Historic women topic of Zelie library event
The Zelienople Area Public Library will host its second speaker event of the year Feb. 16 with a talk from an attorney-turned-author whose works highlight the often concealed accomplishments of women throughout history.
Marie Benedict, whose most recent book, “Her Hidden Genius,” discusses Rosalind Franklin — who as a fellow at King’s College London contributed heavily to the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, but whose work largely went unrecognized during her lifetime — will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Steamfitters Technology Center, 230 Wise Road in Jackson Township.
The talk will be the second iteration of the library’s 2022 “Zelienople Library Presents,” its arts-and-culture speaker series.
Benedict, who previously wrote under the name Heather Terrell, has also written about English author Agatha Christie; Belle DaCosta Green, the personal librarian to 20th-century financier J. P. Morgan; Hedy Lamarr, an actress-turned-inventor whose works later led to the development of Bluetooth and GPS technologies; and numerous other women whose works have been sidelined.
“Her Hidden Genius” was published Jan. 25, and will be among Benedict’s titles for sale at The Little Green Bookstore in Harmony.
Tickets are available online at zelienoplelibrary.org, or at the library, 227 S. High St. They cost $8 for adults and $3 for those younger than 18, with five free tickets available for interested high school students.
A subscription to the library’s six-speaker lineup is available for $20.
The library also invited Nick Courage, a Pittsburgh-based author who bills himself as an “aspiring skateboarder” and has written mid-grade novels, to appear at the library on April 2. The event is a pop-up activity promoting the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books, slated May 14, in six locations in East Liberty.
Courage, originally from New Orleans, has most recently published “Snow Struck,” which joins his other novels including “Storm Blown.”
He, along with his wife, Rachel Eckstrom Courage, will host a book signing and question-and-answer session during the event, and they will speak on their individual novels and an online local literary site they founded called Littsburgh.
