Mary Helen Specht: Mudlark

Mary Helen Specht is coming to First Light Books on Tuesday, July 21, to talk about her new novel, Mudlark. It's an author reception with a conversation and a signing afterward, so you'll get to hear her talk through the book before you get your copy signed.

Mudlark is a feminist odyssey that moves between two women across a fractured timeline. There's Jenny Sweet, a reluctant wife and mother chasing one last shot at reinvention, and her daughter Neko, who twenty-five years later scavenges the flooded ruins of Manhattan. The story is set in a future wracked by calamity, and it follows Neko as she races to learn the truth about an album and the mother who disappeared more than a decade ago. It's a story that stretches from a woman's struggle for her own life to her daughter's search for her in the wreckage that follows.

Specht is an Austin writer and teacher; she teaches creative writing at St. Edward's University. This is her second novel, following Migratory Animals, which was a New York Times Editors' Choice and won the Texas Institute of Letters Best First Fiction Award and the Writers' League of Texas Fiction Prize. For the conversation, she'll be joined by Becka Oliver, Director of Talent at Kevin Anderson & Associates.

The event starts at 6 PM at First Light Books, 4300 Speedway. Tickets include a copy of the book and a reserved seat, and free RSVPs are also encouraged, so you can either lock in a spot with a book or just let them know you're coming.