Date: May 27, 2010

Hofstra Creative Writing Professor Martha McPhee Celebrates Publication of Her Fourth Novel: "Dear Money" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 3, 2010)

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY … Creative Writing Professor Martha McPhee’s fourth novel, Dear Money, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in June 2010. Dear Money is described as a Pygmalion tale of a struggling but critically acclaimed writer who does the unthinkable – leaves her world of creativity and fine art to become a high-earning banker.

Martha McPhee has been a finalist for the National Book Award and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Her previous novels are Bright Angel Time, Gorgeous Lies and L’America.

According to the press materials for Dear Money, the idea behind the novel is based on a real-life offer. At a party a few years ago, Professor McPhee struck up a conversation with a legendary bond trader who claimed he could transform her into a booming Wall Street success in 18 months. Professor McPhee toyed with the notion but ultimately declined and wrote Dear Money instead.  Her new novel portrays the “what if?” of that situation and follows writer India Palmer who – unlike McPhee – accepts the trader’s offer and enters the world of mortgage-backed securities, becoming an actual, bona fide trader, embarking on a raucous ride to the top of the income train. What Professor McPhee could not have anticipated while she was researching and writing the novel was the collapse of Wall Street, so for both her and readers, this turn of events has given Dear Money even more resonance.

Professor McPhee will be on a book tour around the country to promote Dear Money.

Upcoming dates include:

June 3, 2010, 7 p.m. Barnes & Noble, 84th Street and Broadway, New York City

June 22, 2010, 7 p.m. Booksmith, San Francisco, CA

June 23, 2010, 7 p.m. Book Soup, 8818 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles

June 26, 2010, 4 p.m. Hickory Stick Book Store, Washington Depot, CT

July 24, 2010, 3:30 p.m. First Annual Festival at the Mount, Lenox, MA

July 25, 2010, 3:30 p.m. Open City Summer Writers’ Festival, New York City

August 4, 2010, 12:30 p.m. Fiction Writers Respond to the Economy, Bryant Park, New York City

August 19, 2010, 6 p.m. The Ketchum Community Library, 415 Spruce Avenue North, Ketchum, ID

September 26, 2010, Hofstra University Alumni Book Club, Hempstead, NY

For details and more information visit www.MarthaMcPhee.com . Dear Money is currently available for order at Amazon, Borders and Indie Bound. A video for the book is also posted on her Web site – the direct link is http://marthamcphee.com/2010/02/04/lets-blow-it-all-5/ and Business Week also published an article by Professor McPhee in which she details how she came to write the novel. The article is posted online at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_22/b4180073333207.htm .

Hofstra University offers undergraduate and graduate students a wealth of opportunities for the study of literature and creative writing. In addition to the undergraduate program in creative writing, the Master of Arts in English and the Creative Writing program offers a wide range of workshops and independent studies in poetry, long and short fiction, playwriting and the essay form. The faculty who teach in the Master of Arts program are artists who represent the major literary genres.

Related Link: More About Martha McPhee