This online program will be streamed live via Zoom.

Lily King, best-selling author of The Pleasing Hour and Euphoria, joins Heidi Pitlor, editor The Best American Short Stories, for an in-depth conversation on her bestselling novel, Writers & Lovers, which explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.

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“Jane Austen said, ‘Man has the advantage of choice; woman only the power of refusal,’ but Casey is determined to hold out for a plot on her own terms. The result is an absolute delight, the kind of happiness that sometimes slingshots out of despair with such force you can’t help but cheer, amazed.” - The Washington Post

Recommended Cocktail

Lily King offers the simple, yet sophisticated Bellini as her choice for a beverage to make at home and enjoy along with this conversation.

The Bellini is a mix of prosecco and peach puree. For a non-alcoholic version, substitute sparkling water for prosecco. Top with a fresh sliced peach for a flavor-enhancing garnish. A classic recipe can be found here.

Lily King is the author of five award-winning novels. Her most recent novel, Writers & Lovers, was published on March 3rd, 2020. Her 2014 novel Euphoria won the Kirkus Award, The New England Book Award, The Maine Fiction Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. Euphoria was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times Book Review. It was included in TIME's Top 10 Fiction Books of 2014, as well as on Amazon, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, and Salon’s Best Books of 2014.

Heidi Pitlor is the author of the novels The Birthdays and The Daylight Marriage, which was optioned for film. Her third novel, Impersonation, will come out on August 18, 2020. A former senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, she has been the series editor of The Best American Short Stories since 2007. She is also the editorial director of the literary studio, Plympton. Her writing has been published in Ploughshares, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art, Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today’s Best Women Writers, and elsewhere. She lives outside Boston.

The Mount is a Massachusetts Cultural Council UP designated organization welcoming participants of all disabilities. Please contact The Mount at 413-551-5100 or by email, info@edithwharton.org, to discuss accommodations needed to participate fully in this event.