May 20/08

I enjoyed my chance to participate in Literary Feasts, at the West Valley Art Museum in Surprise, Arizona, in April. I look forward to Sun Valley Writers’ Conference August 22-25. This spring, I am in the midst of writing poetry, contemplating some personal essays, and starting a new work of fiction about painting.

I have sent out my new novel to publishers, with the help of my courageous and dedicated agent, Priscilla Gilman (possible title: The Beauty of Ordinary Things). This is a story about love and sorrow, human and divine. Four characters in their twenties become intricately attached over the course of one tumultuous year (1973-4): Benny Finn, a Vietnam vet from a large Irish Catholic family in Boston; his brilliant and successful brother Liam; Isabel Howell, a student at Yale University and Liam’s girlfriend; and Sister Clare, Isabel’s close friend from childhood, now a nun at an Abbey in New Hampshire. More information soon, I hope!

Sun Valley Writers' Conference
August 22 - 25, 2008, in Sun Valley, Idaho
http://www.svwc.com

College of San Mateo
San Mateo, CA, October 15, 2008, President's Lecture Series

Karen Holt Jenkins
"Harriet Scott Chessman's prose moves with the deceptive beauty of a ballet dancer, its weightless grace diverting attention from the muscularity powering every gesture. . ."

Dinitia Smith, The New York Times
“A Voice Out of the Silence: Imagining the Other Cassatt,” March 4, 2002 Lydia Cassatt was one of history's silent women. . . .

Alan Cheuse, “All Things Considered,” Oct. 2001
“One woman poses; the other woman paints.  And that’s not the only difference between these loving sisters.” . . .