Margaret Hutton : If you leave
Date
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RSVP required
Program is FREE to attend
About the Event
The Coffee House Club invites Salmagundi members to join us for a conversation with author Margaret Hutton to discuss her debut novel, If You Leave. There will be a stunning line-up, featuring writers Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, Jessica Francis Kane and Julian Tepper. The salon-style discussion will focus on art, creativity and parenthood, and will be moderated by Lauren Cerand. We can’t wait to see you there!
About the Book
In the final year of World War II, Audrey is holding tightly to her dream of becoming a painter, while falling hard for a naval doctor. Not long after they marry he’ s sent overseas, leaving her alone in Washington, DC. Audrey rents a room to Lucille, launching an unlikely friendship that’ s a comfort to them both. But not everything is quite what it seems. Although Lucille’ s past has been a mystery to Audrey, nothing prepares her for the shock when Lucille abandons their makeshift family— including her child— and retreats to her orchard home in North Carolina. When the women meet again in 1973, Lucille is intent on mending the past. But Audrey is focused on leaving her unhappy marriage, and Lake, the daughter Lucille left behind, is trapped in an abusive relationship. If You Leave is an intimate, immersive story exploring motherhood, love, and art, as three women carve a wayward path toward reconciliation.
Hungry?
Ticketed attendees are welcome to stay for dinner by indicating so in their Eventbrite RSVP.
There will be an a la carte menu to choose from. On the day of the event, you can pay for your meal with a card or your membership account (no cash).
About the Speakers
Margaret Hutton’s fiction has appeared in The Sun, The South Carolina Review, The Chattahoochee Review, The Antioch Review, and Abundant Grace. She graduated with honors in creative writing from UNC-Chapel Hill and holds an MFA from George Mason University. A native North Carolinian and former environmental reporter, she now divides her time between the Washington, DC, area and her art studio in Chester County, Pennsylvania. If You Leave is her debut novel.
Sarah Blakley-Cartwright is the author of Alice Sadie Celine (Simon Books, Simon & Schuster, November 28th, 2023). She is also the author of Red Riding Hood (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), a New York Times #1 bestseller that was published worldwide in thirty-eight editions and fifteen languages. She is the editor of The Artist’s Library, featuring conversation with artists on their most beloved books, transcribed, and appearing monthly at Hauser & Wirth’s Ursula magazine. She is publishing director of the Chicago Review of Books and associate editor of A Public Space.
Jessica Francis Kane’s first novel The Report was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Kane’s second novel, Rules for Visiting, was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and was named in Oprah Daily as one of the best books of 2019. Fonseca, her latest novel, published this past August was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and Named a Must-Read Book for Summer by the LA Times, and a Most-Anticipated Book of 2025 by Lit Hub and Publishers Weekly.
Julian Tepper’s fifth novel, Getting Even/Letting Go (Rare Bird) will publish in the fall of 2026. His writing has appeared in the Paris Review, Playboy, The Brooklyn Rail, Zyzzyva, The Daily Beast, Tablet Magazine, the New York Review of Architecture and elsewhere. His essay, “Locking Down with the Family You’ve Just Eviscerated in a Novel” was a “Notable Essay of 2022” in Best American Essays 2022. He was born and raised in New York City and now serves as Executive Director of the Coffee House, an arts club established in 1910 in Midtown Manhattan by journalist and Vanity Fair Magazine founding editor, Frank Crowninshield.
Lauren Cerand is a publicist and consultant with more than two decades of experience in the worlds of literature and the arts, spanning strategic communications to high-profile events and board leadership. She graduated from Cornell University and lives in Baltimore.