With her complicated, finely-drawn characters and incisive prose, novelist Elizabeth Strout uses the quiet rhythms of the everyday and the natural beauty of northern New England to illuminate the depth of grief and the breadth of joy in even the most ordinary of lives. In her most recent novel, My Name Is Lucy Barton, a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the relationship between mother and daughter. That tender relationship was a central exploration in Amy and Isabelle as well. In 2008, Strout won the Pulitzer Prize for Olive Kitteridge, a masterful work that wove together thirteen rich, luminous narratives into one masterful novel anchored by the character of Olive. Olive Kitteridge was adapted into an HBO miniseries in 2014 produced by and starring Frances McDormand. The series won eight Emmy Awards. Stout is also the author of the The Burgess Boys and Abide with Me.
Acclaimed actress Frances McDormand has appeared in numerous films including Burn After Reading, Mississippi Burning, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Man Who Wasn’t There. While her Oscar-winning performance as a tenacious Minnesota police officer in the Coen brothers’ film Fargo brought her widespread fame, her supporting roles and her uncompromising approach to acting had already earned her the respect of audiences and directors. Throughout her career, McDormand has continued to work both on and off-Broadway, in plays like The Country Girl, A Streetcar Named Desire, Good People, for which she received a Tony Award, and most recently in Macbeth at Berkeley Repertory Theater.