Best-selling author and award-winning journalist Anita Diamant will speak on “Imagining the Past: How (and Why) I Write Historical Fiction” tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Union College's Nott Memorial.
The talk, part of Union's Perspectives at the Nott lecture series, is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by Blue House, the English Department and the President's Office. A reception will follow the lecture.
Professor Harry Marten, chair of the English Department at Union, once taught Diamant as an undergrad at Washington University in St. Louis.
“She's a fine, fine writer, one of my first great students, and we have been able to keep in touch over the years,” said Marten. “It's a great feeling to have someone who once sat in your English class become a best-selling novelist”
A column Diamant wrote in the Boston Globe in 1990 reveals to her readers that her passion for writing owes much to Marten's teaching. The last paragraph reads, “Besides, I was lucky. I had found Harry Marten, who taught me about Dickens and writing and how to tie my shoes.”
Her first work of fiction, “The Red Tent,” won the 2001 Booksense Book of the Year Award. Based on the biblical story of Dinah, “The Red Tent” became a word-of-mouth bestseller in the United States and overseas, where it has been published in 25 countries.
“The Last Days of Dogtown,” her most recent novel, is set in a small New England village in the early 1800s and tells the stories of a group of marginal, mostly invisible American characters, including free Africans, spinsters and widows.
Diamant began her career as a freelance journalist around Boston in the 1970s. Her work appeared in local newspapers and magazines, including the Boston Phoenix, the Boston Globe and Boston Magazine. She also contributed to New England Monthly, Yankee, Self, Parenting, Parents, McCalls and Ms. magazines.
In 1985, she began writing about contemporary Jewish practice and the Jewish community. Her articles were published in Reform Judaism magazine, Hadassah magazine and for the webzine, jewishfamily.com. Diamant also has written a series of six popular guides to contemporary Jewish life.
A collection of personal essays, “Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship and Other Leaps of Faith,” was published in 2003.
For more information about the author visit: http://www.anitadiamant.com/