Red Hen Press in Pasadena and The Centre for Fiction in New York will be hosting author Martha Cooley for a virtual conversation on the launch of her newest novel “Buy Me Love” on Thursday, June 3, 6 p.m.
The event is part of Red Hen Press’ Reading and Conversation series supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
Cooley’s novel is a contemplation on the confusions of money and free will, and follows protagonist Ellen Portinari in the month after learning she won a $100 million lottery.
With a month to redeem the ticket, she tells no one but her alcoholic brother – a talented composer whose girlfriend has died in a terrorist attack abroad. As the clock ticks, Ellen careens from incredulity to giddiness to dread as she tries to reckon with the potential consequences of her win. She becomes unexpectedly involved with a man she’s met at her local gym. While she grapples with the burden of secret-keeping and the tug of a new intimacy, a Brooklyn street artist named Blair Talpa is contending with her own challenges: a missing brother, an urge to make art that will “derange orbits,” and a lack of money.
En route to redeem the lottery ticket, Ellen finds her prospects entwining by chance with Blair’s – which allows Ellen to reimagine luck’s relation to loss, and the reader to revel in surprise.
Martha Cooley is the author of two novels – “The Archivist,” a national bestseller also published in a dozen foreign markets, and “Thirty-Three Swoons” – and a memoir, “Guesswork.” She co-translated Antonio Tabucchi’s story collection, “Time Ages in a Hurry.” Her essays, short fiction, and co-translations have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books and numerous leading literary journals.
She directs the MFA in Creative Writing at Adelphi University, where she is a Professor of English. Prior to Adelphi, she taught for 15 years in the Bennington Writing Seminars. She lives in Forest Hills, New York, and Castiglione del Terziere, Italy.
In this virtual conversation on Thursday, Cooley will be joined by author Sheridan Hay, a reading group instructor at The Center for Fiction, for this conversation on the book and craft.
Hay has worked in bookstores, including the Strand, and in trade publishing for many years. She holds an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington, and has published short stories. She teaches writing in the graduate program at Parsons School of Design at the New School.
To join the virtual event, visit Red Hen Press’ Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/events/
You can register for free through https://bit.ly/2OEFaJT with your purchase of “Buy Me Love.”
For more information, call (626) 356-4760 or visit www.redhenpress.org/products/
