Tonight at my studio: Authors at the Gallery

Big news here: We’re starting a new event series entitled Authors at the Gallery! Each month, we’ll be offering a book reading, Q&A and signing with a prominent author. Our first event is tonight, Monday, 3/15 at 7pm. We’re featuring acclaimed author Mary Sharratt, who has traveled all the way from England for this exclusive New York appearance.

If you live in the New York City area, my studio-gallery is very easy to get to — half an hour on the express train from Manhattan. We’re located at 1501 Newkirk Avenue in Brooklyn; the studio is located around the corner from the Newkirk Avenue Q and B station. More directions.

Can’t make it? This exclusive New York engagement for acclaimed author Mary Sharratt will now be streamed as a live webcast to be accessible to a global audience! Join us virtually here on Monday, March 15 at 7 p.m. EST. We’ll also be archiving it. (This is our first time doing this, so cross fingers for no technical glitches!)

About this event:

Monday, March 15, 7 pm
DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL
Book Event and Author Q&A
Free admission. Refreshments provided.

EXCLUSIVE: Meet acclaimed author Mary Sharratt as she presents and signs her new novel in advance of its April 7 publication date. Set in Lancashire, England, during the infamous witch trials of 1612, Daughters of the Witching Hill (Houghton Mifflin) reveals the true story of Bess Southerns, aka Old Demdike, cunning woman, healer and the most notorious of the Pendle Witches, and of Alizon Device, her granddaughter, struggling to come to terms with her family’s troubling legacy. Though the name of the Pendle Witches lives on, few know the hard-hitting details of the witch-hunt which tore apart a community. Set in an era of religious intolerance, political strife, suspicion and social inequality, this haunting story of strong women and family love and betrayal is more relevant than ever.

ABOUT MARY SHARRATT: An American expat who has lived in Pendle for seven years, Mary’s inspiration for the novel arose directly out of the wild, brooding landscape: the story of the Pendle Witches unfolded almost literally in her backyard. Read an excerpt here.

Advance Praise for Daughters of the Witching Hill:

“The 1612 Lancashire, England, witch trials that resulted in nine executions inspires Sharratt’s gorgeously imagined novel that wonders if some of the accusations of witchcraft might be true. Sharratt (The Vanishing Point) focuses on the Southerns family of Pendle Forest. Widowed mother Bess Southerns tries to save her family from bleakest poverty by healing the sick, telling fortunes, and blessing those facing misfortune, conjuring “charmes” that combine forbidden Catholic ritual, medicinal herbs, and guidance provided by her spirit-friend, Tibb…. Sharratt crafts her complex yet credible account by seamlessly blending historical fact, modern psychology, and vivid evocations of the daily life of the poor whose only hope of empowerment lay in the black arts. Set in forests and towers, farms and villages, deep in a dungeon and on the gallows, this novel grows darker as it approaches its inevitable conclusion, but proves uplifting in its portrayal of women who persevere, and mothers and daughters who forgive.”
—Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)

“No one casts a spell like Mary Sharratt. I was enchanted by this wonderfully absorbing novel, fascinated by the very real yet magical world of the Pendle witches.”
— Sandra Gulland (Mistress of the Sun)

Here’s the official book video, which is haunting and wonderful. It also features Mary’s horse Bousska, who makes an appearance in DAUGHTERS IN THE WITCHING HILL. Enjoy!

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