I was born in New York City, and for twenty years I worked in two vastly different worlds: academia and business. But I yearned to return to my first love, writing. I’d need quiet, and I’d need time. In 2002, my husband and I moved to Maine, where we live a simple country life in a house with a dog and a cat. Surrounded by acres of forest, lakes, and streams, my companions are wild turkeys, foxes, the random porcupine and a herd of deer; even a bear. I’m at work on my fourth book, a novel.
Spring Bear (2010), my first book, a novella set in Maine, is the story of a young girl who chooses instinct over conscience to protect her unborn child. It won a 2009 Maine Literary Award.
“Bowen’s roundly atmospheric setting nicely complements the slow-brewing tension among characters … engaging from the very first page. A potent backwoods tale.” Kirkus Discoveries
“A gripping Maine tale of rich land, poor people, hard living… a masterpiece of concise writing where every phrase and sentence is important… a grim story of a family falling apart under the weight of poverty, hard times, bad luck and worse decisions, and a young teenage girl’s desperate effort to make things right…a fabulous story well told.” Bill Bushnell, Portland Press Herald
Back From Tobruk (2014) is my edition of a previously unpublished memoir written by my photo-journalist father about his adventures with an American ambulance corps in the front lines of WWII’s North Africa campaign.
“A cultural gem, recording Bowen’s personal awakening to war’s reality at the most human individual level. Deeply moving.” Nigel Hamilton, presidential historian and author of “Master of the Battlefield: Monty’s War Years, 1942-1944”
“Fascinating … a sensitive young American journalist does some of his best reporting when he becomes a stretcher case and is evacuated through various field hospitals, fraternizing with the wounded of both sides.” Colin Smith, military historian and coauthor of “Alamein: War Without Hate”
Croswell Bowen: A Writer’s Life, A Daughter’s Portrait (2015) is a biography of my father, who upon his return to civilian life became a crusading investigative reporter and author of the first biography of the American playwright Eugene O’Neill.
“A tour de force, capturing a most complicated man – his time – and her loyal yet conflicted feelings about him as a father.” Nigel Hamilton, presidential historian and author of “Master of the Battlefield: Monty’s War Years, 1940-1944”
“Often, reading about the times in which the subject of a biography lived is as interesting as reading about the subject himself….What makes this book worth reading are the interesting times, the ‘action and passion.'” Tom Atwell, Portland Press Herald