Ursula Hegi

Ursula Hegi‘s latest novel, The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls – about three mothers, and set on the shores of the Nordsee – is testament to the ways in which women hold each other up in the most unexpected of circumstances

Ursula was born in Germany in 1946 and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. She is the author of 12 books. Several of her novels, including Stones from the River and Floating in My Mother’s Palm, explore German and German-American identity in the 20th century. Set in Burgdorf, a fictional village in Germany, they are part of the Burgdorf Cycle, which also includes the novel, Children and Fire published in 2011.

Ursula’s work has been translated into many languages, and her awards include the Italian Grinzane Cavour, an NEA Fellowship, and a PEN/Faulkner Award. She has served as a juror for the National Book Awards and the National Book Critics Circle.

Ursula lives with her husband in in New York State. She teaches in the MFA program in Writing and Literature at Stony Brook, Southampton.

A personal note from Ursula Hegi. 

Sent August 31st, following her Conversations with Authors session.

Dear Readers,

I’m so glad you joined Book Passage during my conversation with Barbara Wright. We met in graduate school at UNH 4 decades ago and have been the initial readers of each other’s work.

Thank you to Elaine Petrocelli who has created a brilliant system of keeping readers and writers connected during this age of fear and death and uncertainty. 

Yesterday’s virtual connection to you felt oddly reassuring. Inspiring.

 Right now I’m reading:

• The Boy in the Field — Margot Livesey — text and audio
• The Bluest Eye — Toni Morrison — for the 7th time
• Between the World and Me — Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Underground Railroad — Colson Whitehead 
• The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse — Louise Erdrich 
• All the Light We Cannot See — Anthony Doerr
• How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents — Julia Alvarez                                 
• Eva Luna — Isabel Allende 

Stay safe. Stay well. Keep reading. And vote.

–Ursula