Left Bank Books, in downtown Belfast, invites the public to two author talks and signings the week of August 18.

The first event, on Monday, August 18, at 6:30 p.m., features Michael Koryta, writing as Scott Carson, discussing his new novel Departure 37. The second talk will take place on Wednesday, August 20, at 6:30 p.m., when Amy Reading discusses her biography The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker. Both events will take place at the bookshop.

"Departure 37 deftly weaves Cold War espionage with contemporary terror in a thrilling coming-of-age story," said Left Bank, in a news release.

The novel opens on a clear October day when the American skies are empty because hundreds of pilots have refused to fly after receiving disturbing, middle-of-the-night calls from their mothers, each with an urgent request: do not fly today. Their actions trigger a complete ground stop as authorities seek to explain an act of baffling coordination that the pilots insist was anything but planned.

Even more puzzling: None of the mothers remember making the phone calls—and some of the mothers are dead. While military chiefs and AI experts mobilize in search of answers, a sixteen-year-old girl on the Maine coast watches a strange, silvery balloon drift across the water and toward her home which, unknown to her, is ground zero for a story that begins at a remote naval base in Indiana in 1962.

Scott Carson is the pseudonym of Michael Koryta, a New York Times bestselling author who work has been translated into more than twenty languages and adapted into major motion pictures. Koryta’s first novel, the Edgar-nominated Tonight I Said Goodbye, was accepted for publication when he was twenty years old. He wrote his first two novels before graduating from college and was published in nearly ten languages before he fulfilled the “writing requirement” classes required for his diploma.

A former private investigator and reporter, his writing has been praised by Michael Connelly, Dean Koontz, and Stephen King, who has this to say about Departure 37: “If you loved The Twilight Zone, this is for you. It’s a mind-blower.”

Amy Reading’s biography of Katharine White was a finalist for both the 2025 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Award. The World She Edited is an era-defining portrait of the trailblazing New Yorker editor (1925-1961) who was instrumental in shaping the magazine's esteemed legacy and transforming the twentieth-century literary landscape. She was once described by James Thurber as "the fountain and shrine of The New Yorker."

The World She Edited brings to life the remarkable relationships White fostered with her writers as she nurtured an astonishing array of literary talent, including John Updike—to whom she sent seventeen rejections before a single acceptance. White’s biggest contribution, however, was her cultivation of women writers whose careers were made at The New Yorker—Janet Flanner, Mary McCarthy, Elizabeth Bishop, Jean Stafford, Nadine Gordimer, Elizabeth Taylor, Emily Hahn, Kay Boyle, and more. She propelled these women to great literary heights and, in the process, reinvented the role of the editor, according to Left Bank.

"Amy Reading has created a rare and deeply intimate portrait of woman who, through both her professional life and her famous marriage to E.B. White, transformed our understanding of literary culture and community," said the bookstore.

Booklist writes of The World She Edited: "With profound understanding of and appreciation for the full extent of White’s achievements, Reading’s in- depth, ardently and expertly written biography is a literary landmark."

A recipient of fellowships from the National for the Humanities and the New York Public Library, Reading grew up in Pennsylvania and Washington State and holds a PhD in American studies from Yale. She lives in upstate New York in a 175-year-old farmhouse with her family and a beautiful, deranged dog named Lyra.

Admission to both talks is by donation. Follow this link to reserve your seat(s), or visit leftbankbookshop.com for links to reserve seats for all our upcoming events.

Questions? Call Left Bank Books at 207-338-9009, or email info@leftbankbookshop.com. Ample free parking is available in front of the shop and in an adjacent city lot.