Launch Event for 1666 with author Lora Chilton at Novel Bookstore
Join Novel Bookstore on April 9th, 2024 at 6PM to celebrate the launch of Lora Chilton’s novel 1666. Chilton will be on site to discuss her book and signing books throughout the night! The event will feature a special rum drink, “the 1666” to order throughout the night!
More info about the event can be found here: https://www.novelmemphis.com/event/lora-chilton-1666-novel
Novel Bookstore is located at:
387 Perkins Ext.
Memphis, TN 38117
This event is brought to you by Novel Bookstore and Libro.
In the new book 1666: A Novel, author Lora Chilton, a member of the tribe, imagines the legendary story behind the tribe’s survival based on written colonial records and tribal oral tradition. This fictionalized reimagining is told from the point of view of the two women who managed to escape slavery in Barbados and separately make their way back to Virginia. Their escape and return is why the tribe is in existence today.
AUTHOR LORA CHILTON
About Lora Chilton: A member of the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia, Lora Chilton tells the story of her people and their unlikely survival due to the courage of three Patawomeck women. As a part of the process, she interviewed tribal elders, researched colonial documents and studied the Patawomeck language. Chilton graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing. She has worked as a Registered Nurse, a small business owner, an elected official, a non-profit executive and a writer. Memphis is her home. 1666: A Novel is her second work of historical fiction.
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In addition to the Novel Bookstore Launch Event, author Lora Chilton will be embarking on The Historic 1666 Route of the Patawomeck Women Book Tour. To honor the women who suffered this ordeal and to pay tribute to the tribe’s ultimate survival in part because of these two courageous women, author Lora Chilton’s book tour will follow this imagined route from Fredericksburg through Richmond and Williamsburg to Hampton in Virginia.
The 1666 book tour will launch on April 20 at the Patawomeck Museum and Cultural Center with the 1666 Commemorate Day event. Ceremonies and festivities will run from 11 to 3 and include demonstrations of the Patawomeck traditions and culture, interviews with elders, speeches from those who are introducing the new bill recognizing the tribe, a 1666 book talk and book signing with Chilton, plus access to the museum, and much more.
From there, Chilton will make stops at Book People in Henrico on April 23, Barnes & Noble in Williamsburg on April 26 and then end with a presentation at the Hampton Historical Society in Hampton on April 27. She’ll be livestreaming and posting on social media along the way. (The livestream schedule appears below.)
This tour will be followed by a mini tour in Northern Virginia May 8 through 11 with stops at Fonts Books and Gifts in McLean (Friday, May 9) and Winchester Book Gallery in Winchester (Saturday, May 10).
At each event, Lora will share how she came to write this story, how she studied the Patawomeck language, interviewed the elders of her tribe who kept the story alive through oral tradition, as well as conducted her own research. Lora tells a powerful story of discovering her own heritage and then uncovering this story that up until now has only been known within the tribe.
You also may view postings on Chilton’s social media throughout the tour.
