Cole Brauer, the first American woman to race solo, nonstop and unassisted around the world, comes to the Jane Pickens Theater on Wednesday, Sept. 16, to discuss her memoir “First Light: Sailing Solo but Not Alone.”

Charter Books is hosting the event, which begins at 6 p.m. with doors at 5. Brauer will be in conversation with Linda Lindquist, a Newport resident who sailed with America³, the first and only all-women’s team to compete for the America’s Cup, and a two-time Farr 40 world champion.

Brauer finished second in the 2023-24 Global Solo Challenge, sailing 27,000 miles over 130 days aboard a 40-foot boat named First Light. She was the only woman in a field of 16 and the youngest competitor by nearly a decade. The book covers the mechanical failures, food poisoning and Southern Ocean cold of that voyage, along with the years of skepticism she faced before it.

The memoir publishes Sept. 15, a day before the event. Tickets are $45 for one person and a copy of the book, or $60 for two people and one copy, at charterbookstore.com/events.

Ryan Belmore is the owner and publisher of What's Up Newp. He took over the publication in 2012 and has grown it into a three-time Rhode Island Monthly Best Local News Blog (2018, 2019, 2020). He was named LION Publishers Member of the Year in 2020 and received the Dominique Award from the Arts & Cultural Society of Newport County the same year. He has been awarded grants for investigative and community journalism, and continues to coach and mentor new local news publications nationwide. Ryan...