In her new book Joan, Katherine J. Chen reimagines the life of the legendary Joan of Arc, infusing the historical narrative with a fresh, contemporary voice. Chen delves into the complexities of Joan’s character, presenting her not just as a martyr and saint, but as a flesh-and-blood young woman with fears, ambitions, and a formidable sense of purpose. Combining meticulous research with imaginative storytelling, Joan offers a nuanced exploration of faith, power, and gender dynamics in medieval France.
Chen will appear in conversation with Patricia Dailey, a medieval scholar who focuses on histories of gender and sexuality. Dailey is currently a Faculty Visitor at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination.
About the speaker:
Katherine J. Chen is the author of Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc (Random House US / Hodder & Stoughton UK), which won the 2023 American Library in Paris Book Award, and Mary B. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, and other publications. Her next book, under contract with Random House, will explore the complex sibling relationship between Morgan le Fay and Arthur. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Boston University’s MFA Fiction program, and she is currently a doctoral student in the Department of English at Brown University.
Patricia Dailey is an Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Her work spans medieval literature, contemporary philosophy, gender studies, psychedelic studies, and eco-criticism. She is the author of Promised Bodies: Time, Language, and Corporeality in Medieval Women’s Mystical Texts (Columbia UP 2013), and has authored numerous articles. She is finishing a book on the arboreal sublime; while also writing an experimental autobiography of parentheses, or, what could be called life, in parentheses.
