Kathryn Harrison first lit up the literary world with her memoir The Kiss, a controversial tale of seduction and desire that bared her private life to the world. With the explosive don’t look-don’t look-I must look incestuous story of life with father came much public scrutiny. Harrison responded by doing what writers do — continued to write.
Kathryn Harrison, author of Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured, will be the featured speaker at Tuxedo Park Library’s Author’s Circle on Sunday, February 1, at 3pm
Harrison has written some eight novels and seven works of non-fiction and is currently a distinguished faculty member in the MFA Creative Writing program at Hunter College, specializing in memoir writing. One might say that the subtext of much of Harrison’s work is the flickering flame of desire in life that can light things up or burn it all down.
Harrison is the featured guest at Tuxedo Park Library’s literary salon Author’s Circle, Sunday, February 1, at 3 p.m. The New York Times bestselling author graduated from Stanford University and the Iowa Writers Workshop and should provide a learned and lively Author’s Circle guest.
Harrison will most likely discuss her latest book, Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured, an in-depth exploration of the Maid of Orleans, who staked her life on god and country. Harrison’s Author’s Circle appearance is sponsored by the Tuxedo Chamber of Commerce.
By all accounts, Harrison uses her formidable versatility as novelist, biographer, memoirist, true-crime writer to connect the many strands of a poor farmer’s daughter who rose to lead a nation’s noblemen in battle and burn at the stake before her 20th birthday.
Fans of literature and history alike might enjoy Harrison’s finely detailed narrative of Joan, who was captured by the English and stood trial for heresy and then executed by burning her at the stake until nothing but ashes remained. The trial was filled with mostly spurious charges, one in particular being Joan’s cross-dressing blasphemy. She famously advocated to wear her soldier garments in prison because they tied tightly up to the waist, and thus protected the 19 year-old beauty from being raped by her guards.
Call the Tuxedo Library to reserve a seat at 351-2207.
