Media Contact: Leanne Ingle, Communications Specialist, 360-704-4508, or outside Thurston County calling area: (877) 284-6237, ext. 2508; e-mail: lingle@trlib.org.

The Lewis County Reads project:
Spend an Evening With Renowned Author David Guterson

David Guterson, award-winning author of the bestselling novel, Snow Falling on Cedars, will speak at a free public event Monday, March 8, at 7 p.m., at the Corbet Theatre, located at Walnut St. and Washington Ave in the Centralia College Education Complex. The audience will hear how Guterson came to write Snow Falling on Cedars and will have the opportunity to ask questions and to stay for a book signing and refreshments. Free on-campus parking will be available. The lecture is the focal event in the Centralia College and Timberland Regional Library countywide winter/spring 2004 project, “Lewis County Reads: when all of Lewis County reads the same book.”

Guterson’s novel is built around the trial of a Japanese-American fisherman charged with murder on the waters of a fictional Puget Sound island. During the trial, haunting experiences of are past are recalled—the prewar romance of a white boy and a Japanese girl, a land dispute, and wartime interment camps.

“Programs such as David Guterson’s appearance help people make sense of difficult issues. They provide a bridge for linking diverse perspectives, enhance connections between one culture and another, and offer a better understanding of the societies in which we live,” said Jinny Burns, Centralia Timberland Library Community Librarian.

Many Lewis County residents have been reading Snow Falling on Cedars and attending discussions since January. Readers just now picking up the book still have a chance to talk it over before Guterson’s visit. The Chehalis Timberland Library will host a discussion at its regular PageTurners meeting at noon Wednesday, March 3 at the library, 76 NE Park Street, Chehalis.

Stephanie Carter, Associate Dean of Library Services, Centralia College, and the Lewis County Reads series coordinator said, “This project promotes reading, creates a forum for the exchange of ideas, and provides an opportunity for us to explore, as a community, the historical background of contemporary issues and how they are treated in literature and art.”

Events coming in April focus on the Japanese-American experience of relocation and internment during World War II. A photo exhibit of the relocation and daily life in the camps, “Images of the Japanese-American Internment,” will be on display from April 1 to 30 at the Centralia College Education Complex Gallery. In room 103 of the same building, at 7 p.m. April 12, Mako Nakagawa will speak about her personal experience of internment with her parents in the Minidoka camp.

The public can access more information about the book, the author and the presentations by visiting the Web site www.lewiscountyreads.org or by calling the Centralia Timberland Library at (360) 736-0183, the Chehalis Timberland Library at (360) 748-3301, or Stephanie Carter at (360) 736-9391, ext 615.