Paula Saunders grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota. She is a graduate of the Syracuse University creative writing program and was awarded a postgraduate Albert Schweitzer Fellowship at the State University of New York at Albany, under then-Schweitzer chair Toni Morrison. Her first book, The Distance Home, was longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and named one of the best books of the year by Real Simple.
“The sharp physicality of Paula Saunders’s writing hooked me; it was utterly engrossing to feel chills, hunger, and lust through the body of this young dancer—and as a mother it was bracing to remember that getting lost is how we find ourselves.”—Miranda July, New York Times bestselling author of All Fours
“Starting from Here is a stirring, stunning novel about the desire for a certain kind of life and the quest to find it. Paula Saunders has written an ode to independence, transformation, and coming of age that is also an evocative time capsule brimming with memory and feeling. What a wonderful book this is.”—Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion
“I read Paula Saunders’s page-turning second novel, Starting from Here, in one intoxicating gulp. The story demands it. It’s a mother-daughter wrangle and also our Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl. Saunders wowed me with her psychological acuity in her debut, The Distance Home, and this new offering exceeds that jewel. Brava!”—Mary Karr, New York Times bestselling author of The Liars' Club
“Starting from Here follows René, the indelible protagonist of The Distance Home, as she navigates family and dancing through her tumultuous 1970s adolescence. Saunders brilliantly captures the richness, awfulness, and blooming exhilaration of this girl’s life, careening from tortured family love to uneasy independence and back again. This is a beautiful novel.”
—Claire Messud, New York Times bestselling author of This Strange Eventful History.
The first 200 people at this event will receive a FREE copy of Starting from Here.
Writers Series events are free to the public. This event will be live streaming. WATCH HERE.