BookPeople Presents: Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
About this Event
Format:
- This event is free and open to the public.
- Location: The second floor of BookPeople.
- Run time: 45-60 minute discussion, followed by a signing line.
Signing Guidelines:
- To get a book signed, a signing line access ticket, copy of the event book, or an item of equal value must be purchased from BookPeople.
- The author will be personalizing copies of the book.
- For high volume events, post-talk signing lines can become very long. Signing line placement is determined on a first-come, first-served basis.
General Info:
- Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis and is not guaranteed.
- If you have any accessibility concerns, please contact [email protected]
- If you have any other questions, please visit our Eventbrite FAQ. If your question isn't covered in the FAQ, feel free to email us at [email protected].
- BookPeople reserves the right to cancel or postpone this event if necessary.
- There will not be a live stream or recording available.
- All event guidelines are subject to change.
About the book:
For fans of Master Slave Husband Wife and Django Unchained comes the extraordinary forgotten story of an event known in its day as “the first shots of the Civil War,” from the New York Times bestselling author of Dr. Mütter’s Marvels.
The year, 1851. The place, a Quaker farming community turned Underground Railroad stronghold, where a Maryland enslaver had journeyed in pursuit of four men who’d fled his plantation years before. In a few hours, he’d be dead…and twenty-seven men from the village of Christiana would be rounded up and put on trial. Not for his M**der, but for treason—for waging war against the United States, at a time when it was a crime against the government to obstruct an enslaver looking to reclaim his “property.”
This is story of what happened in Christiana that September morning—and in the ensuing “trial of the century,” which saw the president himself advise the prosecution on strategy and a sitting congressman serve as lead attorney for the defense. But The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker is also a much larger tale, one spanning decades, following a whole startlingly diverse community of abolitionists in their fight to convince their fellow Americans of the subversive idea that now found itself on trial: that the nation ought to live up the ideals it was founded on, and respect all men as equals.
It’s a story that whisks readers from the quiet farmlands of Lancaster County—where a self-emancipated man named William Parker, whom legend had it bullets could not K*ll, rallied his neighbors to ride out each night to battle the slavecatchers who stalked their countryside—to Philadelphia’s genteel Society Hill, where socialite Harriet Forten Purvis had the ear of the mayor (and a cellar filled with fugitives). It’s stylish, propulsive, intimately human tale of bravery, ingenuity, and hope—and of ordinary people with little in common who came together to stand against injustice…and won.
About the author:
Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz is a New York Times best selling poet and historian. She is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Against Vanishing (2025), How to Love the Empty Air (2018), and The Year of No Mistakes (2013), which was named the Book of the Year for Poetry by the Writers’ League of Texas. Her first nonfiction book, Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, was named one of five Notable Books on Exploring Poetry by The Washington Post and U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins wrote that it “leaves no doubt that the slam poetry scene has achieved legitimacy and taken its rightful place on the map of contemporary literature.” Her second nonfiction book, Dr Mütter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine (2014) spent three months on the New York Times bestseller list and was included on several “Best Books of the Year” lists, including those by Amazon, NPR’s Science Friday, Library Journal, School Library Journal, The Guardian, and The Onion’s AV Club, which called it “a nearly perfect piece of non-fiction.” She has been awarded fellowships and residencies by the National Endowment for the Arts, the University of Pennsylvania, the Amy Clampitt House, and Hedgebrook, among others. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, the novelist Ernest Cline, and their two children.
About the moderator:
Amanda Johnston was the 61st Texas Poet Laureate, appointed by the Texas State Legislature. She was the first Black woman to receive this honor. A highly accomplished writer, visual artist, and community advocate, her most recent book is Praisesong for the People, where she organized and edited a statewide commission project that features "praise poems" celebrating everyday Texans.
By purchasing a book from BookPeople, you are not only supporting a local, independent business – you’re showing publishers that they should continue sending authors to BookPeople.
Thank you for supporting Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Amanda Johnston, and your local independent bookstore!
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00 to USD 36.31
