Stratford Author Aug Stone Is Guest January 12

The Stratford Library will continue “Sunday Afternoon Talks”, its series of informative and entertaining talks featuring prominent local guest speakers, on Sunday, January 12 at 2 pm.  Guest speaker Aug Stone will discuss his new book, Sporting Moustaches.  The talk is free and open to the public.

Thirteen tall tales about the role facial hair has played in athletics and competition over the years, Sporting Moustaches puts the “ache” in “moustache.” Whiskers are wrapped around sticks, bats, clubs, paddles, chess pieces, and shot glasses, woven into ropes, nets, arrow strings, and even other whiskers. The stories touch on the idea of the playoff beard, superstitions, The Cleveland Curse, mid-20th century American values eschewing all but the clean shaven, and how, in the 1978 Chess World Championship, the opponents accused each other of using psychic powers. There are, of course, also more than a few allusions to Burt Reynolds. Packed with puns and pop culture references galore, Sporting Moustaches is a tribute to those who kept their head in the game. 

Aug Stone is a writer, musician and comedian.  His 2023 novel, The Ballad of Buttery Cake Ass, was one of Vulture’s Best Comedy Books of the Year.  Stone is also author of the memoir Nick Cave’s Bar and the comedy novel, Off-License To Kill, and his journalism has appeared in The Quietus, The Comics Journal, Under The Radar, and many more sites and magazines. He was a founding member of H Bird and The Soft Close-Ups, and has played in countless other bands. He performs comedy as absurdist stream-of-consciousness raconteur, Young Southpaw. 

The “Sunday Afternoon Talks” series, hosted by Charles Lautier of Stratford, is held from 2-3:30 pm in the Stratford Library Lovell Room, 2203 Main Street in Stratford.

For further information visit: www.stratfordlibrary.org or call the Library at: 203.385-4162.