Daniel Handler a.k.a. Lemony Snicket is coming to Lethbridge (Photo courtesy Lethbridge Public Library)

By Justin Goulet

Author famously known as Lemony Snicket coming to Lethbridge

Sep 28, 2019 | 7:45 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The author behind the popular A Series of Unfortunate Events book series is coming to Lethbridge this Wednesday.

Daniel Handler, commonly known by his pseudonym Lemony Snicket will be at the Yates Memorial Centre on October 2.

The 49-year-old is famous to younger readers as the writer of the 13-book A Series of Unfortunate Events collection detailing the misfortunes of three orphans.

The series was brought to life on the big screen in a 2004 film starring Jim Carrey. More recently, it’s become a hit as a television series on Netflix, starring Neil Patrick Harris as main villain Count Olaf.

In addition, Handler has written other novels under his real name, such as Watch Your Mouth, We Are Pirates and Bottle Grove, which was released this past August.

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The Lethbridge Public Library is hosting next Wednesday’s speaker series. Resource sharing librarian Jonathan Jarvie said Handler will begin with an author talk discussing his latest books and his most famous series.

He’ll also be doing a reading of his work. Jarvie commented that Handler hasn’t decided which book he will read from yet.

“He’ll (also) be doing a short question and answer period with the audience, so people will get a chance to sort of interact with Mr. Handler and then he will be doing a book signing afterwards,” Jarvie said.

He noted that this event has been in discussion for the last three months.

“We were pursuing different authors – we were actually looking at somebody else in the beginning and Mr. Handler’s name came up and I was terribly excited, and more interested in Mr. Handler than the person we were originally looking at because having grown up on A Series of Unfortunate Events myself, he’s somebody that appeals to all ages and audiences, and I thought it would be great for (him) coming in to Lethbridge.”

Jarvie noted that Handler has also written picture books for toddlers and younger-aged children.

100^TH ANNIVERSARY

2019 marks the Lethbridge Public Library’s 100^th anniversary, and Jarvie said it’s been a special year. He said they like to bring in authors as often as they can.

Some of the bigger names that have come to Lethbridge during this anniversary year include Gwynne Dyer and Eden Robinson, whose novel Son of a Trickster was shortlisted for the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

“We do have another guest coming in November that’s a pretty big name. Unfortunately, we still haven’t had the contract signed yet but there will be an announcement coming up in the next month or so that there will be another big guest coming in November,” Jarvie told LNN.

Admission to next Wednesday’s event with Daniel Handler is free, but tickets are required. They can be picked up at the Lethbridge Library’s main branch’s customer service desk.

There is a limit of four tickets per person, but Jarvie said they can make exceptions on a case by case basis for larger families.

Handler will also take part in an afternoon event for local schools.