The JMU Department of English, the College of Arts and Letters, and the Honors College are proud to bring Virginia Evans, JMU English alumna and nationally bestselling author, to campus.

Spend an evening with Virginia Evans in conversation with Dr. Sofia Samatar – Associate Professor of English – as they discuss her debut novel, The Correspondent, that jumped to #1 on the NY Times Best Seller list.

A Reading and Q&A with Virginia Evans will take place at the Forbes Concert Hall located at 147 Warsaw Avenue, Harrisonburg, VA on Thursday, April 9th from 6:00 – 7:00PM.

This event is free and open to the public. Copies of The Correspondent will be available for purchase, and the author will be briefly signing books following the event.

The Correspondent - Book CoverAbout the Author

Virginia Evans attended James Madison University for her bachelor’s in English literature. After starting a family, she went back to school for her master’s of philosophy in creative writing at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where she had the good fortune to study under Carlo Gébler, Eoin McNamee, Claire Keegan, Harry Clifton and Kevin Power. She now lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with her husband, Mark, two children, Jack and Mae, and her Red Labrador, Brigid.

About the Book

In her novel, Virginia Evans introduces 73-year-old Sybil Van Antwerp, a divorced mother and grandmother, and retired lawyer, who tries to heal old wounds and make sense of the world the only way she knows how – through letters. Unexpectedly, letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life.