Author Rose Diell will be joining us on Wednesday, October 15th at 7pm as part of the US Release Tour for her debut novel, Fledging. Come join us for a reading, refreshments, and conversation.
About the Book
'It starts as bloating, a hard curvature in my gut that won’t go away. I wonder if it’s my period, but it isn’t the right time. The cramps come slowly at first, like a rising tide, and then grow shorter and sharper, a racing heartbeat.'
When Lia lays an egg she doesn’t know what to do. At her age, it’s impossible to escape the baby question, and all her friends seem to be having children. She feels her heart’s not in it – but all the same, there’s the egg, impossible to ignore, lying in a nest of towels in the living room.
Her partner on tour on the other side of the world and her mother diagnosed with a terminal illness, Lia finds herself torn, unsure whether she’s ready to give up on her songwriting dreams; but time is running out, and she must make one of the biggest decisions of her life.
Beautifully written and brilliantly original, Fledging is a riveting tale that asks what it is to lead a meaningful life, and sounds a resounding call for women to make their own choices, whether that means embracing motherhood or living child-free.
About the Author
Rose Diell was born and raised in London but her parents met and married in Philadelphia - her father grew up in South Philly and is a Penn alum. She's visited Philly many times over the years, including to see family in Chestnut Hill.
Rose writes in her spare time, with the encouragement and support of her writing circle, the Southbank Scribblers. Her debut novel, 'Fledging', was realsed in the UK & Commonwealth in 2024 and has been endorsed by Ruby Warrington, who coined the terms 'areproductive' and 'motherhood spectrum,' as well as Merle Bombardieri, a renowned 'baby decision' therapist.
In Conversation with Teresa FitzPatrick
Teresa FitzPatrick is the Fiction Editor at Philadelphia Stories, which showcases local fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and artwork. Hers is an almost impossible but deeply fulfilling task whereby she reads and selects (with help from her fiction board) all the fiction submissions for the magazine.
A graduate of the MFA program at Rosemont College, she is also the lead editor at Doman International, working with families of children with special needs. Her own writing has appeared in various literary magazines and anthologies. As a fan of great fiction in all its forms, she is happy to host this discussion.