An Evening with Martha Barnette

The Secret Lives of Words

Martha Barnette was ready to give up on ancient Greek until a retired Louisville professor showed her that every word has a story to tell. A disaster, for example, is literally an “ill-starred” event, from the old belief that the stars governed human fortune. She’ll share how that revelation transformed her life—and how discovering the stories behind familiar words can change the way you hear them. She’ll also pose a question she’s been asking for years: What’s the most beautiful word you know? Learn how some of the finest writers in English have answered that query, what linguists says about why some words sound beautiful—and, if you like, share your own favorites in the Q&A.

TICKETS: $15

Cash bar will be available.

Louisville native Martha Barnette is author of the bestselling Friends with Words: Adventures in Languageland and co-host of “A Way with Words,” the public radio show and podcast about about words and how you use them: word and phrase origins, varieties of English, regional dialects, slang, books and reading, effective communication–and that weird thing Grandma used to say. Hailed by The New Yorker as “‘Car Talk’ for Lexiphiles,” the show airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on WFPL 89.3 FM and across America. Martha has worked as a reporter for The Louisville Times, The Courier-Journal, and The Washington Post. She holds a degree in English from Vassar College and did graduate work in classical languages at the University of Kentucky. She lives in San Diego, California, where she’s co-hosted the show for more than two decades.