Hofstra University presents

GREAT WRITERS, GREAT READINGS

a sneak preview of the novel

An Elegant Woman by Professor Martha McPhee

in conversation with alum and Long Island author Dina Santorelli

Wednesday, May 13, 6:30 p.m.

Virtual Event; Advance registration required: RSVP

Free and open to the public. Invite your classes!

Registrants will be sent an event link to attend prior to the event.

CTLE credit available upon request

Contact: Diane.cecere@hofstra.edu

Hofstra Creative Writing Professor Martha McPhee offers a Sneak Preview of her novel An Elegant Woman (Due Out from Scribner, June 2, 2020) in A Special Great Writers, Great Readings Event, also featuring Hofstra alum and author Dina Santorelli. 

Drawn from Professor McPhee’s own family history, An Elegant Woman is a story of discovery and reinvention, following four generations of women in one American family. As Isadora, a novelist, and two of her sisters sift through the artifacts of their forebears’ lives, trying to decide what to salvage and what to toss, the narrative shifts to a winter day in 1910 at a train station in Ohio. Two girls wait in the winter cold with their mother--the mercurial Glenna Stewart--to depart for a new life in the W​est. As Glenna campaigns in Montana for women’s suffrage and teaches in one-room schoolhouses, Tommy takes care of her little sister, Katherine: trapping animals, begging, keeping house, cooking, while Katherine goes to school. When Katherine graduates, Tommy makes a decision that will change the course of both of their lives.

A profound meditation on memory, history, and legacy, An Elegant Woman follows one woman over the course of the 20th century, taking the reader from a drought-stricken farm in Montana to a yellow Victorian in Maine; from the halls of a psychiatric hospital in London to a wedding gown fitting at Bergdorf Goodman; from a house in small town Ohio to a family reunion at a sweltering New Jersey pig roast. Framed by Isadora’s efforts to retell her grandmother’s journey--and understand her own--the novel is an evocative exploration of the stories we tell ourselves, and what we leave out.

Martha McPhee is the author of the novels An Elegant Woman (June 2020), Bright Angel Time, Gorgeous Lies, L’America, and Dear Money. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Gorgeous Lies was a finalist for the National Book Award. She teaches fiction at Hofstra University and lives in New York City. 

Voted one of the best Long Island authors for two consecutive years, Dina Santorelli writes thriller and suspense novels. Her debut novel, Baby Grand, the first book in her Baby Grand Trilogy, was a #1 Political Thriller, #1 Kidnapping Thriller & #1 Organized Crime Thriller on Amazon Kindle and reached the Top 30 in the Paid Kindle Store. She has been a freelance writer for more than 20 years and also lectures for Hofstra University’s Continuing Education Department. Dina earned an undergraduate degree in communication arts and a master’s in creative writing from Hofstra University.