Georgia Center for the Book at DCPL

Join us tomorrow evening on the Fourth Floor of Decatur Library for the Opening Reception for Homeland—the Second Annual HOME Exhibition, presented by the Decatur Arts Alliance, Decatur Land Trust, and the Georgia Center for the Book. Enjoy some refreshments during your first chance to see this incredible art! Learn more here: https://aftontickets.com/homelandopening2026

The exhibition will be open May 29 - July 18, 2027. Gallery Hours will be Thursday - Saturday, from 1 - 5 p.m., beginning on May 30th.

About the Exhibition: Housing is a fundamental human right, the cornerstone of stability and opportunity. It's where families grow, dreams take root, and futures are built. But for many, the dream of a stable home in Decatur is slipping away. A stark reality faces our community: housing costs are skyrocketing while wages struggle to keep pace. The Decatur Arts Alliance and the Decatur Land Trust are partnering with the Georgia Center for the Book and the Decatur Library to present a powerful art show, Homeland. We invite professional and student artists of all mediums – painters, sculptors, photographers, mixed media artists, and more – to lend their creative voices to this important cause.

Join us tomorrow (Wednesday, May 20, 2026) for an evening with Devi S. Laskar to celebrate the release of her new novel, Midnight, At the War. Set in the years immediately after 9/11, and drawn from Devi Laskar’s own experience as a government reporter in the 1990s and early aughts, Midnight, at the War is an exploration of love and grief, of moral ambiguity and forgiveness, of modern war and the wars we wage within ourselves. She'll be in conversation with Anjali Enjeti.

Learn more: https://aftontickets.com/devislaskar2026

About the Book: Inspired by journalists Christiane Amanpour and Sylvia Poggioli, Midnight, at the War is a novel about a reporter chasing the biggest story of her career as she contends with a tense newsroom, a dangerous global conflict, and all the problems she’s running away from at home, by the acclaimed novelist that Megha Majumdar calls “a gem of a writer.” Foreign correspondent Rita Das has left New York for the war-torn Middle East, a reassignment she asked for after learning she is pregnant but uncertain whether the father is her husband or her lover. As she strives to shed light on the fallouts of the war, Rita finds herself embroiled in her own conflicts with her interpreter and her news editor, her sources and her colleagues. She is unable to accept the loss of her mother and deal with her guilt for not being at her side when she died. Fiercely independent and ambitious (and, in her journalism, deeply humane), Rita is also in denial about her need for intimate human relationships. As she goes into the field to report on the war, she grapples with the physical and emotional tolls of her pregnant body and a turbulent region where the numbing repetition of war slides suddenly into horror. When her news editor delivers urgent orders for her to return to New York, Rita is faced with a choice about how she wants to live her life as a journalist and a soon-to-be mother. Set in the years immediately after 9/11, and drawn from Devi Laskar’s own experience as a government reporter in the 1990s and early aughts, Midnight, at the War is an exploration of love and grief, of moral ambiguity and forgiveness, of modern war and the wars we wage within ourselves.

Join us next week! White Winged Doves: A Stevie Nicks Poetry Anthology Reading on Monday, and then Devi S. Laskar on Wednesday and Alison Kinney on Thursday! Learn more in our newsletter. - https://mailchi.mp/dekalblibrary/may-2026-at-gcb-2771351