Alice Martin: Westward Women

Join us for a reading with Alice Martin, who will read from her debut novel, Westward Women. An audience Q&A will follow. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.

About the Book: It starts with an itch.

In homes across the country, women ages eighteen to thirty-five begin to slow down.

Tired. Blank. Restless.

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.

At the center of the story are three young women caught in the pull of something unstoppable.

Aimee follows the trail of her missing best friend to a man called the Piper—known for leading infected women West.

Teenie, afflicted and unraveling, clings to a single memory as she looks out the window of the Piper’s van.

And Eve, a former journalist, is chasing the story that might just consume her.

Each on the edge of transformation. Drawn toward the unknown. In search of a way forward.

About the Author: Alice Martin holds a PhD in literature from Rutgers University. She is an assistant professor of English studies at Western Carolina University, where she teaches fiction writing and American literature. She lives outside of Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband, her son, and too many typewriters. Westward Women is her debut novel.