Fund.
![Eric Gansworth – CLSC Book Signing](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Gansworth_Apple_CLSC_2023.jpg)
![Eric Gansworth – CLSC Book Signing](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Gansworth_Apple_CLSC_2023.jpg)
Eric Gansworth – CLSC Book Signing
![CLSC Vigil Ceremony: Class of 2024](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/073122_CLSCVigil_DT_07COPY.jpg)
![CLSC Vigil Ceremony: Class of 2024](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/073122_CLSCVigil_DT_07COPY.jpg)
CLSC Vigil Ceremony: Class of 2024
August 5 @ 12:15 pm Week Seven (August 3–10)
CLSC Book Discussion – World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
Alumni Hall Porch
![CLSC Book Discussion – World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/WondersBookDiscussion.jpg)
![CLSC Book Discussion – World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/WondersBookDiscussion.jpg)
CLSC Book Discussion – World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
Presenters Fred Zirm and Margaret Edwards will lead a community discussion on our Week Seven CLSC selection, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
August 5 @ 1:15 pm Week Seven (August 3–10)
CLSC and CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion – Mexican WhiteBoy
Alumni Hall Ballroom
![CLSC and CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion – Mexican WhiteBoy](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/MexicanWhiteBoyBookDiscussion.jpg)
![CLSC and CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion – Mexican WhiteBoy](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/MexicanWhiteBoyBookDiscussion.jpg)
CLSC and CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion – Mexican WhiteBoy
Presenters Stephine Hunt and Anne Pekrul will lead a community discussion on our Week Seven CLSC selection, Mexican WhiteBoy, by Matt de la Peña.
![CLSC Guild Graduates Celebration](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/080123_AlumniHallBanners_BP_01.jpg)
![CLSC Guild Graduates Celebration](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/080123_AlumniHallBanners_BP_01.jpg)
CLSC Guild Graduates Celebration
![CLSC Recognition Day Ceremony](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/080223_CLSCGraduation_BP_11.jpg)
![CLSC Recognition Day Ceremony](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/080223_CLSCGraduation_BP_11.jpg)
CLSC Recognition Day Ceremony
Join us to celebrate the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC) Class of 2024 and our 2024 Guild of Seven Seals graduates!
![CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/071121_YoungReaders_IndianNoMore_DM_01-1.jpg)
![CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/071121_YoungReaders_IndianNoMore_DM_01-1.jpg)
CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion
Wednesdays at 12:15 p.m. on the Porch of the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall will now feature the CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion, geared toward educators, librarians, parents, and children’s literature enthusiasts, immediately followed by a Play CHQ event on the lawn of Alumni Hall for kids of all ages.
August 8 @ 3:30 pm Week Seven (August 3–10)
Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Matt de la Peña
Hall of Philosophy | CHQ Assembly
![Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Matt de la Peña](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/WeekSeven_CLSC.jpg)
![Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Matt de la Peña](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/WeekSeven_CLSC.jpg)
Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Matt de la Peña
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle and CLSC Young Readers Presentation – World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Peña
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted—no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape—she was able to turn to our world’s fierce and funny creatures for guidance.
“What the peacock can do,” she tells us, “is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life.” The axolotl teaches us to smile, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shows us how to shake off unwanted advances; the narwhal demonstrates how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. For it is this way with wonder: it requires that we are curious enough to look past the distractions in order to fully appreciate the world’s gifts.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the New York Times best-selling illustrated collection of nature essays, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks & Other Astonishments. She also wrote four previous poetry collections including Oceanic. Her most recent chapbook is Lace & Pyrite, a collaboration of epistolary garden poems with the poet Ross Gay. Honors include a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pushcart Prize, a Mississippi Arts Council grant, and being named a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry. She is poetry editor for Sierra magazine, the story-telling arm of The Sierra Club. She is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program and her forthcoming book of food essays is called Bite By Bite (Ecco, May 2024).
Mexican WhiteBoy
Danny’s tall and skinny with arms long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. A 95-mph fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound, he loses it. But at private school, they don’t expect much else from him. Danny’s brown. Half-Mexican brown. And growing up in San Diego that close to the border means everyone else knows exactly who he is before he even opens his mouth. Before they find out he can’t speak Spanish, and before they realize his mom has blonde hair and blue eyes, they’ve got him pegged.
Danny’s convinced it’s his whiteness that sent his father back to Mexico. And that’s why he’s spending the summer with his dad’s family. Only, to find himself, he might just have to face the demons he refuses to see right in front oh his face. And open up to a friendship he never saw coming.
An ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults (Top 10 Pick) and a Junior Library Guild Selection, Mexican WhiteBoy serves as a joint selection for the CLSC and the CLSC Young Readers program. His picture book, Milo Imagines the World, also serves as an Early Reader selection for Week Seven.
Matt de la Peña is the New York Times Bestselling, Newbery Medal-winning author of seven young adult novels (including Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, and Superman: Dawnbreaker) and six picture books (including Milo Imagines the World and Last Stop on Market Street). In 2016 he was awarded the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award. Matt received his MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and his BA from the University of the Pacific where he attended school on a full basketball scholarship. In 2019 Matt was given an honorary doctorate from UOP. de la Peña currently lives in Southern California. He teaches creative writing and visits schools and colleges throughout the country.
Celebrating the awe this world inspires in all things big and small, the wonder literature encourages us to pursue in our everyday lives as we seek to build a greater understanding of our shared humanity, and the significance of our shared reading experiences, Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Matt de la Peña will be featured together in conversation during our Week Seven CLSC Lecture on August 8, 2024, in the Hall of Philosophy.
This program is made possible by The Gail Anne Clement Olson Fund.
August 8 @ 4:30 pm Week Seven (August 3–10)
Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Matt de la Peña – CLSC Book Signing
Alumni Hall Porch
![Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Matt de la Peña – CLSC Book Signing](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/WeekSeven_CLSC.jpg)
![Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Matt de la Peña – CLSC Book Signing](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/WeekSeven_CLSC.jpg)
Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Matt de la Peña – CLSC Book Signing
August 12 @ 12:15 pm Week Eight (August 10–17)
CLSC Book Discussion – How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures
Alumni Hall Porch
![CLSC Book Discussion – How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/HowFarTheLightBookDiscussion.jpg)
![CLSC Book Discussion – How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/HowFarTheLightBookDiscussion.jpg)
CLSC Book Discussion – How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures
Presenters Jordan Steves and Emily Novak will lead a community discussion on our Week Eight CLSC selection How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures, by Sabrina Imbler
August 14 @ 12:15 pm Week Eight (August 10–17)
CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – The Umbrella Maker’s Son by Katrina Leno
Alumni Hall Porch
![CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – The Umbrella Maker’s Son by Katrina Leno](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Umbrella_YR.jpg)
![CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – The Umbrella Maker’s Son by Katrina Leno](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Umbrella_YR.jpg)
CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – The Umbrella Maker’s Son by Katrina Leno
Wednesdays at 12:15 p.m. on the Porch of the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall will now feature the CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion, geared toward educators, librarians, parents, and children’s literature enthusiasts, immediately followed by a Play CHQ event on the lawn of Alumni Hall for kids of all ages.
![Sabrina Imbler](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Imbler_Sabrina_BC_CLSC_081524.jpg)
![Sabrina Imbler](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Imbler_Sabrina_BC_CLSC_081524.jpg)
Sabrina Imbler
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Presentation — How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler
A queer, mixed-race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature, including: the mother octopus who starves herself while watching over her eggs, the Chinese sturgeon whose migration route has been decimated by pollution and dams, the bizarre, predatory Bobbitt worm (named after Lorena), the common goldfish that flourishes in the wild, and more.
Imbler discovers that some of the most radical models of family, community, and care can be found in the sea, from gelatinous chains that are both individual organisms and colonies of clones to deep-sea crabs that have no need for the sun, nourished instead by the chemicals and heat throbbing from the core of the Earth. Exploring themes of adaptation, survival, sexuality, and care, and weaving the wonders of marine biology with stories of their own family, relationships, and coming of age, How Far the Light Reaches — Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science & Technology and a Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award — is a shimmering, otherworldly debut that attunes us to new visions of our world and its miracles.
Sabrina Imbler is a staff writer at the worker-owned site Defector, where they cover creatures and the natural world. Their first full-length book, How Far the Light Reaches, won a Los Angeles Times book prize in science and technology. Their chapbook, Dyke (geology), was published by Black Lawrence Press, and was selected for the National Book Foundation Science + Literature Program. Sabrina lives in Brooklyn with their partner, cats Melon and Sesame, and a school of fish.
![Sabrina Imbler – CLSC Book Signing](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Imbler_Sabrina_BC_CLSC_081524.jpg)
![Sabrina Imbler – CLSC Book Signing](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Imbler_Sabrina_BC_CLSC_081524.jpg)
Sabrina Imbler – CLSC Book Signing
![Valeria Luiselli](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CLSC-Luiselli_Postponed.jpg)
![Valeria Luiselli](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CLSC-Luiselli_Postponed.jpg)
Valeria Luiselli
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Presentation – Lost Children Archive: A Novel (Rescheduled)
In Valeria Luiselli’s fiercely imaginative follow-up to the American Book Award-winning Tell Me How It Ends, an artist couple set out with their two children on a road trip from New York to Arizona in the heat of summer. As the family travels west, the bonds between them begin to fray: a fracture is growing between the parents, one the children can almost feel beneath their feet.
