GREAT WRITERS, GREAT READINGS Featuring Martha McPhee and Dina Santorelli

Hofstra University offers 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, 2020
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.
This “enthralling...dazzling” novel is has received rave early reviews from Booklist (STARRED review); Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly.
Martha McPhee is the author of the novels An Elegant Woman (Scribner, 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.

[@DinaSantorelli]

Such a pleasure to be a part of this.