LITERARY IN THE LOUNGE Presents MacArthur Fellow, Ecologist, and Author Carl Safina, October 29

On Sunday, October 29 at 3pm, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, ecologist, and author Carl Safina visits The Music Hall Lounge with his new book, ALFIE & ME. Interwoven with Safina's keen observations, insight, and reflections, Alfie & Me is a moving account of raising, then freeing, an orphaned screech owl.

The 3pm event includes an author conversation with Scott Weidensaul, author of A World on the Wing, followed by an audience Q&A and post-show meet-and-greet. It will be held at The Music Hall Lounge at 131 Congress St., Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

“I'm excited to speak with Carl Safina about his most insightful and eloquent book yet,” says Scott Weidensaul, naturalist, author, and the evening's moderator. “Hopefully, we will all walk away with a little more insight into ourselves and our relationship with the world.” 

ALFIE & ME is a moving account of raising, then freeing, an orphaned screech owl whose lasting friendship with the author illuminates humanity's relationship with the world.

When ecologist Carl Safina and his wife, Patricia, took in a near-death baby owl, they expected she would be a temporary presence like other wild orphans they'd rescued. But Alfie's feathers were not growing correctly, requiring prolonged care. As Alfie grew and gained strength, she became a part of the family, joining a menagerie of dogs and chickens and making a home for herself in the backyard.

Alfie & Me is the story of the remarkable impact this little owl would have on their lives. The continuing bond of trust following her freedom—and the raising of her own wild brood—coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Witnessing all the fine details of their feathered friend's life offered Carl and Patricia a view of existence from Alfie's perspective.

Safina's relationship with an owl made him want to better understand how people have viewed humanity's relationship with nature across cultures and throughout history. Interwoven with Safina's keen observations, insight, and reflections, Alfie & Me is a work of profound beauties and magical timing harbored within one upended year.

Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild and Beyond Words, is the recipient of Pew, MacArthur, Guggenheim, and National Science Foundation fellowships and has written for the New York Times, Time, the Guardian, and National Geographic. He lives on Long Island, New York, with his wife Patricia and their dogs and feathered friends.

Scott Weidensaul is a writer and researcher specializing in birds and bird migration. He is the author of nearly thirty books on natural history, including Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and The Ghost with Trembling Wings, about the search for species that may or may not be extinct. A native of the Appalachians of eastern Pennsylvania, he now lives in New Hampshire.

The ticket package for Literary in the Lounge: Carl Safina with ALFIE & ME on Sunday, October 29, at 3pm is $48. Ticket Package includes a signed book (ALFIE & ME, $32.50, hardcover), reserved seat, author discussion, Q+A, and post-show meet-and-greet. Tickets can be purchased online at TheMusicHall.org, over the phone at 603.436.2400, or in person at the B2W Box Office at the Historic Theater, 28 Chestnut Street. 

Akin to The Music Hall's anchor literary series, Writers on a New England Stage, Literary in the Lounge features bestselling authors in a more intimate space. The series brings audiences today's top authors, the best of fiction and nonfiction, and award-winners across categories, and is hosted in The Music Hall Lounge, formerly called the Loft, at 131 Congress St., in Portsmouth, NH.