Abigail DeWitt’s Literary Fiction Novel “News of Our Loved Ones” Explores Love and Loss in World War II France
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In today’s episode number 37, we meet Abigail DeWitt, author News of Our Loved Ones, a novel that begins in June 1944 with the Allied invasion of France that leaves some family members in Normandy with only hours to live and others in Paris looking for news of their loved ones.
Decades later, one of the survivors, now the wife of an American musician, returns each summer with her children, the youngest of whom becomes obsessed with stories of the war, thinking they are the key to understanding her mother and the conflicting cultures of her life.
We start first with Abigail reading her short story, Shorn,published in Narrative Magazine, which explores similar World War II deprivations and tragedies in France.
Abigail DeWitt is the author of three novels: Lili (WW Norton), Dogs (Lorimer Press), and News of Our Loved Ones (HarperCollins). Her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Narrative, Five Points, Witness, the Alaska Quarterly Review, the Carolina Quarterly, Drafthorse, Salamander, and elsewhere. She has been cited in Best American Short Stories, nominated for a Pushcart, and has received grants and fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council, the Tyrone Guthrie Center, the McColl Center for the Arts, and the Michener Society.
The daughter of two theoretical physicists, Abigail grew up in Chapel Hill, NC and was educated at Harvard University and the Iowa Writers Workshop. Now, she lives in the South Toe Valley, an hour north of Asheville, not far from Mount Mitchell. She has taught at Appalachian State University, UNC-Asheville, Boston University, and Harvard Summer School. Currently, she teaches at the Table Rock Writers Workshop and the Great Smokies Writing Workshop.
You can connect with the author at: https://abigaildewitt.com
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