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Arts & Entertainment

VIEWFINDER: Author Jamie Ford Meets Fans At Pierce County READS Event

He also read from "Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet."

More than 1,000 people turned out on Friday to meet and hear from New York Times best-selling author Jamie Ford at two events sponsored by Pierce County READS.

Ford addressed a crowd of 250 people at Pierce College and 800 at Clover Park Technical College as the culmination to the community program co-presented by the Pierce County Library System and the News Tribune.

The Library was gracious enough to share photos from the event at the McGavick Center at CPTC.

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Ford's award-winning “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”, details accounts of the Japanese-American internment during World War II. The characters travel from Seattle to Camp Harmony, an internment camp at the Puyallup Fairgrounds, and to Camp Minidoka, an internment camp in Idaho.
 
“Jamie Ford charmed the audience with his personal stories and information  about his research that went into writing ‘Hotel,’ ” said Neel Parikh, the Library’s executive director, in a statement. “Throughout this year’s program people shared and discussed their personal stories about the internment. The spark of conversations showed the true purpose of Pierce County READS — to bring communities together.” 

During the largest reading event in Pierce County, which spanned two  months, people checked out copies of the book 5,022 times from Pierce County Library. Hundreds of people participated in more than 30 free events, including presentations from people who were interned, tea ceremonies and art activities.

Throughout the program, people donated nonperishable food items to a Pierce County READS’ community partner, Lakewood-based Emergency Food Network.

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