Book Release Party: Navigating Her Next Chapter by Jean Burgess

Join us for a special book release party including an author talk, book sales, and book signing. Refreshments will be provided. 

About Jean Burgess

Jean Burgess is a writer, editor, playwright, and workshop presenter. As a former professional stage actor and director, many of her written works relate to the arts, including her debut novel, That Summer She Found Her Voice: A Retro Novel. Her nonfiction, entitled Collaborative Stage Directing, was published by Routledge in 2019. Jean taught theatre and speech communications on both the secondary and college levels for twenty-three years. She holds an M.A. in Theatre from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Educational Theatre from New York University.

About Navigating Her Next Chapter: A Retro Novel

In 1981, Margie Stevens, a 26-year-old aspiring writer, moves from Maryland’s Eastern Shore to New York City. Initially overwhelmed by the contrasts between small town life and NYC, Margie takes a job at Radio City Music Hall to pay the bills while she slowly learns how to navigate city life with help from a menagerie of friends—a punk waitress from the neighborhood diner; a gay couple from her apartment building; a dreamy Hispanic man from her writing group; and her fashion-crazed roommate.

As the harsher aspects of living in the Big Apple—the cocaine crisis and a mysterious nameless disease—affect people she knows, and a huge anti-nuclear demonstration for world peace shakes her world view, Margie’s writing pivots in a surprising new direction.

However, pressure from her father, with whom she has a troubled relationship, begins to wear on her, particularly when tragedy strikes within her “New York family.” Despite a budding romance with a fellow writer, Margie has to decide whether to stay on her New York career course or retreat home to Maryland and her Eastern Shore roots.