Prolific writer Ann Hood to discuss “The Knitting Circle”

Prolific writer Ann Hood will visit Salve Regina Monday, Feb. 11 to discuss her experience writing “The Knitting Circle.” Sponsored by the Department of Social Work, her lecture will be held at 6 p.m. in the Bazarsky Lecture Hall.

In “The Knitting Circle,” Mary Baxter joins a knitting circle in Providence as a way to fill the empty hours and lonely days after the sudden loss of her only child. The women welcome her, each teaching Mary a new knitting technique and, as they do, revealing their own personal stories of loss, love and hope. Eventually Mary is able to tell her own story of grief and in so doing reclaims her love for her husband, faces the hard truths about her relationship with her mother, and finds the spark of life again.

The author of several bestsellers, including “Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine” and “The Red Thread,” Hood’s latest novel, “The Obituary Writer,” will be published in March. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Paris Review, the Washington Post, Redbook, Glamour, Mademoiselle and many other magazines.

Born in Warwick, Hood grew up with stories of her father’s travels around the world during his 20 years in the Navy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Rhode Island and a graduate degree in American literature from New York University. Hood is a faculty member in the M.F.A. in creative writing program at the New School in New York City.