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	The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann by Virginia Pye Price $19.95 Paperback In Stock

Virginia Pye at Harvard Book Store

presenting

The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swan

in conversation with MARJAN KAMALI

Date

Oct

Tuesday
October 3, 2023
7:00 PM ET

Location

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

This event is free; no tickets are required.

Harvard Book Store welcomes VIRGINIA PYE—author of Shelf Life of Happiness—for the launch of her latest novel The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swan. She will be joined in conversation by MARJAN KAMALI—award-winning author of The Stationery Shop.

About The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swan

Victoria Swann is a successful author of romance and adventure novels who becomes a champion of women's rights as she takes on the literary establishment and finds her true voice, both on and off the page. Everything changes for Victoria when she goes against her publisher's demands and abandons her frivolous style to tell her own story. Her new, young, Harvard-bred editor becomes her unexpected ally as she fights for the women who have been her faithful readers. Set in Gilded Age Boston, The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann shows writing and reading as acts of defiance and revision in life and revision on the page as intimately entwined.

Praise for The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swan

"The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann is a captivating and delicious novel.” —Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the Field

"An engrossing and empowering historical novel of liberation that reminds us, with deep resonance, of the many ways in which we are still not free." —Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men

"Virginia Pye has written a novel as full of vital ideas about truth, progress and how to live with intention as it is with wild romps and charming encounters." —Elizabeth Graver, author of Kantika

Mask Policy

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.

Marjan Kamali

Marjan Kamali is the award-winning author of The Stationery Shop (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster), a national and international bestseller, and Together Tea (EccoBooks/HarperCollins), a Massachusetts Book Award finalist. She is a 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. Her new novel, The Lion Women of Tehran comes out in July 2024.

Virginia Pye

Virginia Pye’s fourth book of fiction, The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann, was recently published by Regal House Publishing.

Her short story collection, Shelf Life of Happiness, won the 2019 IPPY Gold Medal for Short Fiction, and one of its stories was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Her two post-colonial historical novels set in China also received literary awards. River of Dust, her debut, was an Indie Next Pick and a 2013 Finalist for the Virginia Literary Award. Her second novel, Dreams of the Red Phoenix, was named a Best Book of 2015 by the Richmond Times Dispatch.

A prolific writer, Virginia’s essays have appeared in the New York Times, Literary Hub, Publisher’s Weekly, The Rumpus, the Huffington Post, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, and Writer’s Digest, as well as in numerous literary magazines.

She is Co-Fiction Editor for Pangyrus, a literary journal based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a board member of the Women’s National Book Association, Boston Chapter. She has also been a Tin House Summer Workshop Scholar, an assistant at the Virginia Quarterly Review Conference, and a repeat fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes

As you exit the station, reverse your direction and walk east along Mass. Ave. in front of the Cambridge Savings Bank. Cross Dunster St. and proceed along Mass. Ave for three more blocks. You will pass Au Bon Pain, JP Licks, and TD Bank. Harvard Book Store is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St.

Unable to attend a Harvard Book Store author event? You can still pre-order a signed book by one of our visiting authors.

While we can't guarantee fulfillment of a signed book pre-order, our authors are almost always able to sign extra books to fulfill such orders.

Ordering a signed book on harvard.com:

Add the book to your shopping cart and then click Checkout.
Specify in Order Comments that you want a signed copy of the book.
Please note: online orders for signed copies must be placed at least one business day before the event. If you are ordering the day of, please call us instead.

Ordering a signed book by phone:

Call us at (617) 661-1515 and one of our booksellers will take your order. Specify you'd like a signed copy.
If you are requesting a personalized inscription and/or requesting your book be shipped, we'll need to take down credit card information. If you are planning to pick up the signed book in the store, you can pay on pick-up.

FAQ:

Can I request a personalized inscription?
Unless otherwise noted, we are happy to take requests for the author to sign your book to a specific person, but we can't guarantee it. If you do get a personalized inscription, the book will be non-returnable. We will require credit card information when you place the order.

Do signed books cost more?
There is no extra fee for a signed book!

Do I have to pick it up in the store, or can you deliver my signed book?
As with all web or phone orders, we can hold your book for in-store pickup, or ship it anywhere in the country.

I am planning to attend an author event. Do I need to pre-order a book?
No need. We'll be selling books at the event, and nearly all of our events include a signing at the end of the talk.

More questions? Give us a call!

General Info
(617) 661-1515
info@harvard.com

Media Inquiries
mediainquiries@harvard.com

Accessibility Inquiries
access@harvard.com