Penn Bookstore hosts College alum, author to discuss new novel

On Thursday, the Penn Bookstore hosted 2005 College graduate and author Lindsey Palmer to discuss her new book.

Palmer spoke about her newest novel — “Salt Sisters” — and shared advice for aspiring novelists at Penn during the Sept. 24 event. Fellow 2005 College graduate Jamie-Lee Josselyn organized the discussion, which was moderated by College senior Sophia Hall. 

In an interview, Josselyn — associate director of recruitment for the Creative Writing Program at the Kelly Writers House — expressed hope that students would leave “thinking about what it can mean to maintain a creative life outside of college.” 

She also highlighted the opportunity to engage with Palmer, who she described as a “great example of a product of our creative writing community at Penn who has done the thing as a writer.”  

"Salt Sisters" was published on July 14. Palmer began the event by reading the novel’s prologue aloud, before shifting to a discussion of its themes of grief, motherhood, and friendship. 

She also spoke about how Cape Cod, Mass. — the novel’s primary setting and Palmer’s home for the past few years — served as a source of inspiration in her creative process. 

“I hope that people who read the novel eventually see that it's really a love letter to Cape Cod,” she said. “It didn't surprise me that after living there for a few years that I wanted to set a novel there.”

During the event, Palmer also expressed that she has “always loved writing from different perspectives” and shared her experience writing in different voices — as the novel switches between two protagonist points of view. 

When discussing how different places shaped her life, Palmer reflected on her experience at Penn and highlighted the impact of KWH — calling it “a special gem of a place.” She added that the creative writing workshops she engaged with at Penn taught her “the importance of writing from space.” 

Palmer’s current writing workshop group consists of Penn alumni she met in a first-year creative writing course with professor Max Apple in KWH. 

Her appreciation for KWH is shared by Hall, who expressed that “it’s really nice to see how the same experience translates across generations and different years at Penn.”

The event concluded with an audience question and answer session. Following the discussion, Palmer signed copies of “Salt Sisters” that the bookstore had on display for attendees. 

Hall described the opportunity to speak with Palmer as “extremely exciting,” adding that “I think it’s really valuable to show the Penn community that there’s success in other fields.”

“I think Penn really markets itself as a preprofessional school with a focus on the same few professions like finance, pre-med, and consulting,” Hall added. “There are writers and artists and museum curators who come from Penn and are equally, if not more successful, than those with careers in the big three as they are pursuing a passion that was cultivated at Penn, and are now sharing it with the broader world.”