The Music Hall's Writers in the Loft Series to Welcome Christina Baker Kline

The Music Hall's Writers in the Loft series welcomes to the stage the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Train (3 million copies sold in 40 countries), Christina Baker Kline, on Tuesday, July 18.

In her bestselling novel, A PIECE OF THE WORLD, Kline turns her attention to another little-known part of America's history: the story of Christina Olson, the complex and real-life muse Andrew Wyeth portrayed in his 1948 masterpiece Christina's World.

The 7pm event includes an author presentation and moderated Q+A, plus book signing and meet-and-greet. It will be held at the Music Hall Loft at 131 Congress Street, in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

"We're delighted to welcome Christina Baker Kline to Portsmouth," said Patricia Lynch, Executive Producer of Writers in the Loft and the evening's moderator. "Kline is a beloved American writer who has written a book so beautifully linked to our coastal lives and inspired by the legacy of painter Andrew Wyeth. Thanks to Kline's gorgeous writing, Wyeth's muse, Christina, is now accessible to all of us."

ABOUT THE BOOK

To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family's remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than twenty years, she was host and inspiration for artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the twentieth century.

As she did with her beloved smash bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction in a powerful novel that illuminates a little-known part of American history. Bringing into focus the flesh-and-blood person behind the portrait, she vividly imagines the life of a woman with a complicated relationship to her family and her past, and one who has a special bond with one of our greatest modern artists.

Told in evocative and lucid prose, A PIECE OF THE WORLD is a story about the burdens and blessings of family history, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christina Baker Kline is the author of five novels, including #1 New York Times bestselling Orphan Train. Her other novels include Bird in Hand, The Way Life Should Be, Desire Lines, and Sweet Water. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, and Psychology Today, among other places. She lives outside of New York City and on the coast of Maine. For more information visit christinabakerkline.com.

The ticket package for Writers in the Loft: Christina Baker Kline on Tuesday, July 18 at 7pm is $42 ($40, members). In addition to a reserved seat, the package includes a copy of A PIECE OF THE WORLD ($28, hardcover), a bar beverage, and book signing meet-and-greet. Packages can be purchased online at TheMusicHall.org, over the phone at 603.436.2400 or in person at the B2W Box Office at the Historic Theater, 28 Chestnut Street.

Akin to The Music Hall's anchor literary series, Writers on a New England Stage, Writers in the Loft features bestselling authors in a smaller, more intimate space. The series brings audiences today's top authors, the best of fiction and nonfiction, and award-winners across categories. The evening package includes a reserved seat and bar beverage, author presentation and Q+A, a copy of the book, and a meet-and-greet book signing with the featured writer.

The Music Hall is a performing arts center featuring curated entertainment from around the world in two theaters in its downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire campus - one, a landmark 1878 Victorian theater, designated an American Treasure for the Arts by the National Park Service's Save America's Treasures Program, the other the intimate Music Hall Loft around the corner, recently named "best performing arts venue" by Yankee Magazine and the recipient of the NH AIA award for design excellence.

For more information, visit www.TheMusicHall.org or follow on Twitter: @MusicHall and Facebook: /musichall.