Hemingway’s Cuba: How One American Writer Brings Two Cultures Together

Come and hear two librarians give a talk on a visit to Havana, Cuba with a focus on American novelist, Ernest Hemingway’s time there. The visit offered access to current Cuban literature and provided a bridge to connect and engage with Cuban librarians to discuss libraries, their services, their history and their future. Nancy Coradin, Coordinator—Multi-language Collections and Services at the Westchester Library System and Diana Lennon, Librarian II at the Greenburgh Public Library encountered a familiar face on distant shores—a man with a larger than life persona and an adventurous lifestyle. He was writer, fisherman, hunter, war correspondent, father and hero. Our man in Havana is Ernest Hemingway.

Join librarian’s Nancy Coradin and Diana Lennon, on Thursday, March 23 at 7:00pm at the Larchmont Public Library, and hear about their trip to Cuba with a focus on Hemingway’s time there.

Nancy Coradin is the Spanish language cataloger for the Westchester Library System, a consortium of 38 member libraries covering Westchester County. She assists the member libraries in building their language collections and offers innovative bilingual program ideas to the libraries. She heads the Westchester Librarians Serving Latinos group that pools the experience, skills and creativity of library staff to improve services to Latinos in a combined effort across libraries. In February 2016, Ms. Coradin was given the opportunity to join the American Library Association on a trip to Cuba to participate in the Havana International Book Fair. She has also been invited to attend LIBER and FIL, Spanish language book fairs in Barcelona, Madrid and Guadalajara, Mexico. Ms. Coradin earned a Masters of Library Science and Information from Pratt Institute, where she received an Outstanding Achievement Award. Through her outreach, she has enabled local organizations to partner with the libraries and offer programs in Literacy, Health, Law, Parenting, Education, Job readiness, and Digital literary. Ms. Coradin is a proud member of the American Library Association, The Westchester Library Association and REFORMA.

Diana Lennon provides services and programs to the Latino community at the Greenburgh Public Library in Elmsford, New York. In February, 2016 she traveled to Cuba as part of the first American Library Association delegation. She has attended international book fairs in Guadalajara, Mexico and Madrid, Spain. Diana is a member of ALA, NYLA, REFORMA and the Westchester Library Association. She received her MLIS from Long Island University, and in 2010 was named the American Library Association’s Miriam L. Hornback Scholar. She also received a 2010 New York Library Association/Public Libraries Section Conference Scholarship. Her chapter entitled “Café a las Siete/Coffee at Seven" is published in the anthology Library Services for Multicultural Patrons: Strategies to Encourage Library Use (2013, eds., Smallwood & Becnel). Her children and young adult book reviews are in Partes de Un Todo, Parts of a Whole, published by the Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez in Spain. She holds a Master’s Degree in Spanish Literature and Language from Vanderbilt University.