Authors to kick off reading series Sept. 9

Authors Nicole Baart and Elaine Cooper will kick off Northwestern College’s 2011–12 Deep Song Reading Series Friday, Sept. 9, with a session on writing historical/romance fiction for the Christian market. The event, which begins at 7 p.m. in Te Paske Gallery of the Korver Visual Arts Center, is free and open to the public.

Baart is the critically acclaimed author of After the Leaves Fall, Summer Snow (a 2009 Christy Award finalist), The Moment Between and Beneath the Night Tree. She writes literary, hope-filled fiction about beauty in brokenness. A Sioux Center resident, she is passionate about global issues and is a founding member of One Body One Hope, a nonprofit organization that works alongside an orphanage in Monrovia, Liberia.

Cooper’s debut novel, The Road to Deer Run, was a finalist in the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, received an honorable mention in the 2011 Los Angeles Book Festival, and was a Clash of the Titles champion for Most Romantic Moment. The sequel, The Promise of Deer Run,” has just been released. A registered nurse, Elaine has been a magazine freelance writer for many years and is a regular contributor to several blogs for writers.