Barbara Kingsolver Promotes New Novel Partita at Chicago Humanities Festival

Author Barbara Kingsolver appeared at the Chicago Humanities Festival to discuss her new novel Partita, Third Coast Review reported. She delivered a solo presentation without an interviewer to a full audience at the Francis W Parker School in Lincoln Park. Two American Sign Language interpreters were present on stage during the event. [1]

According to Third Coast Review, Kingsolver structure her presentation differently than typical festival conversations. Her new book, Partita, follows the story of an injured piano prodigy named Livia. Scroll.in noted that the novel centers on a musician bringing together the varying rhythms of her life. [1][2]

Kingsolver has published 19 books across multiple genres, including essays, poetry, and children's stories, Third Coast Review reported. As FTMQ Books reported earlier, Partita is her tenth novel and was published on October 6 by Faber. She previously won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel Demon Copperhead. [1][3][5][6]

Kingsolver attended college on a music scholarship after growing up in Appalachia, drawing on her background as a classical pianist for her latest work, as FTMQ Books reported earlier. Her past writing includes the novel The Poisonwood Bible and the non-fiction work Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. [3][5]

The Chicago Humanities Festival is an annual program created in 1989 that features lectures, concerts, and films across Chicago. The organization conducts a spring series and a longer fall festival running from September through November. [4]