Karin Roffman, author of “The Songs We Know Best: John Ashbery’s Early Life,” will hold a public conversation with critic and scholar Willard Spiegelman at the Norfolk Library on Sunday, August 6, at 2 p.m.

New York Times critic Andrew Epstein writes: “‘The Songs We Know Best’ tells the story of a shy, sensitive, preternaturally gifted boy who weathers a lonely childhood on a farm, awakens to the joys and mysteries of art, poetry and sex as a teenager, and finally assumes his true vocation as a poet.” See the full review here.

The event is presented by the Norfolk Foundation and Norfolk Now, in operation with the Norfolk Library, as part of the town-wide Weekend in Norfolk celebration.