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An Evening with Author & Filmmaker Elisabeth Tova Bailey

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

Elisabeth Tova Bailey, author of The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, virtually discusses her memoir and presents her short film in celebration of Dedham Reads 2025: Unexpected Friendships.

The first 20 registrants will receive a free signed copy of The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2010); recipients will be notified prior to the event in order to pick up their book at the Main Library. Digital copies are also available through Libby with your library card. Refreshments served. This event is generously sponsored by DLIT.

For teens & adults. Registration is required; questions for the author welcomed. Please email Brittany at btuttle.ddm@minlib.net with questions.

About the Book & Film:

Elisabeth Tova Bailey's memoir, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, is the inspiring and intimate story of her year-long encounter with a Neohelix albolabris—a common forest snail. While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches as the snail takes up residence on her nightstand. Intrigued by its molluscan anatomy, cryptic defenses, clear decision making ability, hydraulic locomotion, and mysterious courtship activities, Bailey becomes an astute and amused observer. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a remarkable journey of survival and resilience, showing us how a small part of the natural world illuminates our own human existence. —Provided by the author

Adapted from the memoir, the short, award-winning film of the same name features actor Ariela Kuh with narration by Daryl Hannah, and has been described as "meditative, provocative...life-affirming and beautiful" by The San Francisco Examiner. Watch the trailer at wildsnailfilm.org. 

About the Author & Filmmaker: 

Elisabeth Tova Bailey's essays and short stories have been published in The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, The Missouri Review, Northwest Review, and the Sycamore Review. She has received the William Saroyan International Prize for Nonfiction, the John Burroughs Medal Award for Distinguished Natural History, a National Outdoor Book Award in Natural History Literature, several Pushcart Prize nominations, and a Notable Essay Listing in Best American Essays. Bailey is on the Writers Council for the National Writing Project. She lives in Maine. —Provided by the author

Connect with Elisabeth at elisabethtovabailey.net or on Facebook. 

Dedham Reads Together is a collaborative annual initiative presented by Dedham Public Library, Dedham Public Schools, Dedham Library Innovation Team, and the Friends of the Library to promote literacy and community in Dedham, MA through shared reads and activities.

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