Brian Castner is a Buffalo-born war veteran turned memoirist, who served three tours of duty in the Middle East. His memoir, The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows is the story of his struggle to survive modern combat in Iraq and his personal tale of confronting who he had become upon returning to his family.

Toronto-born Matti Friedman was a reporter and editor in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press (AP) news agency between 2006 and 2011 and has worked as a reporter in Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Moscow and Washington, D.C. In 2016 he was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, Canada’s most prestigious literary award, for his most recent book, Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War.

FREE – due to limited seating, reservations recommended.  716-204-2084

Presented by the JCC Book & Arts Fair and Just Buffalo Literary Center

Sponsored by the Burchfield Penney Arts Center, Gabe and Andrea Ferber, and the Sam and Sophie Memorial Fund