🎙 INTERVIEW: From Academic to Debut Novelist After Sixty with Debra Curtis
​** This is a LIVE interview with Debra Curtis about the craft of writing and reality of building a creative career.**
​What if the book you’re meant to write doesn’t arrive until your sixties? What if the child who was told she “couldn’t write” becomes Bloomsbury’s biggest debut of the year?
​Debra Curtis is the author of the debut novel Laws of Love and Logic. Before turning to fiction, she spent twenty-five years as a professor of cultural anthropology at Salve Regina University, specialising in gender and sexuality. As a child, she struggled with reading and was told she was behind. She wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until her twenties—a revelation that brought both shock and relief, and helped her understand her mind more fully.Â
​Now in her sixties, she is a first-time novelist. Laws of Love and Logic explores love, loss, faith, and redemption across decades of social change. At its heart lies the idea of radical forgiveness.Â
​Join us for a conversation with Debra Curtis about publishing her first novel at sixty, moving from academia to fiction, and writing her debut Laws of Love and Logic.
​We’ll also explore:
​Publishing a first novel in your sixties
​Growing up believing you “can’t write”
​Receiving a dyslexia diagnosis in adulthood and how it reframed her path
​Moving from academic writing to the demands of fiction
​Living on the grounds of a Benedictine monastery as a feminist scholar
​About Debra Curtis
​Debra Curtis is a retired professor of cultural anthropology at Salve Regina University, where she specialised in gender and sexuality. This is her first novel. She is the mother of grown-up twin girls and lives in Rhode Island with her husband and her English bulldog, Harry, who is the star of much of her TikTok content. TikTok: @EnglishHarry; FB: @DebCurtis; Instagram: @Deb.curtis.906
​Your London Writers' Salon Hosts:
​Parul Bavishi and Matt Trinetti are the co-founders of the London Writers' Salon, creators of the webby-nominated Writers' Hour daily writing sessions, and hosts of the London Writers' Salon podcast.
​Parul Bavishi has been an editor for over a decade. In addition to running LWS she helps thriller, YA and non-fiction writers level up their craft and get published. She writes and edits for the Story Grid. She has worked as an editor and literary scout at Random House, Quercus & Eccles Fisher. She analyses TV hit shows (Killing Eve, Ozark, Game of Thrones) on the Story Grid Showrunners Podcast.
​Matt Trinetti is a writer, publisher, TEDx speaker, and facilitator. In addition to running LWS, Matt designs programs to help unfulfilled professionals pursue creative work, start businesses, and reinvent their careers. Matt's work has appeared in Quartz, Observer, Creative Mornings, and on his blog GiveLiveExplore.
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