It is a rare and thrilling event when a writer’s first novel takes off and becomes an international phenomenon, ending up on bestseller lists around the world. That has happened for both of our New Voices Fellows, VIRGINIA EVANS and SHELLEY READ, and what a pleasure to introduce these magical storytellers and the quirky, resilient women at the heart of their stories. In The Correspondent, Evans gives us a prickly septuagenarian who writes brilliant, chatty letters and emails to family, friends, foes, and literary idols (the exchanges with Joan Didion are priceless) and reveals her own life story—and deep sorrows—along the way. In Read’s Go as a River, a resourceful young woman growing up in rural Colorado learns to live with the painful repercussions of one chance encounter. In conversation with SVWC Associate Director ANNE TAYLOR FLEMING, Evans and Read will talk about the road to their first novels and their wild rides since—and they’ll also tell us what’s ahead.