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The Pitkin County Library will host a free livestream viewing party for the Aspen Words Literary Prize awards ceremony Thursday.
The ceremony is being held at the Morgan Library in New York City. The local event, held in the library’s Dunaway Community Room, will begin at 4:15 p.m. with the livestream beginning at 4:30 p.m.
Finalists for the $35,000 prize, which honors a work of fiction that illuminates vital contemporary issues are: “Friday Black” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, “Brother” by David Chariandy, “Gun Love” by Jennifer Clement, “An American Marriage” by Tayari Jones and “There There” by Tommy Orange.
The event will include a conversation with the five finalist authors led by NPR special host and correspondent Renee Montagne and the live announcement of the prize winner.
At the local library party, refreshments will be served and prizes will be awarded for those who correctly guess the winning book. Attendees also will have the opportunity to be the first to sign up to receive a free copy of the winning title, which will be featured in a community read this summer.
In early May, the library is expected to host a community read kickoff party. And on June 18, during Summer Words literary festival, the 2019 prize winner is expected to give a talk at Belly Up Aspen.
That event will be followed by an early-July panel discussion about the winner for valleywide book clubs at the library.