Through ephemera such as songs, maps and a Polaroid camera, the children try to make sense of both their family’s crisis and the larger one engulfing the news: the stories of thousands of kids trying to cross the southwestern border into the United States but getting detained—or lost in the desert along the way. A breath-taking feat of literary virtuosity, Lost Children Archive is timely, compassionate, subtly hilarious, and formally inventive—a powerful, urgent story about what it is to be human in an inhuman world.
Valeria Luiselli was born in Mexico City and grew up in Costa Rica, South Korea, South Africa and India. An acclaimed writer of both fiction and nonfiction, she is the author of Sidewalks, Faces in the Crowd, The Story of My Teeth, and Tell Me How It Ends (An Essay in Forty Questions). Her most recent novel, Lost Children Archive was an international critical and commercial success. It was a New York Times 10 Best Books of 2019, won the Rathbone Folio Prize 2020, the Dublin Award 2021, the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and the Booker Prize 2019 among others. In 2019 she was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant for “challenging conventional notions of authorship in fiction, essays, and inventive hybrids of the two that pose profound questions about the various ways we piece together stories and document the lives of others.” Her work is published in more than thirty languages. She is a professor at Bard College.
This program is made possible by The Caroline Roberts Barnum and Julianne Barnum Follansbee Fund.
August 19 @ 12:15 pm Week Nine (August 17–25)
CLSC Book Discussion – Dances: A Novel
Alumni Hall Porch
![CLSC Book Discussion – Dances: A Novel](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/DancesBookDiscussion.jpg)
![CLSC Book Discussion – Dances: A Novel](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/DancesBookDiscussion.jpg)
CLSC Book Discussion – Dances: A Novel
Presenters Susan Allen and Irene Cramer will lead a community discussion on our Week Nine CLSC selection, Dances: A Novel, by Nicole Cuffy
August 21 @ 12:15 pm Week Nine (August 17–25)
CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
Alumni Hall Porch
![CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/OtherWords_YR.jpg)
![CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/OtherWords_YR.jpg)
CLSC Young Reader Book Discussion – Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
Wednesdays at 12:15 p.m. on the Porch of the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall will now feature the CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion, geared toward educators, librarians, parents, and children’s literature enthusiasts, immediately followed by a Play CHQ event on the lawn of Alumni Hall for kids of all ages.
![Nicole Cuffy](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Cuffy_Dances_CLSC_2023.jpg)
![Nicole Cuffy](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Cuffy_Dances_CLSC_2023.jpg)
Nicole Cuffy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Presentation — Dances: A Novel, by Nicole Cuffy
At 22 years old, Cece Cordell reaches the pinnacle of her career as a ballet dancer when she’s promoted to principal at the New York City Ballet. She’s instantly catapulted into celebrity, heralded for her “inspirational” role as the first Black ballerina in the famed company’s history. Even as she celebrates the achievement of a lifelong dream, Cece remains haunted by the feeling that she doesn’t belong. As she waits for some feeling of rightness that doesn’t arrive, she begins to unravel the loose threads of her past — an absent father, a pragmatic mother who dismisses Cece’s ambitions, and a missing older brother who stoked her childhood love of ballet but disappeared to deal with his own demons.
Soon after her promotion, Cece is faced with a choice that has the potential to derail her career and shatter the life she’s cultivated for herself, sending her on a pilgrimage to both find her brother and reclaim the parts of herself lost in the grinding machinery of the traditional ballet world.
Written with spellbinding beauty and ballet’s precise structure, Nicole Cuffy’s debut novel Dances centers around women, art and power, and how we come to define freedom for ourselves.
Nicole Cuffy is a D.C.-based writer with a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and an MFA from The New School. She is a lecturer at the University of Maryland and American University, and her work can be found in Mason’s Road, The Master’s Review Volume VI (curated by Roxane Gay), Chautauqua, and Blue Mesa Review. Her 2018 chapbook, Atlas of the Body, was a finalist for the Black River Chapbook Competition, and the inaugural winner of the Chautauqua Janus Prize.
This program is made possible by The Gail Anne Clement Olson Fund.
![Nicole Cuffy – CLSC Book Signing](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Cuffy_Dances_CLSC_2023.jpg)
![Nicole Cuffy – CLSC Book Signing](https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Cuffy_Dances_CLSC_2023.jpg)