On Wednesday, July 9, the 2008 Thurber House Literary Picnics series will present Katrina Kittle, a Dayton native who has authored three books, including her latest novel The Kindness of Strangers, which was the Fiction Book winner for the 2006 Great Lakes Book Awards.
Kittle will read from The Kindness of Strangers, which creates a haunting vision of the secret lives of people we think we know. It is a powerful and poignant tale of how the tragedy of a single family in a small suburban town can affect so many.
She is also the author of Traveling Light and Two Truths and a Lie.
Kittle teaches sixth and seventh grade English at Miami Valley School in Dayton, and also acts frequently in productions for the Dayton Theatre Guild. She describes her childhood home as a place “where books were prized possessions, and original stories and poems were given as gifts. Her father was a voracious ‘chain reader’ who encouraged her to read widely and still greets her at the door with, ‘Did you bring me any books?’” Kittle has her own Web site and occasionally blogs at www.katrinakittle.com.
Kittle’s reading is the third of the Thurber House Literary Picnics summer series, presented on the side lawn of Thurber House, at 77 Jefferson Ave., where picnickers listen to nationally known Ohio authors read from their latest work. The series is now in its 23rd season.
Guests can order a picnic dinner catered by Party Panache or bring their own. Each picnic offers a tour of James Thurber’s historic home given by the Thurber House pre-teen Young Docents. Tours begin at 5:20 p.m.; the picnics start at 6:15 p.m.; and the reading is at 7 p.m.
Guests will need to bring their own blankets or lawn chairs for seating. Parking is free after 6 p.m. at the meters on Jefferson Avenue. The neighboring rain site is State Auto Insurance, 518 E. Broad St.
Ticket prices: Dinner/reading, $65; Individual dinner/reading tickets, $25; reading only, adults, $15; children 12 and under, $5. For more information visit www.thurberhouse.org or
614-464-1032.