In a free event at Quatrefoil library, Lisa Vecoli, curator of the Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies at the University of Minnesota since 2012, will share stories about her career, her life and her passion for books.

Vecoli first joined the Tretter Collection as a founding board member, an association based partly on her personal library of more than 4,000 books, including contemporary lesbian fiction and lesbian pulp fiction. At the Quatrefoil event, Vecoli will show images of some of the racy covers of those early lesbian books. She will talk about how books supported her coming out as well as the history of the “pulps” and the role they played for women in the pre-Stonewall era.

As curator of the Tretter Collection, Vecoli’s goal has been to continue working to preserve LGBTQ history and to diversify the voices in the archive. The Tretter Collection houses books, magazines, manuscripts, personal papers and organizational materials as well as objects (buttons, T-shirts, music, posters). While the collection is deep in Minnesota politics and history, its scope is international, with items in 58 languages. It is home to the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, the largest effort of its kind in the world. In the past two years, the Tretter Collection has won national awards from the American Library Association and the Society of American Archivists.

The free event at 7 p.m. on March 12 includes a chance to ask questions. It will be followed by an informal reception in the library.