Enjoy Free Film and Author Bonnie Jo Campbell on Feb. 2

Hear nationally acclaimed author Bonnie Jo Campbell and director Haroula Rose discuss their collaboration to make Bonnie Jo’s bestselling book “Once Upon a River” into an award-winning movie at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2 at Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Dale B. Lake Auditorium on the Texas Township Campus.

A FREE film screening and a book signing follow, with sales of “Once Upon a River” and new release “The Waters” planned.

The event is free, but tickets are required and can be obtained here, or at the Texas Township Campus Bookstore. The author-director talk starts at 5 p.m. The film will be shown from 6 - 8 p.m. The book signing concludes the evening.

A pre-talk with Bonnie Jo Campbell takes place from 2 - 3 p.m. on the same day in the Student Lounge in the Student Commons on the Texas Township Campus. Tickets are not required for the pre-talk.

Campbell, a Comstock Township native, is a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow. She has penned three novels and three books of short stories, which have earned literary accolades. Her third book of short stories, “American Salvage,” was a finalist for both the National Book Award and National Critic’s Circle Award.

Her second novel, "Once Upon a River,” a tale of a Native American teen girl's survival and adventure as she searches for her estranged mother, was adapted into a full-length feature film and released to international critical acclaim in 2020.

Campbell’s third and latest novel, "The Waters,” is already receiving rave reviews in major publications although only just released on Jan. 9, 2024, including from the New York Times (called it "pure magic") and the Washington Post.

“The Waters” is set on an island in the Great Massasauga Swamp – an area known as "The Waters" to the residents of nearby Whiteheart, Michigan, where herbalist Hermine "Herself" Zook has healed the local women of their ailments for generations.

Campbell’s novels include “Q Road” (2002), “Once Upon a River” (2011) and “The Waters” (2024). Her books of short stories are “American Savage” (2008), “Mothers, Tell Your Daughters” (2015) and “Women and Other Animals” (2002).

Campbell’s campus visit is being made possible by a partnership between Kalamazoo Valley Community College, the Kalamazoo Valley Museum and the Kalamazoo Film Society, as part of the college’s Visiting Writers Series.

Learn more about Bonnie Jo Campbell by stopping by the Kalamazoo Valley Museum for its mini pop-up exhibit about Campbell on display from Jan. 20 through June 30, 2024. Admission to the exhibit and the museum are free. More details at kalamazoomuseum.org.