The Department of English welcomes Diana Spechler, author of the recently released novel WHO BY FIRE, for the next installment of the Towson Literary Reading Series, Thursday, Nov. 6 at 6 p.m. in the Towson Room of the Cook Library. Spechler will read from her novel and sign copies on sale through Towson University’s bookstore.
Spechler’s novel, hailed by Publishers Weekly as “provocative,” tells the story of a Jewish-American family driven apart by a kidnapping and trying to put itself back together again. Bits and Ash were children when their younger sister, Alena, was kidnapped, an incident for which Ash blames himself. Thirteen years later, Ash is living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel, cutting himself off from his mother, Ellie, and his wild child sister, Bits. But soon he may have to face them again: Alena?s remains have finally been uncovered. Now Bits is traveling across the world in a bold and desperate attempt to bring her brother home and salvage what?s left of their family.
Diana Spechler?s fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train Stories, Moment, Lilith, and elsewhere. She received her MFA degree from the University of Montana and was a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University. She lives in New York City, where she is at work on her second novel. For more information on Diana Spechler, please visit {http://www.dianaspechler.com/blog/}
This reading is made possible in part by the Clarisse Mechanic Fund. For more information about this reading or the Towson Literary Reading Series, contact Michael Downs at {mdowns@towson.edu}.
