FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 19, 2013
Contact: Nicole Kubas Email: nkubas@historicmacon.org Tel: 478-742-5084
LANIER CENTER FOR LITERARY ARTS TO HOST BEST-SELLING AUTHOR, SENA JETER NASLUND Macon, GA — The Lanier Center for Literary Arts is proud to announce that Sena Jeter Naslund will be the featured guest at a special event in Macon on Wednesday, September 25, 2013. The event will take place at The High Street Unitarian Universalist Church. The reception begins at 5:30pm and the presentation and book signing starts promptly at 6:00pm. The critically acclaimed nationally best-selling author is unparalleled in her ability to write fiction that gives life to history. In Ahab’s Wife, by re-imagining the Moby-Dick Caption’s intelligent and adventuresome young spouse, Naslund captured the hearts and minds of booksellers, readers and book clubs all over the country. Her newest novel entitled, The Fountain of St. James Court; or Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman is scheduled for release on September 17, 2013. In this novel, Naslund enchants readers with a tale of two worlds: one set in contemporary America and the other rooted in the turbulence of eighteenth-century France. Naslund brings us two fully realized women of different eras, both of whom struggle to forgive themselves when they fail to balance motherhood, matrimony, and the work that sustains their souls. A writer tentatively approaches her autumnal years in modern day Louisville, and a painter in revolutionary France determines to survive and flourish. “Of a certain age, but not of a great age.” That is how writer Kathryn Callaghan views herself—an aging woman, but aging into what? At nearly seventy and after three divorces, she comforts herself with lasting friendships, the house she loves, and her devotion to her son and to the art of writing fiction. She has just completed the first draft of a heart wrenching novel, which she conceives as an imaginative counterweight to James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Kathryn tells her Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman from the perspective of the historical figure Èlisabeth Vigèe-Le Brun, whose portraits have earned her lasting fame and the admiration of Marie Antoinette. An established author of eight earlier novels, Kathryn uses this historical novel as a looking glass, a tool for examining her own life. (MORE)
This lush, textured novel-within-a-novel transports the reader from an engaging, modernday Louisville to the historic streets, palaces, countrysides, and homes of France, Italy, and Russia. Naslund's characteristic passion for living fully and meaningfully is palpable on every page. This is fiction in its unadulterated form, with research transformed by imagination into the stuff of life. About the author: Sena Jeter Naslund is Program Director of the brief-residency Master of Fine Arts in writing at Spalding University and Distinguished Teaching Professor and Writer in Residence at the University of Louisville. A former Kentucky Poet Laureate and winner of the Alabama Governor's Arts Award, Naslund is also the recipient of the Harper Lee Award and the Southeastern Library Association Fiction Award. A finalist for the Orange Prize in England, her work has also been published in Australia and translated into German, Spanish, Japanese, Greek, Hebrew, Polish, Danish, and Korean. She is editor and cofounder of The Louisville Review and the Fleur-de-Lis Press. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
About the Lanier Center for Literary Arts Sidney Lanier (1842–1881) was a writer, poet, musician, soldier and mathematician. He was born in the Sidney Lanier Cottage at 935 High St. in Macon, Ga. In honor of Lanier’s legacy, Historic Macon Foundation, the owners of the Cottage, have established the Lanier Center for Literary Arts. In addition to sponsoring writers’ workshops and other literary events, Historic Macon has a regular series of book signings. A reception begins at 5:30 p.m. and the program begins at 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.historicmacon.org or call 478/742-5084.
About Historic Macon Foundation Historic Macon Foundation is a nonprofit organization that advocates for Macon’s historic and architectural heritage, facilitates preservation and revitalization efforts in the community and educates and inspires appreciation for Macon, GA. The Middle Georgia Historical Society and the Macon Heritage Foundation merged in 2003 to create Historic Macon Foundation. The Foundation maintains and promotes the Sidney Lanier Cottage, which is open for public visitation Thursday–Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Historic Macon Foundation’s offices are located in the Sidney Lanier Cottage at 935 High St., Macon, GA 31201. For more information, visit www.historicmacon.org or call 478/742-5084.