Alice Martin with Jeannie Vanasco: WESTWARD WOMEN

What would happen if women across the country began to just… slow down? In Alice Martin’s Westward Women, women ages eighteen to thirty-five are drawn to the Pacific Ocean like it’s calling them home. They abandon their lives–jobs, families, their very selves. And once they reach the West, they vanish forever. For fans of Emma Cline and Emily St. John Mandel, this is a hypnotic and hopeful debut novel–part fever dream, part dystopian road trip that claws its way towards a jaw-dropping finale. Join the author on the Ivy patio, in conversation with acclaimed memoirist Jeannie Vanasco about this exciting new book. RSVP here! Order WESTWARD WOMEN here! Alice Martin is an Assistant Professor of English Studies at Western Carolina University. She received her PhD in American Literature from Rutgers University. Her writing has appeared in the Carolina Quarterly, Appalachian Heritage, Triangle House Review, and elsewhere. Westward Women, published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2026, is her debut novel. She lives just oustide of Asheville with her husband, her son, and her attention-seeking cat. Jeannie Vanasco is the author of A Silent Treatment, which was named a best book of 2025 by NPR, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. Her other memoirs include Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl and The Glass Eye. She’s an associate professor of English at Towson University and lives in Baltimore.