We are pleased to welcome Mary Rechner and Natalie Serber, who will be discussing Mary's new book, Marrying Friends.
When her troubled husband dies unexpectedly, mercurial Therese gets tangled in competing desires and demands--her own and those of her friends and family on Long Island. Ambitious in scope yet carefully observed, Marrying Friends deftly illuminates multiple characters as grief forces them to reimagine their lives and relationships. A frank and often wry look at the bewildering bonds between women, men, siblings, parents, and children, this novel-in-stories confirms Rechner's talent for capturing how we find meaning not only in our dreams, but also in our desperations.
Mary Rechner is the author of Nine Simple Patterns for Complicated Women, named to the long list for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and the novella The Opposite of Wow, published in The Hong Kong Review. Her fiction has appeared in publications such as New Letters, Harvard Review, Gettysburg Review, New England Review, Kenyon Review, and Washington Square. Her criticism and essays have appeared in Litro, The Believer, Oregon Humanities, and The Oregonian. A recipient of fellowships from Literary Arts and the Regional Arts and Culture Council, as well as residencies from Caldera and the Vermont Studio Center, Rechner taught fiction writing at Portland State University and the University of Portland and now teaches media arts to high school students.
Natalie Serber received an MFA from Warren Wilson College. She is the author of Shout Her Lovely Name and her work has appeared in The Bellingham Review and Gulf Coast, among others; her awards include the Tobias Wolff Award. She teaches writing at various universities and lives with her family in Portland.
