The Canio's Books Blog

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Canio’s Cultural Cafe, our educational non-profit, at the Old Whalers’ Church, Room 29.  Office hours:  Tues & Fri, noon-4:30 and by appointment.

 Mailing address:  Canio’s, 2 Main Street Suite 255, Sag Harbor NY 11963 

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DECEMBER

Thurs. Dec. 4 at 5 pm:  at Christ Episcopal Church:  Art historian Helen Harrison reads from her new art mystery: A Willful Corpse, about a forgery involving the works of Jackson Pollock. The event is co-sponsored by Christ Episcopal Church.

Fri. – Sun., Dec 19-21, noon-5 Canio’s Pop Up at the Whaling Museum.  25% OFF books. Great offerings for the holiday.

Sun, Dec 21, 3pm Actor Paul Hecht performs a dramatic reading of Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales, at the Whaling Museum.

LOOKING AHEAD:  

Book discussion on Ocean Vuong’s Emperor of Gladness with writer/researcher Cathy Creedon

Literary Collage:  craft workshop using words & images to create a literary collage, with artist/educator Eva Iacono coming in Spring.

The Great Gatsby Marathon Reading & events May 30, 2026

Always more to come. Stay tuned!

Exercise your creativity!

Writing workshops: Start a new project or refresh an on-going work. Fiction, non-fiction, essay, memoir & more. Gather via Zoom and in person throughout the year.  Contact Maryann for details: caniosculturalcafe@gmail.com. Previous workshop experience helpful. Thank you!

Editing Services:  Fiction, non-fiction, poetry manuscripts welcome. Offering over 30-years’ experience writing, teaching and editing. Supportive, constructive commentary to help you bring your best  expression to the page. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry manuscripts welcome. Contact Maryann: caniosculturalcafe@gmail.com

Photography workshops:  Fine Art Photographer Kathryn Szoka teaches group and private lessons in all aspects of photography from aesthetics to the gritty technical details of digital cameras. Email: caniosculturalcafe@gmail.com.

Tax deductible contributions to our Canio’s Cultural Cafe help sustain us. Consider a donation today.

Read about our Walt Whitman  & John Steinbeck Marathons

PRIOR EVENTS on our Events ARCHIVE tab

MOBY-DICK MARATHON: Together we sailed three days and nights over the vast pages of Melville’s epic work. We welcomed 155 readers and over 500 listeners to experience Melville’s creative genius. Details HERE.    Watch dramatic readings on our YouTube Channel

Colson Whitehead presents Crook Manifesto!  WATCH HERE.

Novelist A.M. Homes discusses her darkly funny political satire The Unfolding with journalist Carl Bernstein. The two friends will discuss the challenges of writing a political work, and the influences of growing up in Wash. D.C.  WATCH Part I and Part II.

Canio’s Books 40th Anniversary Celebration!  Our home-grown party features video congrats from novelist Colson Whitehead, special guests, founding owner Canio Pavone; former NYer Comma Queen Mary Norris; ecologist/writer Carl Safina; and more.  Enjoy featured readings, decades worth of remembrances.  Watch at this LINK .

Ada Calhoun discusses her memoir, Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me,  in conversation with Maureen Callahan a New York Times bestselling author of, most recently, American Predator. Watch here PART I  and PART II.

Bloomsday:  Ulysses Demystified.   Celebration of the 100th anniversary of James Joyce’s modern classic with a lively discussion and selected readings. Moderated by Joe Shaw, Exec. Editor of the Express News Group; with Joan Baum, critic; and actors  Paul McIssac and Kate Mueth, Neo-Politcal Cowgirls; and impresario Peter Walsh.  Watch here:  PART I, PART II, and PART III.

NYC From the Inside, poetry reading with editor and Walt Whitman Birthplace writer-in-residence George Wallace introducing his new anthology NYC FROM THE INSIDE. Featured poets Michelle Whittaker and Star Black read. Watch in TWO Segment:  Part I, Star Black and Part II, Michelle Whittaker

Celebrate Lawrence Ferlinghetti! Featuring special guests professor of Italian American studies Fred Gardaphe; Walt Whitman Birthplace poet-in-residence George Wallace;  bookseller from famed Good Times Books in Port Jeff. Mary Mart; plus poets Bart Mallio, Heidi Rain and Tom Oleszczuk among others.  Watch in 3 short segments:  PART 1, PART 2, and PART 3 (6m).

John Steinbeck’s 120th Birthday Celebration! Canio’s kicked off our series Steinbeck In Search of America  with a talk by Steinbeck scholar, Susan Shillinglaw on Steinbeck & the Importance of Home. Sag Harbor’s Nada Barry joined Susan and shared her personal memories of John’s days in Sag Harbor.  Shillinglaw is is professor emerita at San Jose State University,  where she led the Center of Steinbeck Studies.  Her books include Carol and John: Portrait of a Marriage and On Reading The Grapes of Wrath. She is working on a book about Travels with Charley.  Watch at this LINK.

Book discussion on Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement with author Julian Zelizer and Rabbi Dan Geffen from Temple Adas Israel.  Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of numerous books, and has written for CNN.com, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.  LINK posted soon.

Writing as a Spiritual Practice, with poets Megan Chaskey and Mark Burrows; and fiction writers Indira Ganesan and Murzban Shroff.  Many writers also maintain a spiritual practice like meditation, prayer or yoga. What are the similarities and differences between the two? How can one practice inform and enrich the other? Join us for readings and commentary. Watch the recording HERE.

