Join us for a reading by Sheri Reynolds from her latest novel, The Tender Grave. The reading will be followed by a Q&A. To join live, register for the Zoom link to the reading and Q&A. Attendees who join the Zoom webinar will be able to interact and ask the author questions. The event will also be streamed live on Facebook and a recording will be available.

From the publisher:  "In The Tender Grave, Sheri Reynolds weaves complex themes of parenting, forgiveness, guilt, and accountability into a lyrical and lushly-woven tapestry that chronicles our enduring search for home, heart, and healing."

About the author: Sheri Reynolds is the author of the novels Bitterroot Landing, The Rapture of Canaan (an Oprah book club selection and New York Times bestseller), A Gracious Plenty, Firefly Cloak, The Sweet In-Between, The Homespun Wisdom of Myrtle T. Cribb, The Tender Grave and the play Orabelle's Wheelbarrow.

Sheri grew up in a large, extended family in rural South Carolina. She graduated from Conway High School in 1985, Davidson College in 1989, and Virginia Commonwealth University in 1992. She teaches creative writing and literature at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, where she serves as the Ruth and Perry Morgan Chair of Southern Literature and is currently Department Chair of English. She has also taught at Virginia Commonwealth University, The College of William and Mary, and Davidson College.

Sheri lives in the town of Cape Charles on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

About the book: From the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller The Rapture of Canaan, and steeped in the rich tradition of Southern writers like Carson McCullers and Sue Monk Kidd, The Tender Grave is a gripping story of two estranged sisters who find their unlikely way toward forgiveness—and each other—through a gruesome and disturbing set of circumstances.

At age 17, Dori participates in a hate crime against a gay boy from her school and runs away to escape prosecution—and her own harrowing childhood. In her pocket, she carries the address of an older half-sister she’s never met. She has no idea that her sister, Teresa, is married to another woman, or that Teresa and Jen have tried and failed repeatedly to start their own family though unsuccessful insemination attempts. When Dori and Teresa finally meet, they’re forced to confront that, while they don’t like or understand one another, they are inextricably bound in ways that transcend their differences. Together, the sisters discover that shifting currents of family and connection can sometimes run deeper than the prevailing tides of abandonment and estrangement.

Purchase The Tender Grave from your local independent bookstore:

Prince Books, Norfolk, VA | Peach Street Books, Cape Charles, VA | Read Books, Virginia Beach, VA | Chop Suey Books, Richmond, VA | Main Street Books, Davidson, NC | or on Bookshop.org