The Writing Barn just has to brag on some amazing local authors who’ve recently been featured in The New York Times’ Sunday Book Review.
Mary Helen Specht visited The Writing Barn in January as the guest author for our debut program, Words and Wine Wednesdays. She read
aloud an excerpt from Migratory Animals, followed by a Q&A about her writing process, inspiration, and her time abroad in Nigeria. Mary Helen is also featured on our blog series, the Austin Author Spotlight. Recently, The New York Times reviewed Migratory Animals, deeming it a “delightfully ambitious” debut novel, in which S
pecht “perfectly captures the minute details of contemporary life in a certain social niche of culture-rich, cash-poor pseudo-bohemians.” Migratory Animals is about leaving your roots, despite their deepness, despite their existing problems, and then returning, comparing recent findings with life as you used to know it.
An ambitious, highly accomplished debut. . . . Specht moves among a deep cast of characters and corresponding perspectives with absolute mastery. . . . Most important, and impressive, is Specht’s sure handling of the interior life.
– Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Nikki Loftin is basking in the glow of her recent release, Wish Girl, a story about Peter, who is relocated to
the Texas hill country after his mom reads his journal and finds that he’s written about suicide, and Annie, Peter’s new friend who has leukemia, and who desperately wishes to avoid chemotherapy treatments.Together they run away to a magic valley where their fears and troubles are understood. Wish Girl “dips into a lovely sort of magic realism,” and is “a quietly poetic story about psychological truths,” says The New York Times in last week’s Sunday Book Review. Nikki Loftin is the featured author for The Writing Barn’s April Words and Wine Wednesday, as well as a guest author in the upcoming Week in Residency with Nova Ren Suma.
Wish Girl is a book that knows real magic exists—that art, nature, and true friendship have the power to save lives and transform the world. It’s at once earthly and ethereal, heartbreaking and hopeful. It dazzles.
– Laurel Snyder, author of Bigger than a Breadbox