Sharon Wishnow -- The Pelican Tide

On the fifteenth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, come listen to a talk by acclaimed author Sharon Wishnow on her novel The Pelican Tide, which deals with a Louisiana family whose lives are upended by an oil spill.

After disaster strikes, a Louisiana family and their community need to prove to each other and the world that their bond is thicker than the oil threatening their shores in Sharon J. Wishnow’s stunning debut novel.

It’s taken Chef Josie Babineaux six months to reconcile the debts left from her husband Brian’s gambling along with her broken heart. But now with a promising tourist season heating up and a travel magazine declaring her the spice queen of the bayou, she may be able to save her family’s historic Cajun restaurant. Repairing her relationship with her daughter, Minnow, while hiding the true reason she left her husband is a bigger issue. Just as the first tourists arrive, an explosion on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico shatters their fragile plans. With her island community at the epicenter of the oil spill, everything is endangered, including the restaurant’s beloved mascot—a brown pelican dear to the family’s heart. 

Sharon J. Wishnow is a transplanted New Englander who makes her home in Northern Virginia. In addition to writing upmarket fiction with environmental themes, Sharon writes non-fiction in the science, technology, and business categories. Sharon is the former Vice President of Communications for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA), the founder of Women’s Fiction Day, and the Executive Editor of the WFWA magazine, WriteOn!  She has an MFA from George Mason University, a publications certification from George Washington University, and a BA from Clark University. She regularly speaks about research and writing and publishes a regular newsletter, Research for Writers and Other Curious People.