Author Joanna Higgins

ALPENA — Former Alpena resident Joann Wojewski, who writes under the name Joanna Higgins, will read from her latest novel and talk about writing from 1 to 3 p.m. on July 7, at Parallel 45 Books and Gifts, 106 N. 2nd Ave. in Alpena.

The Historical Novels Review calls her most recent novel, “In the Fall They Leave” “powerful and moving,” its characters “skillfully drawn,” and its action “well-paced.”

Published by the traditional press Regal House Publishing, In the Fall They Leave tells the story of a fictional student nurse in German-occupied Brussels during World War I who must choose whether to obey the occupiers’ new laws, thus securing her own future, or maintain loyalty to her oath as a nurse and to her matron, risking a charge of treason and likely execution by firing squad.

Higgins’ first novel “A Soldier’s Book” was a finalist for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and also nominated for a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Her short stories have appeared in literary journals, anthologies including The Best American Short Stories series, and in a critically acclaimed collection, The Importance of High Places.

A graduate of Catholic Central High School (1963), Wojewski-Higgins went on to earn a BA from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, an MA from the University of Michigan, and a PhD from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She has taught literature and writing at several colleges and universities, including the University of Maryland, SUNY-Binghamton, and the University of Hawaii. She also studied writing with the noted scholar and writer John Gardner.

Everyone is invited to hear her read from her latest novel and talk about writing. Bring your questions! Refreshments will be served.