Authors will be at Medina bookstore today to discuss book on Spiritualism

MEDINA – A trio of scholar podcasters will present a new book on the History of Spiritualism in Lily Dale at Author’s Note in Medina and Woodward Memorial Library in Leroy.

Sarah Handley-Cousins, Elizabeth Garner Masarik and Marissa C. Rhodes visited Woodward Memorial Library at 6 p.m. July 6 and will be at Author’s Note today at 6:30 p.m. They will join in conversation to discuss and sign their most recent title, Spiritualism’s Place: Reformers, Seekers and Seances in Lily Dale. The book showcases their research on the world’s oldest and largest center for spiritualism.

Coming together from three separate states, the authors will delve into the intimate history of Lily Dale, located in Western New York and the birthplace of Spiritualism. It was also a hub in the development of women’s suffrage and temperance movements. Lily Dale is still the world’s largest community devoted to Spiritualism, the belief that existence continues after death, and that interaction with these spirits is possible.

The authors use those sites and themes to approach Lily Dale, not as debunkers, but as inquisitive researchers and storytellers, according to Julie Berry, a New York Times Best-selling author and owner of Author’s Note. At the same time, they also reflect on their own relationships, contending that it’s never quite possible to separate grief, hope, faith and friendship from understandings of the past.

The book is co-authored by Handley-Cousins, Masarik, Rhodes and another scholar and fellow podcaster, Averill Earls, who could not be at the event. The three who will be present will discuss their work, answer questions and sign books. The event today at Author’s Note is free and open to the public.

Averill Earls is associate professor of history at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. She is author of Love in the Lav and executive producer of “Dig: A History Podcast.”

Sarah Handley-Cousins is associate teaching professor of history at the University of Buffalo, and author of Bodies in Blue, executive editor of Nursing Clio and producer of ”Dig: A History Podcast.”

Elizabeth Garner-Masanik is associate professor of history at Brockport State College, author of The Sentimental State and producer of “Dig: A History Podcast.”

Marissa C. Rhodes is assistant professor of history at Saint Leo University in Florida. She is former managing director of A Journal of the Plague Year and producer of “Dig: A History Podcast.”

For more information, contact Author’s Note at (585) 798-3642.