On the night of Jan. 17, the lights in Hunt Library Auditorium dimmed and the audience was hushed as Master of Fine Arts candidate Sarah Ruiz took to the stage to introduce Sheryl Cornett and Therese Anne Fowler and to reminisce about Fowler’s last appearance and speak about the contagious disease that is the need to write.
Fowler is an alum of NC State’s MFA program and a published author specializing in historical and domestic fiction, most notably “Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald” which received a television adaptation on Amazon Video.
Plenty of authors dread the thought of not being able to surpass their most commercially successful works, but as Fowler entered the early drafting stages for her latest novel, “A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts,” she saw it as a welcome challenge.
“Sometimes I think failure or perception of failure provokes our greatest creativity,” said Fowler. “I felt like I didn’t have anything to lose by trying to tell her story and up my game as a writer.”
The story follows Alva Smith, a woman who marries into a rich but socially scorned family in Gilded-Age New York and follows her rise to power and eventual leadership in the women’s suffrage movement.
Fowler expressed she came to write about Smith completely by chance through a long, winding tale of the rabbit hole that is the Vanderbilt family. It started with the custody battle over Gloria Vanderbilt between her mother and aunt.
“The custody battle between the aunt and the mother for little Gloria fascinated me,” said Fowler. “Who were these people that the mother and aunt would fight for the child like this? So I read all about that and just kept moving backwards in time.”
Fowler’s return to NC State was prompted by the MFA program’s staff, including Director Belle Boggs.
“Therese Fowler is a remarkable writer and an inspiring NC State success story,” said Boggs. “She was one of the MFA program’s first students and has become an acclaimed and bestselling writer. Her wonderful reading and fascinating conversation with Cornett set a high bar for the rest of our 2019 programming.”
The evening’s event was centered on “A Well-Behaved Woman” , which Fowler read excerpts from along with another unpublished work currently titled “A Good Neighborhood” and responded to questions from Cornett and the audience regarding her personal life and her writing process.
Creative writing was not a field Fowler planned to pursue early in her adult life. The Illinois native was already a mother of two by the time she enrolled at NC State. She went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and cultural anthropology.
“When I enrolled I had a lot of ambition, although it wasn’t necessarily to be an author,” said Fowler. “I wanted to be gainfully employed when I finished college, but I always had a feeling I would write fiction someday.”
After graduating, Fowler applied for the MFA program and became one of its first graduates. Her first novel, “Souvenir,” was published soon after in 2008.
“We’re really happy to have her here again for this event,” said Shervon Cassim, assistant director of the MFA creative writing program. “The MFA has had so many talented alumni, and being able to invite one of them, especially one so successful, back to campus is always exciting.”
Laughter filled the room on multiple occasions as Fowler read an excerpt from “A Well-Behaved Woman.” Cornett, who had finished the novel already, promised the audience that the characters’ antics only get more amusing as the novel continues.
“A Well-Behaved Woman” is available in stores and on Amazon. Currently, no release date has been set for Fowler’s work-in-progress.
