TWO NOVEMBERS (VOTA) | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation

Liza Achilles, author of the new book TWO NOVEMBERS: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets, will share sonnets from the book and explain how a traumatic and disabling event led to a humorous and hopeful love story. Elizabeth Borda Rivera will join her onstage to discuss disability advocacy and celebrate accessibility and inclusion.

Upon suffering a computer overuse injury and seeking treatment, Liza Achilles fell in love with her physical therapist. As her arms healed, she began writing Shakespearean sonnets addressed to him. Between November 2016 and November 2017, she continued writing poems to chronicle the true story of her ever-changing love life, often putting a humorous spin on her daily struggles of the heart. TWO NOVEMBERS is a sonnet sequence that carries the beauty and drama of an ancient poetic style into the twenty-first century.

Voices of Takoma Authors is an ongoing series of programs sponsored by Historic Takoma featuring presentations by local authors about their works, their approach to writing, and their inspirations, drawing on authors in the Takoma Authors collection. Voices of Takoma Authors provides an opportunity for the community to learn about their author neighbors and engage in discussions with them. While many of these discussions occur at Historic Takoma, Busboys and Poets Books Takoma is hosting some as well. For more, see Historic Takoma’s page: https://historictakoma.org/voices-of-takoma-authors/.

Liza Achilles is joining Elizabeth Borda Rivera on the Busboys stage to share their experiences with disability pride, advocacy, and inclusion! Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Achilles will be signing following the program.

This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of TWO NOVEMBERS will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is IN PERSON and will NOT be livestreamed.

We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books.

Liza Achilles has contributed poetry and nonfiction to Beltway Poetry Quarterly, The Headlight Review, Tofu Ink Arts Press, Brief Wilderness, The Big Windows Review, Burrow, Exacting Clam, the Washington Independent Review of Books, the Silent Book Club blog, and independent blogs. Her blog at lizaachilles.com is about the literary world, present and past, literary fiction and nonfiction and poetry. She lives in the Washington, DC, area.

Elizabeth Borda Rivera is a Federal Analyst with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Head Start in the Department of Health and Human Services. She works as a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) carrying a portfolio of contracts, providing guidance to other CORs, and mentoring junior CORs. She is also the Chair of ACF’s Disability Employee Resource Group where she develops educational programming for ACF employees about ableism and the legal rights of employees with disabilities and advocates for inclusion of disability in workplace diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) efforts. Additionally, she provides guidance and resources to ACF employees with disabilities. Finally, Elizabeth is an animal lover, especially her fur baby Gus.

Historic Takoma is a membership-based, all-volunteer, 501(c)3 non-profit organization, founded to preserve the heritage of Takoma Park, Maryland and the Takoma Park neighborhood of the District of Columbia through educational activities and the preservation of historic landmarks and artifacts, especially documentary archives.

Host or Publisher Busboys and Poets