CLS Book Club // “Dog Show” by Billy Collins

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Charleston Library Society

Event Image Sizing for Web - Book Club - May 13

CLS Book Club // “Dog Show” by Billy Collins

May 13 @ 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

FREE

CLS Book Club is FREE, in-person, and open to the public—and also member-researched and led through thoughtfully curated discussion. Whether you’ve finished the book, are thinking about starting it, or couldn’t make it past the halfway point, please join us.

RSVP is required via the form below so that we can plan for seating.

For a copy of the book, check out our catalog, or shop local at Buxton Books.

About Book Club

Offered a few times a year, the CLS Book Club seeks to explore a range of topics, authors, and diversity in its book selections. Under this objective, Book Club also offers space for conversation, perspectives, and discourse on Dog Show by Billy Collins, presented by Book Club’s own Barbara Hagerty and Tina Wardrop. Join us for a treat at this Book Club meeting with special guests soprano soloist Victoria Holland and pianist Bryan Lohr, as they perform two poems from Dog Show.

About the Book

Billy Collins’s Dog Show celebrates the joy of our canine best friends, honoring the love we feel for the animals who play such vital roles in our lives. In twenty-five poems, Collins distills the many ways dogs warm our hearts, from the happiness we experience as we watch a dog run unencumbered by our burdens, to the silliness of cradling a dog in our arms as we step on the scale together. Turning his inimitable eye and ear to the complexities of dog behavior, Collins ponders all that these winning creatures give us and what we learn from them about ourselves.

For more than four decades, Collins has delighted readers with his insight, wit, and clear poetic voice. In Dog Show, “America’s favorite poet” (The Wall Street Journal) illuminates America’s favorite pet (sorry, cat lovers). Accompanied by Pamela Sztybel’s watercolors, which effortlessly depict a dog’s humble grace, Dog Show reveals the profound role these majestic animals play in our lives and the meaning they give us.

About Victoria Holland

Victoria Holland’s career as a soprano soloist and vocal pedagogue has been largely based in Chicago and Toronto. She holds a doctorate in voice and opera performance from Northwestern University and has performed extensively in the areas of art song, oratorio, and opera, including a solo recital at the Unitarian Church of Charleston. Victoria is the Lead Voice Specialist for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Certificate Program (Canada) and Lead Editor and Compiler of RCM’s 2025 Voice Series. She currently resides on Edisto Island.

About Bryan Lohr

Pianist Bryan Lohr is a native of southwestern Pennsylvania and holds performance degrees from the Juilliard School and Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently the Director of Music Ministries at The Presbyterian Church on Edisto Island, having previously served congregations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Kentucky.