Academy Art Museum & Shore Lit Present a Free Book Talk with Novelist Lauren Francis-Sharma

Shore Lit and the Academy Art Museum are pleased to present a free book talk with acclaimed author Lauren Francis-Sharma, author of the new novel Casualties of Truth (Grove Atlantic, February 2025).

Casualties of Truth is the winner of the Independent Publishers IPPY Award for Literary Fiction in Silver and was named one of Electric Literature’s “48 Books by Women of Color to Read in 2025.”

Opening with the death of a white police officer in 1996 Johannesburg, the novel alternates between Prudence Wright’s past and her present. Prudence doesn’t like to think about the summer she spent in South Africa twenty years ago, observing the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings as a young law student. But when an acquaintance from Johannesburg tracks her down, she finds she doesn’t have a choice. Taut and literary, the novel is “a brutal history lesson in the guise of a thriller,” writes the New York Times Book Review.

This book talk is presented in conversation with the AAM exhibition Anita Groener: To the Edge of the World, in which Dutch-born, Ireland-based artist Anita Groener uses humble materials—twigs, cardboard, cut paper—to explore themes of loss, displacement, and resilience. Her intricately constructed sculptures and drawings reflect on the shared human impact of migration, conflict, and remembrance..

Francis-Sharma will be in conversation with Shore Lit Founder-Director Kerry Folan at the Academy Art Museum at 6:00 pm on Friday, October 3. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are requested. For questions about accessibility for this event, please email Kerry Folan easternshorelit@gmail.com.

Lauren Francis-Sharma is a child of Trinidadian immigrants and has written about the Caribbean in her critically acclaimed novels, ’Til the Well Runs Dry and Book of the Little Axe, which was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. She holds a degree in English Literature with a minor in African-American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, and an MFA from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. A book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle and a MacDowell Fellow, she is also the Assistant Director of Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College.

Shore Lit is based in Easton, Maryland, and aims to enhance local cultural offerings with free literary events open to the public. Our programs are designed to explore relevant ideas, foster literary conversation, build inclusive community, and create experiences of wonder and joy around storytelling. For updates, sign up for our monthly newsletter at shorelit.org.

The Academy Art Museum’s mission is to promote the knowledge, practice, and appreciation of the arts and to enhance cultural life on the Eastern Shore by making the Museum’s expanding collection, exhibitions, and broad spectrum of arts programs available to everyone. Museum admission is free and open to the public.

Anita Groener: To the Edge of Your World

In To the Edge of Your World, Dutch-born, Ireland-based artist Anita Groener uses humble materials—twigs, cardboard, cut paper—to explore themes of loss, displacement, and resilience. Her intricately constructed sculptures and drawings reflect on the shared human impact of migration, conflict, and remembrance, shaped in part by her travels through the American South and global regions affected by upheaval. The exhibition also features the premiere of Shelter, a new animated video created in collaboration with filmmaker Matt Kresling and the Talbot Interfaith Shelter. Drawing from personal narratives, Shelter highlights stories of perseverance and community, echoing the exhibition’s meditation on belonging, memory, and the human capacity to endure. On view at AAM through October 26, 2025.