Boswell presents an evening with Jean Thompson, author of The Poet's House. In conversation with Christina Clancy.

Carla is in her twenties, working for a landscaper, lacking confidence, still unsure what direction her life will take. Viridian is a lauded and lovely aging poet whose reputation has been defined by her infamous affair with a famous male poet, Mathias, many years earlier. When Carla is hired to work at Viridian's house, she is perplexed by this community of writers: their tendency to recite lines in conversation, the stories of their many liaisons, their endless wine-soaked nights. And still she becomes enamored with Viridian and her whole circle, and especially with the power of words, a hunger that Carla feels sharply at this stagnating moment in her young life. As Viridian's standing begins to fade, a number of people angle to gain possession of Mathias's cycle of poems written about Viridian, a cycle he famously burned as he read them. Yet long after Mathias' s death, one copy may still rest with Viridian. If so, why won't she release it?

From the starred Kirkus review: "The brilliantly rendered mise-en-scène of quarrelsome, ego-ridden yet touchingly fragile poets and the literary entrepreneurs who circle around them makes a vivid backdrop for this classic coming-of-age tale. More thoughtful, elegantly written fiction in the classic realist tradition by the gifted Thompson."

Jean Thompson is the award-winning author of fourteen books of fiction, including Who Do You Love, The Year We Left Home, and Wide Blue Yonder. Her work has been published in the New Yorker, The Best American Short Stories, and the Pushcart Prize. She has taught creative writing at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Reed College, Northwestern University, and many other colleges and universities.

Christina Clancy is the author of The Second Home and Shoulder Season, and lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her family.

Click here to purchase your copy of The Poet's House. Signed copies and personalization available on pre-orders. Please note that signed copies will not be shipped until after the event.

*