Jonna Higgins-Freese will read from her debut novel Fearless: A Novel of Frances Perkins and Social Security. “Richly detailed, deeply satisfying, a novel that speaks to the heart of its time, and ours.” – Susan Wittig Albert, author of Loving Eleanor.

Jonna Higgins-Freese’s writing has appeared in national and local publications including The Wapsipinicon Almanac and Obsolete!. She won The Examined Life’s 2013 poetry contest by accident, when she tried to diversify her portfolio of rejections while seeking an agent for a memoir. Jonna lives with her family in Iowa City, where everyone is writing a novel. Her second book, Harriet Smith in Charge: A Novel of Cahokia, is forthcoming from Bell House Press.