PSB: Boston Edition and GrubStreet are delighted to present the latest installment of the Grubbie Debut event series, featuring Nancy Crochiere! She'll discuss her debut novel, Graceland, in conversation with Julie Carrick Dalton. This event will take place on Wednesday, June 7 at 7 pm at Porter Square Books: Boston Edition (50 Liberty Dr. Boston, MA 02210).

People-pleasing Hope Robinson can’t seem to please anyone lately--not her slogan-spewing boss, not her pink-haired teenage daughter, and especially not her mother, the flamboyant soap-star, Olivia Grant. Olivia loves Elvis more than Jesus, and now that she’s on oxygen, she insists Hope take her on a final trip to Graceland. Unfortunately, that’s the one place Hope can’t go. Eighteen years earlier, pregnant and distraught, Hope fled Tennessee with a secret agreement: to never reveal her baby’s father and never return to Memphis.

Olivia, though, has never learned the word no. After she wrangles Hope’s impulsive daughter, Dylan, to drive her from Boston to Memphis with the promise of meeting her mystery father, Hope has no choice but to chase after them. She must stop them before they ambush Dylan’s father, exposing Hope’s lies, breaking the NDA, and igniting a political and media firestorm.

Along the road to Memphis, as the women encounter former soap actors, free-range ferrets, and a trio of Elvis-impersonating frat boys, everyone’s long-held secrets begin to unravel. In order to become the family they long to be, Hope, Olivia, and Dylan must face hard truths about themselves and one another on the bumpy road to acceptance, forgiveness, and ultimately, grace.

Nancy Crochiere wrote a humor column about family life for Massachusetts newspapers for thirteen years and has published essays in The Boston Globe, Writer’s Digest, and WBUR’s Cognoscenti blog. She worked as a development editor for McGraw-Hill and other educational publishers until 2014, when she became obsessed with GrubStreet, and has now taken more courses there than any living human being. Not surprisingly, her novel, Graceland, was workshopped in Grub’s Novel Incubator program. With her two daughters grown, Nancy lives north of Boston with her husband and a few house plants, all of whom could use more attention.

Julie Carrick Dalton is the Boston-based author of The Last Beekeeper and Waiting for the Night Song (2021.) She is a proud graduate of GrubStreet's Novel Incubator, as well as an alum of Bread Loaf, Tin House, and Harvard Extension School's Master's in Creative Writing and Literature program. With a background in farming and beekeeping, she is a frequent speaker on the topic of 'fiction in the age of climate crisis' at universities, museums, libraries, and conferences. Julie is the winner of the William Faulkner Literary Competition and the Writers League of Texas Award for contemporary fiction, and was a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award for best suspense novel, the Caledonia Novel Award, and the WFWA Star Award for best debut novel. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, Orion, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, Chicago Review of Books, and other platforms. Her first novel, Waiting for the Night Song, was named a Most Anticipated Book by CNN, Newsweek, USA Today, and Parade, and was an Amazon Editor's Pick for Best Book of the Month. Julie recently signed another contract with Forge Books, Macmillan, for two more novels, so stay tuned! When she isn't writing, reading, or wrangling her four kids and two dogs, you can probably find Julie kayaking, skiing, or digging in her garden.

Grubbie Debut: Nancy Crochiere, author of Graceland, in conversation with Julie Carrick Dalton