An Evening with Walter Mosley

Virtual Author Talk

This live simulcast reading and author Q&A is presented in partnership with Pyramid Art, Books, & Custom Framing and in association with National Association of Black Bookstores

Be part of a national, live conversation with Walter Mosley, one of the most celebrated voices in contemporary literature. This hybrid experience brings readers together across cities and communities for a shared night of storytelling, conversation, and connection. The discussion will center on Ghalen: A Romance in Black exploring themes of love, identity, and human connection that define Mosley's work.

CALS and Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing are co-hosting a live watch party in the Darragh Center at Main Library that is open to the public. Books will be available for purchase at the event, but pre-orders will include a signed copy with custom artwork and are available through Pyramid at this link https://cals.click/pyramid

Doors open at 6:30 pm. Advanced registration is encouraged. The library will validate parking in the surface lot accessible from 2nd Street or the Library Parking Deck accessible from Rock St. via President Clinton Ave.

All abilities are welcome. To request ASL interpretation or other accommodations, call 501.918.3069 or email hzbinden@cals.org 7 business weekdays before a program.

About the book:

A stellar addition to the Amistad list: a beautiful coming-of-age novel from MWA Grand Master and PEN and Edgar Award-winner Walter Mosley that explores love in all forms—romantic, familial, and platonic, centered on one Black family, including a neurodivergent man, and the found bonds that helps ground them.

One of the most acclaimed writers working today, Walter Mosley spins magic once again in this beautiful novel that explores the lives of Black characters and one remarkable family through a lens both universal and unique. It touches on the lives of those whose deepest thoughts and motivations are seldom explored—including the neurodivergent, the incarcerated, and the immigrant tortured by their past—characters who will stay with you and change how you see the world.

Ghalen, a brilliant young Black man, is the son of two seemingly mismatched parents. His mother, a gifted scientist, whose own mother expected her to exceed all the achievements in her family, and his father, a gentle cook at a small vegan restaurant, whose idiosyncratic nature shows the young woman a radically different love and understanding of life, despite his inexperience and lack of education.

His parents’ grand love story starts it all off, setting us up to follow Ghalen and his family so deeply, that each new twist and turn feels personal.

The journey through Ghalen’s coming-of-age tale, as he ventures out into the world, is marked with peaks and valleys and such a drive that you can’t help but strap in for it all, while not wanting it to end.

Lush and cinematic, with the narrative drive and indelible power of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead and Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting, Ghalen is one of this bestselling, prize-winning writer’s finest achievements.