Debbie Harpham
from author’s website
ABOUT WHITNEY:
Whitney holds a BA in English Literature from Wesleyan University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington. Her short fiction, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous publications including Vogue, The Telegraph, The Tatler, and Bellevue Literary Review.Her first novel, The Age of Light, based on the life of pioneering photographer Lee Miller, was published by Little, Brown (US) and Picador (UK) in February, 2019, and was a Boston Globe and IndieNext bestseller, People Pick of the Week, Amazon Book of the Month selection, and Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick. It is forthcoming from over a dozen other countries. Whitney has been awarded residencies at the Virginia Center for the Arts and Ragdale, a St. Botolph Emerging Artists Grant, and a Somerville Arts Council Artists Fellowship. She teaches fiction in the Boston area and is a co-founder of the Arlington Author Salon, a quarterly reading series. She lives with her husband and daughter in Arlington, MA, where she is at work on her second novel.
Recognitions include:
Ragdale Artists Residency, 2020
Virginia Center For the Arts Residency 2016
St. Botolph Emerging Artists Grant 2015
2014 Somerville Arts Council Artists Fellow
Loren D. Milliman Fellowship for second year of graduate study
Gerberding Fellowship for study in Rome
Adelphic Scholarship for Wesleyan Writers’ Conference
Whitney is a co-founder and serves on the organizing committee for the Arlington Author Salon, a quarterly reading series in Arlington, MA. The series regularly attracts 50-100 people, and past featured authors include Margot Livesey, Richard Hoffman, Celeste Ng, Michael Blanding, Steve Almond, Michelle Hoover, Ron MacLean, Reggie Gibson, Val Wang, Lisa Borders, and many more. In 2018, the series was awarded its third annual Arlington Cultural Council grant, which enables the committee to pay the presenting authors honoraria for their work.
Whitney teaches fiction writing workshops in the greater Boston area and is available for editorial consultations on short stories, novel writing, and memoir. To find out more or to work with Whitney on your writing, please email her at [email protected].
ABOUT THE AGE OF LIGHT :
Told in the alternating timelines of 1930s Paris and the battlefields of WWII, this “rapturous and razor sharp” debut novel brings to light the life of Lee Miller, a little known but fearlessly original artist whose legacy remains largely unexplored (Paula McClain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife).
“I’d rather take a photograph than be one,” Lee Miller declares after she arrives in Paris in 1929, where she soon catches the eye of the famous Surrealist Man Ray. Though he wants to use her only as a model, Lee convinces him to take her on as his assistant and teach her everything he knows. As they work together in the darkroom, their personal and professional lives become intimately entwined, changing the course of Lee’s life forever.
Lee’s journey of self-discovery takes took her from the cabarets of bohemian Paris to the battlefields of war-torn Europe during WWII, from inventing radical new photography techniques to documenting the liberation of the concentration camps as one of the first female war correspondents. Through it all, Lee must grapple with the question of whether it’s possible to stay true to herself while also fulfilling her artistic ambition–and what she will have to sacrifice to do so.
Available for purchase here.
PRAISE FOR THE AGE OF LIGHT:
Named a most anticipated book of 2019 by Oprah.com, Entertainment Weekly, Southern Living, Woman’s Day, and Pop Sugar
“Scharer’s debut is a rivetingly sexy snapshot of the duo’s real-life relationship as it morphs from apprenticeship to partnership to tumultuous love affair.”―Kim Hubbard, People
“Whatever reams of research Scharer put into excavating Miller’s story she distills here into clean, consistently evocative prose. The glittering bohemia of 1930s Paris, the pastoral boredom of mid-’60s Sussex, the hollowed-out carnage of postwar Europe; all come equally alive on the page, as do iconic figures like Ray and Cocteau and Kiki de Montparnasse. But none breathe more vividly than Miller herself: Fiercely independent but racked by self-doubt, desperate for affection and approval even as she chafed at sentiment, she spent decades fighting to find her voice. It was worth the wait.”―Entertainment Weekly
“Like Paris in the 1930s, Sharer’s first novel is a radiant clash of romance and reality”―O, the Oprah Magazine
“She joins such novelists as Paula McLain (“The Paris Wife”) and Rupert Thomson (“Never Anyone but You”) in a most worthy enterprise: repopulating male-dominated accounts of the past with the many noteworthy women who deserve the same limelight.”―Donna Rikfind, Washington Post
“Scharer…skillfully renders an electric version of the city, pulling the reader into the opulence and mystery of the era.”―Annabel Gutterman, Time
“An absolutely gorgeous and feminist novel about art, love, and ownership, The Age of Light is truly a work of art in itself, both deeply moving and thrilling. Want to know what it’s like to be an artist? Read this astonishing novel and then, like Lee Miller, take time to consider the extraordinary cost she paid to be herself.”―Caroline Leavitt, Boston Globe
“Is “woman behaves dangerously, lives wildly” a genre? If so, The Age of Light is its latest poster child. The novel is work of historical fiction about Lee Miller, a Vogue model who became one of the first female war correspondents. In Scharer’s plot, Miller travels to Paris where she meets photographer Man Ray, who becomes her collaborator and lover. While most stories about Miller paint her as Ray’s muse, this one portrays her as the independent and daring artist she truly was.”―Glamour
Scharer’s debut is both engrossing and cinematic, a must for readers who enjoy a fictional peek into the lives of real-life artists.―Library Journal
“Scharer sets her viewfinder selectively, focusing on her heroine’s insecurities as much as her accomplishments as an artist; her hunger to be more than “a neck to hold pearls, a slim waist to show off a belt” is contrasted with her habit of solving problems by simply leaving. The price for Lee is steep, but it makes for irresistible reading. Sexy and moving.”―Kirkus, starred review
AUTHOR VISITS:
Author visits with Whitney Scharer coming soon via NovelNetwork.com.