UP Notable Book Club presents a virtual Q&A with Maryka Biaggio, author of Eden Waits: A Novel Based on the True Story of Michigan’s Utopian Community, Hiawatha
UP Notable Book Club: the Crystal Falls Community District Library in partnership with the U.P. Publishers & Authors Association (UPPAA) has scheduled author events with winners of the UP Notable Book List. The 15th event is with Maryka Biaggio whose novel Eden Waits about the disastrous attempt to establish a faith-based utopian community in the U.P. is a riveting read. The events are open to all U.P. residents free of charge. Read Donna Winter’s review of Biaggio’s book at The U.P. Book Review.
When: Thursday, March 10th, 2022 at 7pm Eastern / 6pm Central
Where: on the Zoom platform — please contact Evelyn Gathu in advance by email: egathu@uproc.lib.mi.us, or by phone (906) 875-3344. We recommend you borrow a copy of these books from your local library or purchase from your local bookseller in advance to get the most out of these events.
Maryka Biaggio is a psychology professor turned novelist who specializes in historical fiction based on real people. A graduate from Marquette High School and Northern Michigan University, she enjoys the challenge of starting with actual figures and dramatizing their lives–figuring out what motivated them to behave as they did, studying how the cultural and historical context may have influenced them, and recreating a sense of their emotional world through dialogue and action. Doubleday published her debut novel, PARLOR GAMES, in 2013. EDEN WAITS, based in the true story of a utopian community founded in the 1890s, was published by Sunbury Press in August 2019. EDEN WAITS was an Editors’ Choice in the February 2020 issue of Historical Novels Review. Her fiction has won Willamette Writers, Oregon Writers Colony, and La Belle Lettre awards. She prides herself on crafting carefully researched and realistic fiction. She is an avid opera fan and enjoys gardening, art films, and, of course, great fiction. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Visit her website at marykabiaggio.com.
“The main characters were well drawn and complex. They remained true to form until, with great skill, the author portrayed deviations unexpected but wholly believable. Some interpersonal relationships dissolved in the storms of community development, while others, built on more solid ground, weathered the crises and grew stronger, offering great reader satisfaction. Biaggio’s descriptions of settings put the reader squarely in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and in the shoes of her characters. I could see the counter and shelves lined with goods in the country store, sense the formality of the courtroom proceedings, smell the woodsy forest while traversing its path and feel the heat of the laundry tub as it began to boil.”
— Donna Winters, U.P. Book Review
Awards
- Editor’s Choice — Historical Novels Review (02/2020)
- Upper Peninsula Publishers & Authors Association — U.P. Notable Book Award 2021
More information about the U.P. Notable Book list, U.P. Book Review, and UPPAA can be found on www.UPNotable.com
About the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association (UPPAA)
Established in 1998 to support authors and publishers who live in or write about Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, UPPAA is a Michigan nonprofit association with more than 100 members, many of whose books are featured on the organization’s website at www.uppaa.org. UPPAA welcomes membership and participation from anyone with a UP connection who is interested in writing.
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