Author: Anne Fulper

Anne Fulper reads from "Shards," a collection of personal essays about growing up surrounded by the vases, lamps and pottery created by her grandfather, William Hill Fulper II of Fulper Pottery.

Anne Fulper presents readings from a collection of essays called "Shards," synthesized, as she explains on her website, "from a trifecta of her personal experience":

• writing and performing scathing satire in NYC with The Sleazebuckets and Noh Radio
• working with the chemistry of the glazes at Fulper Tile
• a childhood growing up surrounded by vases, ewers, jugs, planters, lamps, powder boxes, perfume burners, bookends, candlesticks, flower frogs, ashtrays and crocks.

Now these pieces of pottery launch several memoir vignettes about a mid-20th century American family, one of whom takes the pot off the pedestal to tell the tale behind it.

About the Author:

Anne Fulper grew up on the Delaware Canal in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in a home dotted with ceramics from her grandfather’s Flemington, New Jersey pottery. Fulper is included in the permanent collection of many U.S. museums including The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Having never known, their “Master Craftsman” grandfather, Anne and her sisters were thrilled to find six notebooks, hidden under the eaves in the attic of the family home, written in their grandfather’s large, fluid scrawl. Here were the secret formulas for the glazes that made Fulper Pottery unique. As a way of connecting to a vanished past and because they knew the look of those glazes down to their bones, they turned those handwritten recipes into the Fulper Tile Company (1985-2000).

Presented by the library's Public Humanities Initiative. Public Humanities programs are presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Community Room Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible
• Assistive listening system compatible with personal T-coil-enabled devices (compatible headphones also available for use during programs)
• English-language subtitles for films (when available)
• If there is an accommodation that you need or would like so that you can fully enjoy library programs, please visit our Accommodations Request Form.

Upcoming events