Told in dual timelines, Dian Greenwood’s Forever Blackbirds (Travelers Moon Press) traverses protagonist Marta Gottlieb’s escape from 1914 Russia to her tribulations in rural North Dakota during WWII. Loosely structured on the author’s maternal grandmother’s life, the story opens with Marta, in her mid-forties, beginning to question her evangelical faith inside the turbulence of mid-century America. The second timeline allows the reader to witness young Marta, the only daughter of a wealthy German farmer living near Odessa, Russia, escape the Bolshevik Revolution.

The brief clips highlight the family’s sometimes dangerous, sometimes disappointing quest for America, a country of dreams and hearsay, but a country that will save them from death or the isolation of Siberia. The mature Marta, like so many women waiting out WWII, forges her way through the loss of a son, estrangement from her community, the changing roles of women, and the disquieting realities of a loveless marriage, discovering an indomitable spirit she didn’t know she possesses.

Greenwood will be joined in conversation by Gigi Little, staff designer for Forest Avenue Press and editor of City of Weird; and Laura Stanfill, publisher of Forest Avenue Press and author of Singing Lessons for the Stylish Canary.