Novelists in Conversation, Part 2

In addition to our “Conversations with…” features this year, many of our novelists will present in tandem with other authors that share similar literary interests/genres, providing our audience unique insight into how different authors handle the same themes. Novelist pairings this year include:

Novelists in Conversation  
Best-selling novelists Jami Attenberg (“The Middlesteins”) and Jennifer Close (“The Smart One”) will share the stage to speak about their latest work and their writing lives.

Parallel Narratives in Fiction
Tara Conklin (“The House Girl: A Novel”) and Jeanine Cummins (“The Crooked Branch”) both feature contemporary and flashback narratives in their novels. They’ll talk about their work and how they utilize that technique.

Cultural Explorations
The novels of Manil Suri (“The City of Devi”) and Vaddey Ratner (“In the Shadow of the Banyan”) each takes us on tours of other cultures: India and Cambodia. If you enjoy learning about other places, you don’t want to miss this one!

The World with a Twist
Unearthly phenomena abound in Karen Thompson Walker‘s “The Age of Miracles” and Jason Mott‘s “The Returned”. The action in “Miracles” stems from a slowing in the Earth’s rotation. And “The Returned” features people’s loved ones coming back from the dead (but not, perhaps, in the zombie type of way).

Historical Fiction
Ever wonder what it takes and what sort of rules there are inn writing historical fiction? Caroline Leavitt (“Is This Tomorrow”) and Therese Anne Fowler (“Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald”) can certainly speak to it. The two best-selling novelists will talk about their work in this popular genre.

Urban Fiction
Urban fiction is an up-and-coming literary genre and Kia Dupree (“Shattered”) and Candice Dow (“The Ex-Wife”) will talk about, while giving us a taste of their latest novels.

New Voices in Fiction
Abigail Tarttelin “Golden Boy”) and Emily Jeanne Miller (“Brand New Human Being”) are two young writers whom you have a chance to meet on the way up. Tarttelin, by the way, is coming to appear at our Festival all the way from England.

Literary Fiction

Frances de Pontes Peebles (“The Seamstress”) and Maryanne O’Hara (“Cascade”) are two fabulous writers whom you may not have heard of… yet. It’s time to discover them!

These dynamic pairings will provide even more entertainment for our readers… and may just help you discover a new author (or two)!