Dear {$firstname},



Ursula Parrott is one of the great writers of New York City literature. Ex-Wife, which was recently nabbed by Faber for international publication in 2024 (including the UK, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden!!!), is filled with delightful details about Manhattan in the 1920s.



As Patricia says in the novel, “New York’s a jail to which, once committed, the sentence is for life; but [...] it is such a well-furnished jail, one does not mind much.”



Ex-Wife is just the tip of Parrott's NYC iceberg—dozens of her stories are set in the city, centered on characters who move through Manhattan’s richly described neighborhoods, speakeasies, restaurants, and department stores. I’m a fan of the way Dell’s mapback edition of Ex-Wife represents the place-based nature of her stories:

Speaking of New York City, I’m headed there next week for three Ursula events!



You can RSVP for my free NYPL (at Lincoln Center, Amsterdam Ave b/t West 64^th and 65^th) Ursula Parrott talk and book signing on October 26^th at 5:30pm here; RSVP for my free talk and book signing at the private Lambs Club on 51^st Street Friday Oct 27^th at 7pm by emailing Beth Goffe with a request to hold seats; and get tickets for my Oct 28^th 1pm introduction for Next Time We Love on 35mm, with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, followed by a book signing, at the Museum of the Moving Image here.



If you are a New Yorker, please come see me!



And if you know folks in the city, I’d be grateful if you’d help me spread the word about my events.

Last but not least: I did an episode of The Missing Chapter podcast as well as a YouTube Hollywood Kitchen episode with Karie Bible and Darin Barnes, which we recorded at the Hollywood Heritage Museum, featuring Avocado a la Norma Shearer (Norma was essentially Ursula's alter ego in The Divorcee and Strangers May Kiss)!  And I started an Ursula Parrott Instagram account, which you can follow here!



I’m looking forward to walking the streets Ursula so artfully and wittily described in short order.

 
Sincerely,

Marsha Gordon

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