DeKalb County author to speak at Magness Library
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Arnoult is the author of a novel, ?Sufficient Grace? from Free Press/Simon & Schuster, and a book of poetry, ?What Travels With Us: Poems? from LSU Press. Arnoult will be reading from her works and signing books after the program.
Arnoult is a native of Martinsville, Va., and now resides in Brush Creek in DeKalb County.
Arnoult began writing fiction and poetry when she was 18 years old, but says she has ?traveled a crooked and winding path to these, my first books. Each book was published within months of my 50th birthday and shortly after I became a grandmother.?
?What Travels With Us? was the winner of the 2005 SIBA poetry book of the year award and was a winner of the Weatherford Award for Fiction and Poetry. Two poems from the book were read on American Public Radio?s Writer?s Almanac.
?Sufficient Grace? has received a number of accolades as well.
?In brisk scenes, Arnoult?s rhythmic prose beautifully reveals the human potential for unconditional love and faith, and wholly convinces us-despite the heartache her mental illness causes-of Gracie?s essential wisdom and worthiness,? reads a Publishers Weekly review.
?A transcendent exploration of the unrestrained vagaries of faith and the unexpected roads to redemption ? With astute sensitivity, Arnoult bravely and generously endows her formidable characters with charming candor and perceptive humanity in an elegiac yet hopeful tale of elegant strength, serene love, and infectious desire,? said Booklist of the novel.
The press release for ?Sufficient Grace? explains a bit about this unusual novel:
?Draw the body of Jesus,? the voices instruct Gracie Hollaman one quiet spring day, ?Draw it larger than life.? So begins Gracie?s break with reality in the spellbinding debut novel ?Sufficient Grace.? When we meet Gracie, she is drawing life-size portraits of Jesus on the walls of her house, certain that they will watch over the family she is about to leave behind. She wanders off and is discovered miles away ? mute and incapacitated ? by two women who hope to save her, unaware that Gracie will manage to save them as well.
With sensitivity, humor, and Southern sensibility, Darnell Arnoult captures the aspects of the human condition that hold the power to both sustain and redeem us ? faith, family, art, food, and, above all, love.
Readers who want to find out more about Gracie and her life should make a point to come by the program tomorrow night at Magness and meet the author of this wonderful novel.
For more information, contact Magness Library at 473-2428.