Author Signing with Cecily Van Cleave

About the book:

On her family's estate of Yewspring, Clara Eastwood is determined to pursue her love of science and the natural world-far from an easy endeavor in early 1800s England, when women are expected to be found in ballrooms and drawing-rooms, not out sketching plants. When her future at Yewspring is thrown into question by an unexpected death, Clara dedicates herself to becoming a botanist but soon encounters prejudices that stand in the way of her ambitions. When she finds herself caught between a budding romance with her village's land steward and a match with Yewspring's new heir, Clara must choose which of her loyalties-to her craft, her family, Yewspring, and her own happiness-will determine her future.

About the author:

Cecily Van Cleave worked in the natural resources field for a decade before earning a M.A. in English Literature from Mercy College, where her culminating thesis on George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell was named the program’s Thesis of the Year. Her fiction and essays have been published in the journal Persuasions, The Copperfield Review, The North Columbia Monthly, and various anthologies. Yewspring is her first novel. She lives in Colville, WA with her husband and son.