Beacon Journal staff report
Celebrated short-story writer George Saunders, whose new work, the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, is winning critical acclaim, will speak at 7 p.m. April 6 at the Akron-Summit County Main Library in downtown Akron.
Saunders, the 2006 MacArthur Foundation genius grant winner who also is known for his essays and articles, will speak as part of the Main Event Speaker Series. The talk is free. The library is at 60 S. High St.
Lincoln in the Bardo is Saunders’ first novel. Now on the New York Times best-seller list, the book takes place over the course of a single night in February 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln visits the crypt where his 11-year-old son, Willie, was laid to rest after dying from typhoid fever. In Tibetan Buddhism bardo is the transitory state between death and rebirth.