Reading with Colonna

WILMINGTON - Bartleby’s Books will host a reading with author Heidi Parker Colonna on Saturday, July 30, at 4:30 pm. Colonna will read from and discuss her book “Dear Gretchen: Letters to My Dog.”
Five years after her shepherd mix Gretchen died and a year before her 30th birthday, Colonna is swimming in adulthood. The quiet, country setting of her new job and talk of having a baby turn her thoughts back to a letter she dropped in Gretchen’s grave: She was Heidi’s world. She saved her from childhood grief. How could Heidi do joyful things without her original sidekick?
In this poignant memoir complete with diary entries and photos, Colonna tells how she set out to reconnect with her kindred spirit, asking for a sign from nature to validate that she is safe and well.
Colonna is a lifelong animal welfare advocate and writer for the children’s magazine Kind News. She’s written for publications such as All Animals and Animal Sheltering and was contributing editor for Humane Activist Magazine. Her writing on the themes of family and faith has appeared in Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine’s blog and the Red Lion Inn’s “Lion’s Tales: A Collection of Shorts.” She is a member of the WhipCity Wordsmiths in Massachusetts, where she lives with her husband Al, sons Kevin and AJ, and husky-black lab mix CeeCee. “Dear Gretchen” is her first book. She is working on other books for all ages. Learn more and connect at www.parkercolonna.com.
Sales at the event will benefit the Windham Disaster Animal Response Team. For more information contact Bartleby’s Books at (802) 464-5425, bartbookvt@gmail.com or myvermontbookstore.com. Bartleby’s Books is located at 17 West Main Street.