We’re so excited to welcome National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and Women’s Prize for Fiction winner, author of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell to Montclair on Wednesday October 19 at 7 p.m. Maggie will be live and in person talking about her new book The Marriage Portrait. This will be her only NJ event.

Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of New York Times best seller Hamnet, Maggie brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de’ Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.

“A captivating portrait of a woman attempting to free herself from a golden cage. Fans of the accomplished Hamnet won’t be disappointed by this formidable outing.”–Publishers Weekly [starred review].

Tickets to hear Maggie O’Farrell in person cost $35 and include a copy of the book The Marriage Portrait (value $28). Maggie will be signing books at the event. Get your tickets here.

This event will be held in The Sanctuary, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Montclair, 67 Church St, Montclair. We are currently not requiring any Covid safety precautions but we will review closer to the time. Precautions may include mask wearing and social distancing inside the venue.

Maggie O’Farrell was born in Northern Ireland in 1972. Her novels include Hamnet (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award), After You’d Gone, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, The Hand That First Held Mine (winner of the Costa Novel Award), and Instructions for a Heatwave. She has also written a memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death. She lives in Edinburgh.

Any proceeds from the festival benefit parent organization, Montclair-based non-profit Succeed2gether, which offers after-school one-on-one tutoring and enrichment classes with the aim of closing the education and opportunity gaps in Essex County, NJ. You can read more about Succeed2gether and the festival at www.succeed2gether.org.

The festival organizing committee wishes to thank its event partners, festival sponsors, and community members.