SMOL Exclusive! Unhappy in Its Own Way: A Webinar on Family Dynamics

When: Thursday, 24 March 2022,  5:00 PM Eastern Time
Where: Zoom
Attendance is FREE.

​Description:
In Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy famously declares that “All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” This event features six Vine Leaves Press authors whose books offer distinct pictures of familial disarray and its repercussions. Each author will read briefly from their work, followed by a Q & A session with questions from the moderator and participants.

Featured books:

• Rusty Allen’s forthcoming novel ELLA’S WAR. After keeping herself and her child alive with help from a German POW, a woman faces a crises when her husband comes home from WWII.
• Kate Brandt’s forthcoming novel HOPE FOR THE WORST. Seeking enlightenment, a bereft young woman in a dead-end job is abandoned by her Buddhist teacher and father-figure.
• Martha Engber’s novel WINTER LIGHT. Desperate to save herself during Chicago’s brutal winter, a motherless teen with an alcoholic father turns to a classmate’s “normal” family for help.
• Ann S. Epstein’s novel THE GREAT STORK DERBY. Based on a real 1926 event, a husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize and fathers a big, unhappy family.
• Joanne Nelson’s memoir THIS IS HOW WE LEAVE. Set against a multi-generational family backdrop of abandonment, the author’s desire to stay competes with the lure of leaving.
• Fredrick Soukup’s novel, BLOOD UP NORTH. Ensnared in a crime, a woman in Minnesota’s backwoods is forced to seek protection from the lawless family she despises