Annual African American Read IN: Enjoy our celebration of great American literature through the powerful, creative storytelling talents of African American writers. Featured readers include Noel Hankin and Professor Jennifer Morgan. Professor Morgan teaches History & Chair of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU. She is the author of “Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic” and others. She read from her essay in “400 Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019.” Noel Hankin is a founder of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and served as its Vice-Chair. He is author of “After Dark: Birth of the Disco Dance Party,” which he read from. A broad range of work was shared: poetry, fiction, non-fiction. Gloria Brown’s reading from Arthur Ashe’s essay, “The Burden of Race,” was particularly moving. Eastville Community Historical Society, John Jermain Memorial Library, and Canio’s Cultural Cafe co-hosted this annual event, sponsored by the Black Caucus of The National Council of Teachers of English. Watch the recording HERE.

International Fiction Focus:  Writers’ Talk with Indira Ganesan and Murzban Shroff . Indira Ganesan, formerly of Sag Harbor, has published the acclaimed novels The Journey, Inheritance and Sweet as Honey. Murzban Shroff, based in Mumbai, recently published Third Eye Rising, a compelling story collection out from Sputen Duyvil. His previous story collection is Breathless in Bombay.   Watch at this LINK.   Please purchase your books through Canio’s directly, or Click HERE for Canio’s ONLINE

Eye on the Environment: Science writer Erica Cirino presented her new book: Thicker Than Water: The Quest For Solutions to the Plastic Crisis. Erica Cirino is a science writer and artist who explores the intersection of the human and nonhuman worlds. Signed copies available at Canio’s. Watch at this LINK.

ART TALK: Loomings by Christopher Volpe.  Loomings is a series of paintings combining tar, gold leaf, and oil paint, inspired by Moby-Dick. Watch Christopher’s talk at this  LINK.

Film Discussion, The Act of Reading, by Mark Blumberg, inspired by Moby-Dick. Watch our moderated discussion with Mark & Cast members at this LINK.  View the Film HERE. This charming, quirky documentary is about reading Moby-Dick through the eyes of high school students, teachers, reading challenged, Melville experts, and more.   

“From flunking English to falling in love with Moby-Dick.”  

Philip Hoare, acclaimed author discusses his lastest work, Albert and the Whale: Albrecht Durer and How Art Imagines Our World.  Previous works include: The Sea Inside; RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR; Leviathan or, The Whale.  Watch it as this LINK. 

Book talk with translator Ann Goldstein and author Mary Norris, (Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen) discussing Elena Ferrante’s: Lying Life of Adults.  Watch at this LINK

Poetry reading & discussion with Cheryl Boyce-Taylor and Kathy Engel. Both have recently published books that deal with loss through writing and poetry. Cheryl Boyce-Taylor’s Mama Phife Represents, and Kathy Engel’s The Lost Brother Alphabet are featured.  WATCH at this LINK.  

Scott Chaskey and Rameshwar Das discuss Being Ram Das and more.  Watch at this LINK.  

Art Historian and mystery writer Helen Harrison reads from her newest, An Artful Corpse, which centers on the Art Students League and Thomas Hart Benton.  Watch at this LINK.

“Let Us Dream: Pope Francis’ Reflections on a Post Covid World”, with Tom Petriano, PhD Religious Studies, St. Joseph’s College, Patchogue, who guides us through Let Us Dream, Pope Francis’ reflections on the challenges and opportunities of our Covid time, a period he calls a “threshold moment.” Watch at this LINK.  

Independent publisher Four Way Books present poets Angela Narciso Torres author of What Happens is Neither; Andrea Cohen author of Everything;   Rodney Terich Leonard author of Sweetgum & Lightning. Watch at this LINK. 

Finding Peace During a Pandemic: Lessons from Julian, 14th Century Mystic, a presentation by Professor Thomas Petriano, PhD, Religious Studies Director at St. Joseph’s College. Julian endured three plagues during a tumultuous 14th century England. What lessons does she have for us today? Watch at this LINK.

Poet/novelist  Diane Glancy (Pushing the Bear: a novel of The Trail of Tears) and poet/presbyter Spencer Reece (The Road to Emmaus, and The Clerk’s Tale) explore suffering in today’s world through ISLAND OF THE INNOCENT: A Consideration of the Book of Job by Diane Glancy.  Watch at this LINK.

Civil Rights’ Activists Janet Dewart Bell and Lewis Steel discuss their friendship, Women in the Movement, and where to go from here. Bell is the author of Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement. Steel’s book is The Butler’s Child: White Privilege, Race, and a Lawyer’s Life in Civil Rights.  Watch at this LINK.

Poetry reading (on Emily Dickinson’s birthday) and discussion with Grace Schulman —  her new collection The Marble Bed just published by Turtle Point Press, and Jill Bialosky — her new work Asylum, a book length lyric is just out from Knopf.  Watch at this LINK.

“Lunch with Le Pancake Kid” . Author/restaurateur Craig Carlson a.k.a. Le Pancake Kid and his husband Julien  Zoom from Paris to chat about Let Them Eat Pancakes, further adventures with Breakfast in America, Carlson’s internationally renowned pancake eatery in the City of Lights. Watch at this LINK.

Commemorating the 95th anniversary of the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, a presentation in story and song by historian/musician Stephen Sanfilippo. Watch here:  Part I and Part II