We welcome Harrington back to Batavia. A member of the English faculty at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, she first visited in 2007 to discuss her children's books  Going North and The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County.

Her new book of poetry focuses on the sad, funny, mundane reality of life in a nursing home. In her own words, Janice N. Harrington worked her way through college as a nurse's aide and wrote The Hands of Strangers because she “cannot forget the ‘girls’ I worked with or the ‘residents’ under my care. I haven’t forgotten what I saw, heard, felt, or learned.”  

Harrington’s debut, Even the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone, earned the 2007 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, the A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize, and an NEA fellowship for poetry.  

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Roger Breisch, Executive Director of the Batavia Chamber of Commerce, returns to Books Between Bites to discuss this intriguing book. By reviewing the history of innovation, Steven Johnson teases out characteristics of an environment in which good ideas can emerge.

What’s fascinating is that the characteristics he highlights are often counterintuitive. He documents the essential nature of error…did you know better ideas are developed when “fuzziness” is added to the mix? Have you traveled into the “adjacent possible”? Without it we would never have gone from the abacus to the cell phone. What about patents, secrecy and protection? Good? Bad? You might be surprised. Have you used “exaptation” to innovate? I’ll bet you have and didn’t even know it! Finally, do you participate in “liquid networks”? You should if you want new ideas.

Roger says he has only scratched the surface of the wealth this book has to offer. If groups and organizations lack creativity, this book suggests great ways to spur innovation. Join Breisch to explore where you might find your next great idea!