Events

Join Unbound Edition Press authors at the readings, panels, or receptions scheduled below.

Books are often available at the events, though it’s best to order a copy in advance through our store.

Sunday Forum: “What Truly Leads to a Happier, More Meaningful Life?”

October 11, 2026 | 11:15 am EST

Join acclaimed author and literary critic Dr. Willard Spiegelman for an engaging exploration of the physical and mental practices that foster happiness, purpose, and enlightenment. A retired Professor of English at Southern Methodist University and a longtime contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Spiegelman is the author of numerous acclaimed books. His book Nothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt, was named a New Yorker Best Book of the Year and was longlisted for the 2024 Plutarch Award. The event will take place in the Parish Hall and offer free coffee and light bites.

Unbound Edition Press will publish Willard Spiegelman’s memoir, My (Lucky) Stars, in October 2026 and the title is now available for pre-order. A lifelong devotee of language and performance, Spiegelman weaves an unconventional “memoir of taste” by recalling the entertainers who shaped his sensibility. From Gilbert & Sullivan operettas that rescued him from summer camp athletics to Ruth Draper’s mesmerizing solo performances, from Mabel Mercer’s intimate cabaret artistry to Patsy Cline’s honky-tonk heartbreak, Spiegelman celebrates the middlebrow culture that thrived mid-century and endures today. Part cultural criticism, part personal testament, the essays comprising this memoir reveal how we come to know ourselves through what delights us.

Map: Christ Church Greenwich
254 E Putnam Avenue
Greenwich, CT 06830

Willard Spiegelman Lecture and Book Signing

October 13, 2026 | 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm CDT

Southern Methodist University –
Frances Anne Moody Hall
Registration Required

Join renowned SMU professor Willard Spiegelman as he presents his memoir, My (Lucky) Stars, at a lecture and book signing co-sponsored by DeGolyer Library, Friends of SMU Libraries and the SMU English Department.

Spiegelman is the Hughes Professor of English, Emeritus, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and the former longtime editor-in-chief of the Southwest Review. He is the author of many books on English and American poetry, plus two volumes of personal essays. He is a longtime contributor to the arts and books pages of The Wall Street Journal.

Books will be available for purchase at the event.

Unbound Edition Press will publish My (Lucky) Stars in October 2026 and the title is now available for pre-order. A lifelong devotee of language and performance, Spiegelman weaves an unconventional “memoir of taste” by recalling the entertainers who shaped his sensibility. From Gilbert & Sullivan to Ruth Draper to Mabel Mercer to Patsy Cline, Spiegelman celebrates the middlebrow culture that thrived mid-century and endures today. With inimitable erudition and wit, he defends “the necessity of the superfluous” — arguing that pleasure, beauty, and entertainment aren’t frivolous distractions but essential sustenance.

Map: Frances Anne Moody Hall
6404 Airline Road
Dallas, TX 75205

Columbia University: October Narrative Medicine Rounds with Tom Sleigh (Virtual)

October 14, 2026 | 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT

Columbia University Medical Center
Held on Zoom
Register Here

Acclaimed poet and journalist Tom Sleigh will join Columbia University’s monthly Narrative Medical Rounds this October 14 on Zoom. The series is held by the Division of Narrative Medicine in the Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

The event is entitled “Rosie: A Memoir of Farewell: A Personal Account of Medical Aid in Dying,” and will feature a conversation with Sleigh moderated by Dr. Michael Nalepa, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and Medical Co-Director of Columbia’s Palliative Care Admit Team (PCAT).

Sleigh’s most recent book, Rosie: A Memoir of Farewell (Unbound Edition Press, 2026), excavates the complex legacy of his mother Rosie from the vantage of her assisted death at age 97. Sleigh weaves together her journal entries, family photographs, and his award-winning poetry to create a portrait that is simultaneously heartbreaking and darkly comic. The memoir is accompanied by a short film series by Ed Robbins, which features ten vignettes and four poem readings from the book.

Map: This is a virtual event held on Zoom. Please click here to register.

David Biespiel at Powell’s City of Books

October 14, 2026 | 7:00 pm PDT

Powell’s City of Books

David Biespiel will appear in a featured author reading at Powell’s City of Books in Portland, OR on Wednesday, October 14. His 14th book, Beautiful Is the World: New and Selected Poems, 1996-2026, is forthcoming from Unbound Edition Press and now available for pre-order.

In Beautiful Is the World Biespiel spans three decades of lyric intensity, tracing the intimate cartography of memory, place, and inheritance. These poems move between the Pacific Northwest’s rain-soaked landscapes and the haunted reaches of Jewish ancestry, between the urgent present and history’s long shadows. Biespiel’s lines shimmer with atmospheric precision — “star-this, star-that, settled into rest” — while confronting mortality, brotherhood, and the stubborn persistence of the past. From elegiac meditations to sprawling epistolary sequences, this new and selected volume showcases a poet of remarkable range: tender and unflinching, rooted in American soil yet alive to exile’s ancient grief.

Biespiel is a poet, novelist, critic, memoirist, and painter. He is a contributor to The New Yorker, The New Republic, Poetry, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere, and the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and Lannan fellowship. He was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Balakian award. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Map: Powell’s City of Books
1005 W Burnside St.
Portland, OR 97209