February 7, @ 7-9:00 PM ET
Join literary fiction authors Hallie Ephron, Patti Callahan Henry, Caroline Leavitt, and Marjan Kamali along with Back Room host Hank Phillippi Ryan for an evening of great conversation! REGISTER
Literary fiction authors Hallie Ephron, Patti Callahan Henry, Caroline Leavitt, and Marjan Kamali join us in conversation.
The evening starts with a fun 20 question portion, hosted by Hank Phillippi Ryan. Then we break out into small groups for an intimate conversation with each author.
We look forward to seeing you there!
The Authors
Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of fifteen novels, including the (Historical Fiction), Becoming Mrs. Lewis—The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis (writing as Patti Callahan). In addition, she is the recipient of The Christy Award—A 2019 Winner “Book of the Year.” ; The Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year for 2020 and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for 2019.
The author is also the host of the popular seven-part original “Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast Series” launched, October 2019. The podcast audiobook collection including bonus material was released January 2020, and available now. The new expanded Becoming Mrs. Lewis paperback edition was released March 2020.
On March 9, 2021, Surviving Savannah—a new historical fiction novel based on the true story of the Steamship Pulaski wreck will be released. Learn more about Patti at patticallahanhenry.com.
New York Times bestselling author Hallie Ephron, Edgar Award finalist and five-time finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, writes books she hopes readers can’t put down.
Her newest suspense novel, Careful What You Wish For(August, 2019), with its echoes of Marie Kondo life-changing decluttering tips, explores the relationships built by professional organizers and their clients—showing just how easily the lines between professional and personal can be blurred. In it, Emily Harlow is a professional organizer who helps people declutter their lives; she’s married to man who can’t drive past a yard sale without stopping. Sometimes she find herself wondering if he sparks joy.
Learn more at hallieephron.com.
Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of With or Without You, which was a Good Morning America online Best Book Pick, Cruel Beautiful World, Is This Tomorrow, Pictures of You, Girls In Trouble, Coming Back To Me, Living Other Lives, Into Thin Air, Family, Jealousies, Lifelines, and Meeting Rozzy Halfway. Various titles were optioned for film, translated into different languages, and condensed in magazines.
Her many essays, stories, book reviews and articles have appeared in Salon, Psychology Today, The New York Times Sunday Book Review, The New York Times Modern Love, Publisher’s Weekly, People, Real Simple, New York Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and numerous anthologies. She won First Prize in Redbook Magazine’s Young Writers Contest for her short story, “Meeting Rozzy Halfway,” which grew into the novel. The recipient of a New York Foundation of the Arts Award for Fiction for Into Thin Air, she was also a National Magazine Award nominee for personal essay, and she was awarded an honorable mention, Goldenberg Prize for Fiction from the Bellevue Literary Review, for “Breathe,” a portion of Pictures of You. In addition, she was a finalist in both feature films and pilot in the Sundance Screenwriters lab. A book critic for People, AARP and the San Francisco Chronicle, she teaches novel story structure at Stanford and UCLA Writers Program Extension online.
She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, New York City’s unofficial sixth borough, with her husband, the writer Jeff Tamarkin, and has an actor/writer son, Max. Learn more at carolineleavitt.com.
Marjan Kamali is a novelist and teacher whose work has been anthologized, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and adapted for the stage. Her recent release, The Stationery Shop, hailed by The Wall Street Journal as “a moving tale of lost love” and selected as one of NPR’s Best Books of 2019 and a Real Simple magazine’s Top Editor’s Pick is a powerful love story set against the background of a country in political turmoil.
Her debut novel, Together Tea, which was a Massachusetts Book Award Finalist, follows a mother and daughter as they embark on a return journey to Iran. A graduate of UC Berkeley with an MBA from Columbia University and an MFA from New York University, Kamali is a teacher of writing at GrubStreet and former adjunct business writing professor at Boston University. Her novels have been translated into a dozen languages.
Having lived in seven countries across five continents, she currently lives in the Boston area with her husband and two children. Learn more at marjankamali.com.
Your Host
Hank Phillippi Ryan is the USA Today bestselling author of eleven award winning novels of suspense. National reviews have called her a “master at crafting suspenseful mysteries” and “a superb and gifted storyteller.” Her 2020 book is The First to Lie. The Publishers Weekly Starred Review calls it “Stellar.”
Hank is also an award-winning investigative reporter at Boston’s WHDH-TV. In addition to 36 EMMYs and 14 Edward R. Murrow awards, Hank’s won dozens of other honors for her ground-breaking journalism. Hank is a founding teacher at Mystery Writers of America University and served as 2013 president of national Sisters in Crime. She blogs at Jungle Red Writers and Career Authors.
Learn more about Hank at www.HankPhillippiRyan.com.
About this Event
Each online event starts with a short introduction to a panel of 4 authors. The audience is then divided into 4 breakout rooms where they remain for the rest of the program while the authors visit each room in turn. Everyone’s video is turned on and their mics are unmuted, allowing for informal, face-to-face discussion.
Registration is free, but space is limited, so sign up, sit back, and enjoy the conversation!
Questions? Special requests? Email register@bksp.org for assistance.
WANT MORE DETAILS? Here's what an evening in The Back Room is like:
The doors to the main Zoom room open five minutes before the program’s start time so folks can say hello to one another and to the featured authors. Chat is also turned on.
As the program begins, attendees’ mics are muted and the authors are spotlighted. After very brief introductions, the authors play a quick “get to know you” game of 20 questions using our custom-designed Back Room Question Cards. Recordings of these opening sessions are archived backstage at the Back Room. (Breakout sessions are never recorded.)
The opening session finishes with the authors’ book recommendations, and then attendees are divided into 4 breakout rooms, with one author assigned to each room.
Being assigned to a breakout room happens automatically. You don’t have to do anything except click the “join breakout room” invitation that appears on your screen. Each breakout room will have between 15 and 20 people, so we recommend joining the call from a laptop or a computer instead of a tablet or cell phone so you can see everyone!
Attendees remain in their breakout room for the rest of the program, while the authors rotate through each room in turn. Everyone’s video is turned on and their mics are open. You’ll get fifteen minutes with each author to chat about whatever you like! It’s all very relaxed and casual and fun — like a virtual cocktail party!
Once all four authors have visited each breakout room, the event is over. Yes, Zoom is weird, and ends without any fanfare, but we hope you’ll give our Back Room format a try. We promise you’ll have a wonderful time!
Your hosts,
Karen Dionne and Hank Phillippi Ryan