About Wally Lamb

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Wally Lamb named 2023 Norwich Native Son

The Norwich Rotary Clubs and the Norwich Woman’s City Club are proud to announce the 2023 Norwich Native Son is author Wally Lamb. Lamb is the author of six bestselling novels. His first and second novels, She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, were Oprah’s Book Club selections and number one New York Times bestsellers. I Know This Much Is True was adapted as an HBO limited series starring Mark Ruffalo and Lamb’s fourth novel, Wishin’ and Hopin’, was the basis of a Lifetime TV Christmas movie of the same name. Several of Lamb’s novels are set in the fictional town of Three Rivers, Connecticut, loosely based on his hometown of Norwich. Together, Lamb’s novels have been translated into 17 languages. Lamb is also the editor of Couldn’t Keep It to Myself, I’ll Fly Away, and You Don’t Know Me, three volumes of autobiographical essays authored by his writing workshop students at York Correctional Institute, Connecticut’s maximum-security women’s prison. In 2004, the workshop and the first of these titles was the focus of a story on CBS-TV’s Sixty Minutes. Lamb volunteered at York from 1999 to 2019. Before that, he taught at the Norwich Free Academy (1972 to 1997) and ran the Creative Writing department at UConn from 1997 to 1999. Honors for Wally Lamb include a National Endowment for the Arts grant, the Barnes and Noble “Writers for Writers” Award, the New England Book Award, the Friends of the Library USA Readers’ Choice Award, the Connecticut Bar Association’s Distinguished Public Service Award, and Distinguished Alumni awards from the University of Connecticut and Vermont College. Wally Lamb was honored to be chosen as NFA’s first Teacher of the Year in 1989. Lamb holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees from UConn and a graduate degree from Vermont College of the Fine Arts. He is forever grateful for the education he received at the following Norwich schools: Broad Street and Buckingham Schools, Kelly Middle School (then Kelly Junior High), and the Norwich Free Academy. As this year’s Native Son-Daughter recipient, Wally is pleased to join the ranks of past honorees: his cousin, Dr. Frank Pedace (1981), his fellow 1968 NFA graduates, Pete Slosberg (2001) and Dr. Mike Morosky (2017), and his former NFA student, Judge Nina Elgo (2015.) Lamb will be honored at a luncheon on June 7th, 2023 at the Holiday Inn, Norwich. The event will start at noon, and tickets are available...

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Garde Arts Center Presents ‘I Know This Much is True’ Series

The Garde Arts Center is pleased to announce that Connecticut-based novelist Wally Lamb will host screenings of the entire six-episode HBO series, I Know This Much Is True, over three nights from September 21 to 23, 2022 at 7 p.m. on the Garde’s giant movie screen. On Thursday and Friday nights, Director Derek Cianfrance and actor Mark Ruffalo will join Lamb to host post-show discussions. Tickets to each night range from $24-48 per person and are available at gardearts.org.  I Know This Much Is True is an adaptation of the New York Times bestseller and award-winning novel by Norwich, CT, native Wally Lamb. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the premiere screening of the HBO limited series. The Garde is pleased to offer the first theater screening of the entire series, which follows the parallel lives of identical twin brothers played by three-time Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo, in an epic story of betrayal, sacrifice, and forgiveness. The story is set against the backdrop of 20th-century America, inspired by the communities and characters of eastern Connecticut that have influenced much of Lamb’s work over the years. Ruffalo won an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild award for his performance in I Know This Much Is True. The series is rated TV-MA and is intended for adults (Mature Audience; may be unsuitable for children under 17). Tickets for episodes 1 & 2 on Sept. 21 are $24, and tickets for Sept. 22 and 23 are $48 each. Patrons who purchase tickets to all three nights and use promo code IKTMIT at checkout on gardearts.org will receive a 25% discount.  Each episode runs about an hour, and will be followed by live discussions with our hosts.  Doors open at 6 p.m. Visit https://gardearts.org/events/i-know-this-much-is-true-12/ for more information and tickets, or call the Garde box office at 860-444-7373 x1 Mon-Fri 10:00 a.m. – 5:00...

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2nd Annual Albany Film Festival

The Albany Film Festival differs from most film festivals, which are usually multi-day events at various locations around a city. This is a very story-focused festival, with conversations about filmmakers as storytellers, book-to-film, writing vs. visual storytelling, screenwriting, criticism, and film history and biography. The emphasis is more on conversation and Q&A with guests than on screenings of full films. The 2nd Annual Albany Film Festival – featuring a number of “bookish” events, and events that emphasize writing – will be presented by the NYS Writers Institute on Saturday, April 2, 2022, at the University at Albany. A highlight of this year’s festival will include a conversation between bestselling novelist Wally Lamb and acclaimed director Derek Cianfrance about his adaptation of Lamb’s novel, I Know This Much Is True. Based on the bestselling novel by Wally Lamb, written and directed by Derek Cianfrance, and starring Mark Ruffalo, this limited series follows Dominick Birdsey as he struggles to care for his twin brother, Thomas, while discovering the truth about his own family history. Ruffalo won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for best actor for his role, aired on HBO and shot partly in Ulster and Dutchess counties. Screening and discussion with director Derek M. Cianfrance and author Wally Lamb 1 p.m. – 2 p.m., Screening, Campus Center West Auditorium The event, free and open to the public, will take place on UAlbany’s Uptown Campus, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany. Maps, free parking locations, and more information available at...

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Speaking Engagement at ECSU

Connecticut icon and best-selling author Wally Lamb will visit Eastern Connecticut State University on March 9 for a lecture titled Connecticut on My Mind, as well as a reception and book signing. The author of such books as The Hour I First Believed, She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True will speak in the Concert Hall of the Fine Arts Instructional Center (FAIC) at 5:30 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session. A reception and book signing will take place in the FAIC foyer from 7-8 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public, but seating is limited due to COVID-19 and event registration is required. Masking is required inside the venue. To register, visit:  https://easternct.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0lJaXUVMVq8qWLI . The lecture will also livestream on the University’s YouTube channel at 5:30 p.m. on March 9. Lamb’s visit is in coordination with Eastern’s “Big Read” program to present stories and bring writers to campus who focus on themes of human interconnectedness. Excerpted from an ECSU website post written by Ed...

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Ct Lit Fest Event

  Join me for a reading followed by coverstation with Real Art Ways executive director, Will K. Wilkins.   Thursday, Sept. 24 at 7 pm.     To attend the series, or a single event, please register via Crowdcast, here.    ...

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