"Girl in Hyacinth Blue" author Susan Vreeland to deliver lecture at Fairfield University, book signing to follow

"Girl in Hyacinth Blue" author Susan Vreeland to deliver lecture at Fairfield University, book signing to follow

image: Susan Vreeland Susan Vreeland, author of the internationally best-selling novels "The Passion of Artemisia," "The Forest Lover," and "Girl in Hyacinth Blue," will present a lecture on Wednesday, February 1, at 7 p.m. at Fairfield University. Vreeland will discuss "The Art of Fiction" and introduce her latest work, a collection of short stories entitled "Life Studies." A book signing will follow the lecture, which is presented by University College in conjunction with the Pequot Library.

Vreeland is known for infusing historical fiction with the beauty and power of art. "Life Stories" features 17 short stories about Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, as well as Michelangelo, Caravaggio and Picasso. Her three novels are historical fiction pieces centering on the lives of artists - female Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, rebel Canadian painter Emily Carr, and Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.

"Imagining my way into the lives of the people who might have owned the painting through the centuries, I thought less of what I was going through, and more of the characters, settings, and circumstances I was creating," said Vreeland, who was diagnosed with lymphoma at the time she began writing "Girl in Hyacinth Blue." "Creative endeavor can aid healing because it lifts us out of self-absorption and gives us a goal. Mine was to live long enough to finish this set of stories."

Vreeland, a former English teacher from San Diego, began writing features for newspapers and magazines in the 1980s. Her first novel, "What Love Sees," was made into a CBS television movie.

Her three art-oriented novels have been translated into 25 languages.

"Vreeland's style, which uses elements of biography, art history and romance fiction, draws in the reader with an air of seductive mystery. With the stories in 'Life Studies,' Vreeland once again proves to have a painterly eye ... Anyone who has been caught under the spell of great art will already understand the wisdom of Vreeland's fiction," read a Chicago Sun-Times' review.

"Life Studies" is now available in paperback. Vreeland's lecture is one of two in a series that will also include Sue Monk Kidd, author of "The Secret Life of Bees," this April. Tickets for the event are $8 and are available by calling (203) 254-4307.

Posted On: 01-03-2006 10:01 AM

Volume: 38 Number: 108