AUGUSTA — An appearance by author Amy Waldman is the highlight of a month-long series of events celebrating Lithgow Public Library’s annual community-wide reading project, A Capital Read. This year’s A Capital Read selection is Waldman’s acclaimed debut novel, “The Submission,” which explores the controversy and complex emotions surrounding a memorial for the victims of 9/11.

Waldman will give a talk, answer audience questions and sign books at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, at Jewett Hall at the University of Maine at Augusta. Earlier that day, she will participate in a book discussion group at 1:30 p.m. held in the Reading Room of Lithgow Library.

“A decade ago, A Capital Read was launched to encourage the greater Augusta community to read and discuss the same book,” said Elizabeth Pohl, Lithgow Library director.

“The Submission” examines the controversy that results when a jury chooses a walled garden as the design for a Ground Zero memorial. Jurors discover, when they open the envelope with the anonymous winner’s name, that the designer is a young Muslim American architect. In the conflicted response of the jury and the public, “The Submission” looks at the intersection of art, religion and politics, and asks some hard questions about the American values of tolerance, diversity and community.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information contact Lithgow Library at 626-2415 or visit www.lithgow.lib.me.us.