Elaine Neil Orr in Conversation with Laura Leigh Morris: Dancing Woman

Join us at Hub City Bookshop on April 8 from 6-7 PM to celebrate the release of Elaine Neil Orr's latest novel, Dancing Woman, which tells the story of a young female artist, struggling to find her passion and purpose in 1963 Nigeria.

Get a 10% discount on the book when you RSVP on Eventbrite and present it at the bookshop register.

Elaine Neil Orr, born in Nigeria to expat parents, brings us an indelible portrait of a young female artist, torn between two men and two cultures, struggling to find her passion and her purpose.

It’s 1963 and Isabel Hammond is an expat who has accompanied her agriculture aid worker husband to Nigeria, where she is hoping to find inspiration for her art and for her life. Then she meets charismatic local singer Bobby Tunde, and they share a night of passion that could upend everything. Seeking solace and distraction, she returns to her painting and her home in a rural town where she plants a lemon tree and unearths an ancient statue buried in her garden. She knows that the dancing female figure is not hers to keep, yet she is reluctant to give it up, and soon, she notices other changes that make her wonder what the dancing woman might portend.

Against the backdrop of political unrest in Nigeria, Isabel’s personal situation also becomes precarious. She finds herself in the center of a tide of suspicion, leaving her torn between the confines of her domestic life and the desire to immerse herself in her art and in the culture that surrounds her. The expat society, the ancient Nigerian culture, her beautiful family, and even the statue hidden in a back room—each trouble and beguile Isabel. Amid all of this, can she finally become who she wants to be?

Elaine Neil Orr was born and grew up among the forests and rivers of Southwestern Nigeria. After settling in North Carolina as a literature professor, she turned to creative writing. She first published a memoir, Gods of Noonday, followed by two novels, A Different Sun and Swimming Between Worlds, finalist for the 2019 Phillip H. McMath Post-Publication Book Award in fiction. Dancing Woman is her third novel. Elaine has received numerous prizes and awards, including most recently the 2023 John Ehle Prize and the 2021 Denny C. Plattner Award in Creative Writing. She is Professor of English at North Carolina State University. She also serves on the faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, Andy, and their beloved pup, Sam.

Laura Leigh Morris is the author of The Stone Catchers: A Novel and Jaws of Life: Stories, and has previously been published in the Notre Dame Review, the Louisville Review, Pithead Chapel, Laurel Review, and other literary journals. She teaches creative writing and literature at Furman University and lives in Greenville, South Carolina with her family.

Host or Publisher Hub City Writers Project