Tacoma Reads: A Conversation with Lisa Moore Ramée, Hosted by Tacoma Poet Laureate Lydia K. Valentine [cid:image003.jpg@01D7DC73.1633C400]<https://tacoma.bibliocommons.com/events/612fbcffad0dd42800ee951c?_ga=2.35070177.1906420247.1637264498-1968113969.1637264498> Saturday, November 20, 2021 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm FREE Zoom webinar, click here to register<https://tacoma.bibliocommons.com/events/612fbcffad0dd42800ee951c?_ga=2.35070177.1906420247.1637264498-1968113969.1637264498> for this Tacoma Reads event Meet the author of Tacoma Public Library's Tacoma Reads 2021 young adult and teen selection, A Good Kind of Trouble, Lisa Moore Ramée in this virtual talk! Tacoma's own Poet Laureate Lydia K. Valentine will host this discussion<https://tacoma.bibliocommons.com/events/612fbcffad0dd42800ee951c?_ga=2.35070177.1906420247.1637264498-1968113969.1637264498>. Lisa Moore Ramée was born and raised in Los Angeles and now lives in Northern California, with her husband, two kids, obnoxious cat and more yard than she can control. She earned a BA in Speech Communications and a MA in English Literature. She worked for several years in publishing at the Walt Disney Company, and while there, she co-penned The Little Mermaid, Jr. Graphic Novel and the writing bug took up permanent residence. The best-selling A Good Kind of Trouble, her first novel, received critical acclaim, garnering three starred reviews, the Walter Honor, and BCALA's First Writer Award. It appeared on numerous "best of" lists for 2019. Something to Say received three starred reviews, was an Indie Next Pick and a Kirkus best of 2020 book. Mapmaker, a middle-grade fantasy is due out in 2022. Lydia K. Valentine is a playwright and poet, director and dramaturg, editor and educator. Her proudest accomplishment, though, is being a mom to two creative, intelligent, and caring individuals and activists. In her own writing and the projects to which she contributes through Lyderary Ink, Lydia seeks to amplify the voices of those who are often stifled, ignored, and marginalized in what has been the accepted narrative of the United States. Lydia's first poetry collection, Brief Black Candles, was published in 2020 by Not a Pipe Publishing. Along with several other poets of the region, including our WA State Poet Laureate, Rena Priest, Lydia was asked to write something based on Puget Sound's ecology for the ECHOLOGY project. Poems for the project have been installed along the Creekside Trail from Donkey Creek Park to Austen Estuary in Gig Harbor and will remain until November 2021. Lydia's writing has also appeared in online and print publications, such as the social justice and literary arts magazine Speak. The upcoming anthology from Blue Cactus Press, We Need a Reckoning, takes its name from one of Lydia's three poems that will be included. She has been the recipient of various awards and recognitions with the most recent being named the 2021-2023 City of Tacoma Poet Laureate, a role that she is immensely honored to hold. Have questions? Contact Sara Holloway at (253) 280-2967 and sholloway@tacomalibrary.org<mailto:sholloway@tacomalibrary.org>.