Conversations with Authors – Ursula Hegi (Virtual Event)

Ursula Hegi‘s latest novel, The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls—a story of three mothers, set on the shores of the Nordsee—is a testament to the ways in which women hold each other up in the most unexpected of circumstances.

Ursula was born in Germany in 1946 and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. She is the author of 12 books. Several of her novels, including Stones from the River and Floating in My Mother’s Palm, explore German and German-American identity in the 20th century. Set in Burgdorf, a fictional village in Germany, they are part of the Burgdorf Cycle, which also includes the novel Children and Fire, published in 2011. Her work has been translated into many languages, and her awards include the Italian Grinzane Cavour, an NEA Fellowship, and a PEN/Faulkner Award. She has served as a juror for the National Book Awards and the National Book Critics Circle.

Ursula lives with her husband in in New York State. She teaches in the MFA program in Writing and Literature at Stony Brook, Southampton.

Barbara Wright is the author of three novels: Crow, Easy Money, and Plain Language, which won a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. She grew up in North Carolina, has traveled all over the world, and lived in France, Korea, and El Salvador. She worked as a fact-checker for Esquire and as a screenwriter. Barbara lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, Frank Gay.