Gustavus Adolphus College

A Unity in Community-St. Peter Reads event is fast approaching, so curl up with a warm blanket, sip some hot chocolate and start reading! This year’s Winter Read, a Unity in Community event, features Sweet Land author Will Weaver. His book is a compilation of selected and new stories and will be featured at the 4th annual Winter Read event.

The event takes place during February’s weeklong Winterfest festivities, a celebration of Minnesota winters. As a featured event of Winterfest, the public is invited to a free community lecture and book signing for Sweet Land led by Weaver at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13 at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Peter, Minn.

Weaver, a Bemidji, Minn. resident, writes fiction and has published nine award-winning books. Sweet Land contains stories from his original collection, A Gravestone Made of Wheat, as well as an assortment of fresh stories that portray America’s transforming heartland. The recent independent feature film, Sweet Land, is based on Weaver’s novel and has played in theaters nationally since October. Other works by Weaver include the series Striking Out, Farm Team, and Hard Ball; Memory Boy; and Full Service, which received “Best Book” status by the American Library Association.

Unity in Community-St. Peter Reads is a program that works to organize community-wide reading events followed by discussions with authors and community members. Past Unity in Community authors include Tim O’Brien (The Things They Carried), Julie Otsuka (When the Emperor was Divine), and Michael Perry (Population: 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time).

Books are available for purchase at The Book Mark at Gustavus Adolphus College, Community & Family Education, St. Peter Public Library, and Nutter Clothing. For more information contact Judy Schultz, Unity in Community member, at (507) 933-6017 or St. Peter Community & Family Education at (507) 934-3048.