Six Bridges Book Festival: Daria Lavelle / Uchenna Awoke

Moderated by Daniel Ford

Six Bridges Book Festival presents Uchenna Awoke (A Siege of the Owls) & Daria Lavelle (Aftertaste). Moderated by Daniel Ford.

Daria Lavelle

Daria Lavelle is a speculative-fiction writer whose work has appeared in such outlets as LitHub, People.com, the Deadlands, and the Dread Machine. Born in Ukraine and raised in the New York metro area, she holds degrees in writing from Princeton University and Sarah Lawrence College, and loves opera, sandwiches, and the game One Night Ultimate Werewolf.  
 
Lavelle’s debut novel, Aftertaste, was published in English in May 2025, and is being developed for film. When Konstantin Duhovny cooks a dish tied to a memory of someone deceased, he can summon their ghost back for one final meal. But what begins as a thrilling gift quickly spins out of control when he decides to open a restaurant that promises to reunite the Living and the Dead. As the boundaries between worlds start to blur, and as he falls in love with a woman with her own secret relationship with the afterlife, he must confront the limits of what can be reclaimed, and what we must let go, in order to move on. Deliciously unique and deeply emotional, Aftertaste is an epic love story and a genre-blending adventure through eating, grieving, and the moments that make us feel alive.

Uchenna Awoke

Uchenna Awoke lives and writes in Nsukka, Nigeria. His short stories have appeared in Transition, Elsewhere Lit, Trestle Ties, Oyster River Pages, The Evergreen Review, and other places. He received fellowships from MacDowell and the Vermont Studio Center in 2017 and 2019 respectively. He is an Artist Protection Fund Fellow and the inaugural Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk Residency Fellow, currently living in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He is also a 2019 Graywolf Africa Prize finalist. The Liquid Eye of a Moon is his debut novel.

A Siege of the Owls is an urgent and unforgettable work of magical realism following a young man coming of age in rural West Africa as he bears witness to the violence, upheaval, and hope in a rapidly changing society

ASL interpretation will be provided for all Six Bridges sessions held in CALS Ron Robinson Theater. ASL interpretation for sessions at other CALS locations and Six Bridges venues (including CALS Main Library) will be provided by request. To request ASL interpretation, please submit an ASL Interpretation Request form.

CALS will validate parking in the CALS Library Square surface lot and the CALS Parking Deck. The entrance to the surface lot is located on 2nd Street near River Market Ave. The entrance to the parking deck is located on Rock Street and can be accessed from President Clinton Ave. Street parking is also available throughout the River Market District (free after 6pm and on weekends).