Back to top

READER MEET WRITER: LEE SMITH

Event Image: 

IN CASE YOU MISSED THE EVENT:

Watch the video on YouTube -- https://youtu.be/1MhXdUf58pU

 

READER MEET WRITER

OKRA PICKS EDITION:

LEE SMITH

Date: Tuesday, April 21st, 2020

Time: 3:00 PM (CST)
 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Lee Smith brings her masterful storytelling magic to this jewel of a novella that follows Jenny, an adventurous thirteen-year-old, down to Key West for a patched-up family vacation following the discovery of her father's illicit affair.

Available for the first time as a stand-alone novella, this book centers on the Blue Marlin Motel in 1959, where Jenny, her beautiful socialite mother, and chastened father share their sunny days with movie stars who are in town to make the movie Operation Petticoat.

Jenny is precocious and a bit of a sleuth, so her innocent "observations" to uncover the secrets of movie stars also end up revealing the secrets of her own family. Jenny confronts the frailty of family life while also vying for the attention of actor Tony Curtis and even a role in his movie. Smith delivers humor and honesty to her flawed characters with genuine Southern dignity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Born in the small coal-mining town of Grundy, Virginia, Lee Smith began writing stories at the age of nine and selling them for a nickel apiece. Since then, she has written seventeen works of fiction, including Fair and Tender Ladies, Oral History, and, most recently, Guests on Earth. She has received many awards, including the North Carolina Award for Literature and an Academy Award in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; her novel The Last Girls was a New York Times bestseller as well as winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. She lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with her husband, the writer Hal Crowther.

Event date: 
Tuesday, April 21, 2020 - 3:00pm
Event address: 
Blue Marlin By Lee Smith Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9781949467314
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Blair - April 21st, 2020

Guests on Earth: A Novel By Lee Smith Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781616203801
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Algonquin Books - May 13th, 2014

The Last Girls: A Novel By Lee Smith Cover Image
$17.00
Call to check availability
ISBN: 9780345464958
Published: Ballantine Books - September 30th, 2003