Join us for the ninth event in our Novel Night series, a monthly celebration of all things prose! Here’s how it works: two published authors will read from their books and there’ll be an audience Q & A. We’ll then have an open mic for writers who have signed up to read from their unpublished short stories or novels. And finally, we’ll have “Book Talk,” in which an intrepid Malvern staff member will introduce you to one of our favorite prose titles and invite questions from the audience. Also worth noting: there will be snacks!
This month Maria Elena Sandovici and Patrice Sarath will be sharing their fiction with us.
Maria Elena Sandovici was born in Bucharest, a city she loves, and can never stay away from too long. In the pursuit of international adventures, she left Romania to attend college, then graduate school, in the United States. Her first novel, Dogs with Bagels, is loosely inspired by her own detours as a young foreign woman navigating the emotional potholes and financial pitfalls of Manhattan. Her second novel, Stray Dogs and Lonely Beaches, addresses the need to flee from one’s problems and seek new adventures in a remote corner of paradise. But can one really get away? She is also the author of the blog Have Watercolors Will Travel, an artist, a dog owner, and a person, much like her characters, still looking for a place in the world to call home. Having fled the pricey real estate and cruel winters of New York, she lives in Galveston, Texas, wears sandals in February, walks her dog on sunny beaches, and travels frequently to Romania, Spain, and many other places, which all prompt the unavoidable question: Should I maybe stay here for good?
Patrice Sarath is an author and editor living in Austin, Texas. Her novels include the fantasy series, Books of the Gordath (Gordath Wood, Red Gold Bridge, and The Crow God’s Girl) and the romance The Unexpected Miss Bennet. She has been published by Penguin in the US and Robert Hale Ltd. in the UK. She is also the author of numerous short stories that have appeared in several magazines and anthologies, including Weird Tales, Black Gate, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Realms of Fantasy, and many others. Her short story “A Prayer for Captain La Hire” was included in Year’s Best Fantasy of 2003 compiled by David Hartwell and Katherine Cramer. Her story “Pigs and Feaches,” originally published in Apex Digest, was reprinted in 2013 in Best Tales of the Apocalypse by Permuted Press. Patrice is an avid horsewoman. She also enjoys bike-riding, rollerblading, and hiking the woods and trails outside Austin. She can often be found writing at her neighborhood coffee house.