This free event is co-sponsored by The Book Lady Bookstore and the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Savannah. The event's founder and presenter, Orlando Montoya, invites you into the author’s scariest work, the inner workings of the human mind. The event will feature readings, dramatic reenactments, thought-provoking discussion and catered refreshments. You’ll leave with a heightened understanding of what it means to be alive!

ABOUT CONRAD AIKEN: Conrad Aiken was born in Savannah in August of 1889 and died in Savannah in August of 1973, although he spent most of his life in Massachusetts and England. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry, was Poet Laureate of the United States and authored dozens of short stories, novels and other works of fiction and non-fiction over a prolific career that spanned generations and styles.

ABOUT USHANT: A mammoth work sometimes described as the writer’s most difficult to read, “Ushant” is the author’s “autobiographical experiment,” an utterly un-categorizable work that melds poetry, fiction, essay, sermon, fantasy and psychoanalysis to lay bare our chaotic and seemingly random state of consciousness. It’s named for a wind-swept island in the English Channel that’s notoriously treacherous to reach, much like our own true nature.

ABOUT ORLANDO MONTOYA: An award-winning radio host and writer, Orlando Montoya has been telling stories about Coastal Georgia in broadcast and print media since 1998. He was the Savannah-based news producer for the local NPR station for 15 years. His work currently appears on WRUU 107.5 FM Savannah and in Connect Savannah. He started the Conrad Aiken remembrance event in 2016.

ABOUT THE UNITARIAN-UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF SAVANNAH: The beacon of liberal religion in Savannah, the UUCS claims Conrad Aiken as spiritual kin. Although he was unchurched, Aiken came from proud New England Unitarians and wrote that his life’s work was a continuation of his grandfather’s Unitarian ministry, “the finding of the truth about man, and man’s mind, and of man’s place in the universe.”