Books+Bites Featuring Lynn Cullen

The DeKalb Library Foun­da­tion and Callan­wolde Fine Arts Cen­ter teamed up this year to host Books+Bites events at the Callan­wolde man­sion. The first pro­gram occurred June 27 and fea­tured author Lynn Cullen.

Cullen’s nov­els high­light sto­ries told from a woman’s per­spec­tive. At the event, Lynn dis­cussed her book The Woman with the Cure which recounts the life of Dr. Dorothy Horstmann and her often over­looked role in the race to devel­op the polio vac­cine. Although The Woman with the Cure is fic­tion, it accu­rate­ly fol­lows Dr. Horstmann’s career and her sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to polio research. When ques­tioned about the role of embell­ish­ment in her sto­ry­telling, Lynn empha­sized the impor­tance of stay­ing true to the facts. ​“If you do embell­ish, it is just to illus­trate the fact,” Cullen said. ​“If you are read­ing about real peo­ple, you want to learn about those peo­ple.” She referred to meet­ing min­utes and researched geneal­o­gy records to accu­rate­ly por­tray Dr. Dorothy Horstman­n’s sto­ry. Fol­low­ing her pre­sen­ta­tion, Lynn chat­ted indi­vid­u­al­ly with audi­ence mem­bers and signed copies of her books.

If you missed this event, stay tuned for infor­ma­tion about future Books+Bites pro­grams com­ing soon!