Sena Jeter Naslund (Keynote Speaker) is Writer in Residence at the University of Louisville, Program Director of the Spalding University brief-residency MFA in Writing, and current
Kentucky Poet Laureate. Recipient of the Harper Lee Award and the Southeastern Library Association Fiction Award, she is cofounder of The Louisville Review and the Fleur-de-Lis Press. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Critically acclaimed and nationally bestselling author Naslund is unparalleled in her ability to write fiction that gives life to real slices of history and fills gaps in the landscape of literature. In Ahab’s Wife, she re-imagined the Moby-Dick Captain’s better half and used her as a magic looking glass into a bygone era, capturing the hearts and minds of booksellers, readers and book
clubs all over the country. Drawing on her own experiences growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, Naslund’s Four Spirits transported readers to the American South and recreated the remarkable men and women of the Civil Rights movement. Her most recent novel, Abundance, marks the pinnacle of Naslund’s talents, as she paints an unforgettable portrait of a historical character more misunderstood and more fascinating than we ever could have imagined.

Though we may know her fateful ending, Marie Antoinette’s life story is stunning and surprising. At the tender age of fourteen, she is sent from her native Austria to France. Far from her family, literally stripped naked, and determined to adopt her new country as her home, Maria Antonia, the daughter of the Empress of Austria, is to marry the heir to the French throne. As she faces marriage, monarchy, and womanhood, she blossoms into one of the most powerful characters in modern literature—a historical figure vindicated and honored for her courage and charm through this moving piece of fiction.

This elegant novel is imaginative fiction: lyrical, lush, intricately plotted but also deeply rooted in fact. Naslund conducted extensive research in eighteenth-century memoirs and letters as well as in recent biographies to portray accurately the events in Marie Antoinette’s life and to recreate authentic dialogue. Naslund notes, “I was charmed many times by the graciousness with which
Marie Antoinette put others at ease. For example, when she was about to become queen of France, she actually said to the courtiers, ‘The Queen does not remember the quarrels of theDauphine.’” The lines Marie Antoinette speaks at the guillotine as the novel hurtles towards its inevitable conclusion are taken directly from the historical record.

Interest in Marie Antoinette has never been stronger with Sofia Coppola's new film, based on the life of Marie Antoinette. As the astonishing queen gets her due, so will this extraordinary author.
Sena Jeter Naslund’s Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette is an exquisite story book clubs will debate, historians will recommend, and readers everywhere will remember.