**Questions for the speaker can be submitted on the Registration page.**
\nJoin us in an onli ne conversation with acclaimed writer Amanda Peters as we discuss her inst ant bestselling novel\, \;The Berry Pickers\, as well as her tender short fiction collection\, \;Waiting for the Long Night Moo n: Stories. \;
\nInfluenced by Peters&rsquo\; own Mi&rsquo\ ;kmaq heritage\, \;The Berry Pickers \;is a riveting expl oration of family\, grief\, and the bonds we share. \;
\nJuly 19 62. A Mi&rsquo\;kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blue berries for the summer. Weeks later\, four-year-old Ruthie\, the family&rs quo\;s youngest child\, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old bro ther\, Joe\, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister&rsquo\;s disappearance for years to c ome.
\nIn Maine\, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only chil d of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant\, her mother fr ustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams an d visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows olde r\, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren&rsqu o\;t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition\, she will spend deca des trying to uncover this family secret.
\nThe Berry Pickers \;is an intimate portrait of race\, love\, and loneliness&ndash\;an
d the power of forgiveness. Register now to take part in the discussion!\n About the Author: \;Amanda Peters is a mixed-r
ace woman of Mi&rsquo\;kmaq and European ancestry\, born and raised in the
Annapolis Valley\, Nova Scotia. Her short fiction and non-fiction have be
en published in \;The Antigonish Review\, Grain Magazine<
/em>\, The Alaska Quarterly Review\, The Dalhousie Review\, \;and \;Filling Station Magazine. Amanda&rsqu
o\;s first novel\, \;The Berry Pickers\, was a finalist for t
he Atwood Gibson Writers&rsquo\; Trust Fiction Prize in Canada\, and won t
he Barnes and Noble Discover Prize and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence i
n Fiction in the US. \;The Berry Pickers \;won the Dartmo
uth Book Award and the Crime Writers of Canada First Crime Novel Award\, a
nd has been translated into sixteen languages around the world. Her most r
ecent book of short fiction\, \;Waiting for the Long Night Moon\, was published August 2024 to critical acclaim.