Join us as we welcome author, Patricia Lee Lewis, to our Writers Out Loud Guest Author Series! She will be reading with Judith Fine, who voiced the audio version of Thorns of the Mesquite coming out this summer. Fine will read the dialogue and Lewis will read the narrative. It will be a lot of fun. We welcome a rousing Q & A session, to follow.
I’m a writer and native Texan, born and raised in Austin, who quite rightly defected to the northeast in the mid-1960’s. Though I’ve published mostly as a poet, to some acclaim, and have led hundreds of workshops and retreats for creative writers over 30 years (locally at Patchwork Farm Retreat in Westhampton and in ten other countries), my debut historic novel, Thorns of the Mesquite, has just recently released by Levellers Press.
Set in 1938 in West Texas, the novel tells a hard-hitting, feminist, anti-racist story, both poetic and political in its essence, with love, death and community of many kinds. It is historic fiction born of deep personal roots. Reviews can be found on Amazon. Here’s a very brief book-jacket description:
"Dona Rose Willis’s life on a vast West Texas ranch in 1938, is shaped by hard work, a starkly beautiful landscape, and a loveless marriage. Everything shifts when Samuel Washington, a Black man, seeks refuge from a lynch mob, thrusting Dona into a dangerous fight against brutal prejudices. A powerful and timely tale of historic fiction, Thorns of the Mesquite paints a stirring portrait of a woman’s awakening—of love and the resilient spirit demanded to fight for what’s right against staggering odds.”
This program is funded in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Westfield Cultural Council, supporting accessible literary and cultural programming for the Greater Westfield community.
Westfield on Weekends, a non‑profit organization that helps to define the cultural and creative vitality of the Greater Westfield community through accessible programming that celebrates its many neighbors; Straw Dog Writers Guild is a non‑profit volunteer organization dedicated to the craft and transformative power of writing and serving writers in Hampden and Hampshire Counties; and WhipCity Wordsmiths is a Westfield‑based writers’ social and support group committed to fostering connection and creativity among local authors.
