Author to be featured in reading series

Author Kali VanBaale will visit Northwestern College to read from her debut novel, The Space Between, and discuss her upcoming works Monday, April 19, at 7 p.m. in Te Paske Gallery of the Korver Visual Arts Center. VanBaale comes to campus as part of the Deep Song Reading Series. The event is free and open to the public.

The Space Between examines the lives of an affluent suburban family, and how its members cope and recover from a tragedy that had blindsided them all. The novel, according to VanBaale, will “leave readers wondering what does indeed lurk in the dark, unknowable spaces that exist between even the most loving of family members.”

Jim Barnes, managing editor of Independent Publisher, wrote, “Every parent of a teenager in America should read this book.” Another commendation comes from Bret Anthony Johnson, author of Corpus Cristi and director of creative writing at Harvard University, who describes the book as “a heart-rending, unflinching, lyrically powerful look into events both extraordinary and familiar, and an exploration of a family’s collective soul.”

Raised on a dairy farm in rural southern Iowa, VanBaale graduated from Upper Iowa University with a bachelor’s degree in human services and psychology. In 2006, The Space Between won the Fred Bonnie Memorial Award for Best First Novel. The novel won an American Book Award in 2007.