Lee Smith
Lee Smith, Southwest Virginia’s most beloved writer, is the featured speaker at the “Sunday with Friends” event at the Public Library in Abingdon Sunday, May 15, at 3 p.m. Smith has recently published a novella, “Blue Marlin.” Originally included in an earlier collection of short stories, “News of the Spirit,” Smith has re-worked the original story, “Live Bottomless,” into this novella.
“Blue Marlin” follows Jenny, an adventurous 13-year-old, down to Key West, Florida, for a patched-up family vacation following the discovery of her father’s illicit affair. Jenny confronts the frailty of family life while vying for the attention of actor Tony Curtis and even a role in his movie “Operation Petticoat.” Smith delivers humor and honesty to her flawed characters with genuine Southern dignity.
At the event, Smith also describes a new novel, “Silver Alert,” another novel set in Florida that will be published later this year. A family’s plan to force irascible old tycoon Herbert Atlas into assisted living is foiled when he just happens to find a key in an old golf shoe and steals his own car (Porsche Carrera) from his own garage, taking a young blonde manicurist with him as his willing passenger. Dee Dee is as desperate as he is, trying to escape her own dark past and find a new life. They set off up the Keys on fabled Route One, soon having the absolute time of their lives ... despite the APB Silver Alert bulletin issued by police.
Smith, a Grundy, Virginia, native, began writing stories at the age of 9 and selling them for a nickel apiece. During her long writing career, she has written 17 works of fiction including “Fair and Tender Ladies,” “Oral History,” and, most recently, “Guests on Earth.” She has received many awards, including the North Carolina Award for Literature and an Academy Award in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her novel “The Last Girls” was a New York Times bestseller as well as winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award.
There will be book sales and signings at the event. For more information, call 276-628-5960.
