One Book Steamboat Author Talk: Sara Novic
- Virtual Event via Crowdcast
An interactive virtual evening with award-winning author Sara Novic talking about True Biz, her novel that offers readers an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community. The free talk will include a Q&A with the audience.
Sara Novic is the author of the New York Times bestseller and Alex Award-winner True Biz, America is Immigrants, and Girl at War, which also won the American Library Association’s Alex Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She holds an MFA in fiction and literary translation from Columbia University, and is an instructor of Deaf studies and creative writing. She lives in Philadelphia with her family.
Read the interview! Sara Novic talks about True Biz, activism, Deaf culture and more in the Winter 2024 edition of Steamboat Magazine.
Accessibility for this virtual event
This author talk includes ASL interpretation.
Crowdcast doesn't have captioning built in yet. But good news! Live Captions are available on most Chromium-based browsers. Here are instructions for three commonly used Chromium browsers and how to turn your live captions on for the replay:
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Chrome – Click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner, then click on "Settings." Scroll down to the "Accessibility" section and click on "Manage accessibility features." Toggle the "Live Caption" button to on.
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Opera – Click on the Opera menu button, then click on "Settings." Scroll down to the "Advanced" section and click on "Features." Toggle the "Easy Setup" button to on, and then click on "Accessibility" to access the accessibility settings.
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Edge – Click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner, then click on "Settings." Scroll down to the "System" section and click on "Accessibility." Toggle the "Closed captions" button to on.
When enabled, Live Captions automatically appear in a small, moveable box at the bottom of your browser when you’re watching or listening to a piece of content that includes speech. If you’re not seeing this feature, try manually updating and restarting your browser. Please note, this setup is on the viewer's end. Captions are just for the viewer who enables them and are not displayed within the video feed directly.
About the book
True biz (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk
True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history finals, and have politicians, doctors, and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they’ll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who’s never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school’s golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the hearing headmistress, a CODA (child of deaf adult(s)) who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both. As a series of crises both personal and political threaten to unravel each of them, Charlie, Austin, and February find their lives inextricable from one another — and changed forever.
This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and relatable, this is an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community and a universal celebration of human connection.
***2023 American Library Association Alex Award Winner
***BEST BOOKS OF 2022—Publisher’s Weekly, Washington Post, NPR, Booklist, Audible, Goodreads
***New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick
Get your copy of True Biz
The Library has ample copies of True Biz circulating locally in our collection (including digital, audio and print copies). Books are available so everyone is able to check out a copy, read it and participate in the community conversations.
Borrow True Biz from Bud Werner Memorial Library.
Buy True Biz from Steamboat Springs' independent bookstore, Off the Beaten Path.
One Book Steamboat & the Library Author Series
This is a featured event to enhance the ONE BOOK STEAMBOAT community reading of Sara Novic's novel True Biz and the Yampa Valley's growth, understanding and inclusion of all disabilities.
Bud Werner Memorial Library presents an ongoing program of free author talks throughout the year. A diverse range of award-winning authors continues to speak about their literary works and their writing processes. Each talk is followed by a Q&A, and books are available for sale courtesy of Off the Beaten Path Bookstore.