Georgia, written by Dawn Tripp

Dawn Tripp, author of the national bestseller Georgia, will read and sign copies of her new book at Malaprop’s Bookstore on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at 7 p.m.

Georgia is a boldly imagined novel based on the life and art of Georgia O’Keeffe and her passionate relationship with photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

Attending a retrospective of Georgia O’Keeffe’s abstract paintings at the Whitney Museum, Dawn Tripp realized that although she had seen many of O’Keeffe’s paintings before, there was a startling difference between the revolutionary charcoals and abstract works that O’Keeffe created as a young artist, and the southwest landscapes, flowers, and representational paintings she is now most famous for.

Curious about this shift in style, Tripp began to research the life of O’Keeffe, to discover more about this woman, the evolution of her art, and what might have been the cause of her transformation. Georgia, Tripp’s dazzling new breakout novel, brings O’Keeffe vividly to life in a riveting story about her years with Alfred Stieglitz in New York and the impact of their relationship on her life, her vision, and her art — the story of how Georgia the girl became Georgia O’Keeffe, master painter and American icon.

In 1916, Georgia O’Keeffe is a young, unknown art teacher when she travels to New York to meet Stieglitz, the famed photographer and art dealer, who has discovered O’Keeffe’s work and exhibits it in his gallery. Their connection is instantaneous.

O’Keeffe is quickly drawn into Stieglitz’s sophisticated world, becoming his mistress, protégée, and muse, as their attraction deepens into an intense and tempestuous relationship and his photographs of her, both clothed and nude, create a sensation. Yet as her own creative force develops, Georgia begins to push back against what critics and others are saying about her and her art. And soon she must make difficult choices in order to live a life that she believes in.

Dawn Tripp is the author of three previous novels, Moon Tide, The Season of Open Water, and Game of Secrets, a Boston Globe bestseller. Her essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, The Believer, The Rumpus, Psychology Today, and NPR. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons.