Emily Sterling is dying of breast cancer. She is remembering, in a narrative that is as much novel as memoir, the three phases of her life: first, her childhood with adoring but eccentric parents, a time when Emily has to come to terms with the fact that she will never be as beautiful as her mother, ending with a trauma on her high school graduation night; second, her life between the ages of 20 to 30, in which she has a long-term love affair with her college teacher and his wife; and third, the rest of her life, in which she is a college teacher and then a first-time novelist at the age of fifty. The story ends in the garden of Emily Dickinson’s home in Amherst.
Tell It Slant is an intimate account told by a dying woman desperate to keep talking, to stay alive. She is self-conscious about her choice of words, afraid of being a cliché. Emily’s life has been shaped by her mother Dawn, a woman who hears music nobody else hears; her best friend Dorothy, who tormented her when they were children; her high school teacher Miss Randall, who refuses to let her wallow in self-pity; Amy, the wife of the man she loves, a crippled woman whom Emily loves as much as she loves her husband; and finally, Dorothy’s daughter, Emily’s god-daughter, who becomes Emily’s only heir.
Larry Baker writes about memorable characters, and he is something of a character himself. Baker earned his doctorate at the University of Iowa and is a former member of the Iowa City Council. He is included on Iowa City’s Literary Walk and is the author of six novels. He possesses an outsized personality that he employs gleefully, if self-mockingly, for the promotion of his work. He is by turns funny and erudite, and both characteristics find their way into his work.
Larry’s other books include The Flamingo Rising, Harry and Sue: A Story About Love and Ghosts, A Good Man, The Education of Nancy Adams, and Athens, America.
This event will be moderated by Kali White VanBaale, a Des Moines-area creative writing professor and award-winning author of novels, short stories, essays, and articles. Kali is an American Book Award recipient, among others, and is a core faculty member in the Lindenwood University MFA in Writing program, where she was named Adjunct Professor of the year in 2022.
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