Union Ave Books is proud to present a reading with Cynthia Martin and Caitlin Hamilton Summie to celebrate the release of Martin's THE ART OF HER LIFE.
This event will take place on November 16, 2023 at 6 PM in our store.
About Cynthia:
Cynthia Newberry Martin is the author of three novels—The Art of Her Life (2023), Love Like This (2023), and Tidal Flats (2019), which won the Gold Medal in Literary Fiction at the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards and the 14th Annual National Indie Excellence Award for Fiction. She’s also the editor of the How We Spend Our Days series, over a decade of essays by writers on their lives, published on her website and also on Substack. She grew up in Atlanta and now lives in Columbus, Georgia, with her husband, and in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in a little house by the water.
About THE ART OF HER LIFE:
Award-winning author and essayist, Cynthia Newberry Martin, is an expert at portraying the complexities of relationships and exploring what mixture of separateness and togetherness (freedom and love) leads to our living our best lives, topics that inspire lively discussions. As she did in TIDAL FLATS (Bonhomie Press; September 9, 2019), she revisits these themes in her signature style in her new novel, THE ART OF HER LIFE, which follows a woman who, in the midst of balancing single motherhood, love, and work – finds that her passion for art is what enables her to take a fresh look at her life.
At nine years old, on her first visit to a museum, Emily fell in love with Breakfast, a painting by Henri Matisse. Now a single mother, she lives in the world of art and can barely find time for her two daughters, much less for Mark, the man she loves.
Her days are a jumble—she’s lost the thread of her life—but a contest at the museum where she’s the registrar gives her hope—the chance to see Breakfast again. When Mark is offered a long-term archaeological opportunity in Turkey, he tells Emily all he wants is a life together with her and her daughters, but instead of marrying him, Emily lets him go. In his absence, she immerses herself in Matisse. His words and paintings permeate her days and nights, and glancing at a note card of her painting, she sees something she’s never seen before. She has made a mistake. While the future may be uncertain—Mark is now involved with someone else and Emily’s life is threatened by illness—the one thing she knows is she must see Breakfast again.
THE ART OF HER LIFE shows the power of art to transform an ordinary life.
About Caitlin:
Caitlin Hamilton Summie earned an MFA with Distinction from Colorado State University, and her short stories have been published in Beloit Fiction Journal, Wisconsin Review, Puerto del Sol, and more. Her story collection, TO LAY TO REST OUR GHOSTS, won the fourth annual Phillip H. McMath Book Award, Silver in the
Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Short Stories, and was a Pulpwood Queen Book Club Bonus Book. Her debut novel, GEOGRAPHIES OF THE HEART, was also a Pulpwood Queen Book Club Bonus Book as well as a finalist for the Indie Next Gen Book Awards in General Fiction. She spent many years in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Colorado before settling with her family in Knoxville, Tennessee. She co-owns the book marketing firm, Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity, founded in 2003. Find her online at caitlinhamiltonsummie.com
About GEOGRAPHIES OF THE HEART:
Sarah Macmillan always puts family first, but she can’t quite stretch her arms wide enough to hold on to everyone as they all age: her career minded, inattentive younger sister, Glennie; their grandparents, who are slowly fading; or a pregnancy Sarah desperately wanted. But it’s her tumultuous relationship with Glennie that makes Sarah feel the loneliest. She’d always believed that their relationship was foundational, even unbreakable. Though blessed with a happy marriage to Al, whose compassion and humor she admires, Sarah shoulders both caregiving and loss largely alone and grows bitter about Glennie’s absences, until one decision forces them all to decide what family means—and who is family. Narrated by the chorus of their three voices, this elegantly told and deeply moving novel examines the pull of tradition, the power of legacies, the importance of forgiveness, and the fertile but fragile ground that is family, the first geography to shape our hearts.
