Book Lindsay for an Event
Engage Your Group with Novelist Lindsay Marie Morris
Looking for a dynamic speaker for your book club, bookstore, library, or organization? Invite novelist and journalist Lindsay Marie Morris for engaging virtual or in-person appearances!
Lindsay loves connecting with readers and hearing how her characters resonate with them. As a special bonus, she provides a downloadable list of thoughtful book club discussion questions for The Last Letter from Sicily and Beneath the Sicilian Stars to enrich your group's literary conversations.
Beyond book talks and signings, Lindsay offers inspiring presentations on historical fiction and the art of storytelling, perfect for writers, history buffs, and book lovers alike. See details of her latest talks below.
Family to Fiction: Unearthing Historical Narratives
In this engaging and interactive lecture, historical novelist Lindsay Marie Morris invites participants to explore how personal history can inspire compelling historical fiction. Drawing from her experience writing about Italians during World War II in the United States and Sicily, Lindsay shows how family anecdotes, cultural traditions, and geopolitical events intersect to create rich, authentic narratives. Whether you're writing a novel, memoir, or short story, this session offers practical tools and creative inspiration to bring personal history to life on the page.
Participants will learn practical research techniques—such as conducting family interviews, exploring archives, and mining public records—while discovering how to weave individual stories into broader historical contexts. Using her debut novel, The Last Letter from Sicily, inspired by her own grandparents' wartime experiences, Lindsay demonstrates how personal stories can illuminate universal themes of resilience, identity, and transformation.
Ideal for aspiring writers, family historians, genealogists, and lovers of historical fiction, this lecture offers tools to uncover and reimagine the past. As part of the interactive experience, attendees will begin drafting outlines for their own historical fiction projects, applying key concepts to their personal stories and receiving feedback to help bring them to life.
Key Topics:
- Researching your family history: Tips for interviews, archives, and records
- Building connections between personal stories and historical events
- Finding universal themes in individual experiences
- Balancing historical accuracy with creative storytelling.
This educational presentation is ideal for writers, family historians, and anyone interested in exploring the intersection of personal and historical narratives.
Contact Lindsay for details!
Forgotten Voices: Italian Americans Uprooted in Wartime California
Join a compelling program based on Beneath the Sicilian Stars by Lindsay Marie Morris, a novel inspired by the little-known World War II-era evacuations of Bay Area Italian American families.
This presentation explores the overlooked impact of Executive Order 9066. Though best known for authorizing the internment of Japanese Americans, it also led to the forced relocation of Italian U.S. residents from military zones.
You'll learn how the town of Pittsburg, California—home to many Sicilian immigrants—was upended, with 22% of its population displaced. A local newspaper published evacuees' faces like mugshots, and fishermen were banned from their livelihoods. One of the novel's protagonists, Vincenzo Aiello, reflects this reality: arrested the night after Pearl Harbor, he is swept into a network of internment camps across the U.S.
Families were forced to relocate to towns like Concord, navigating housing, prejudice, and loss. Despite these hardships, their resilience shines through.
Drawing on local oral histories and real-life events, this talk offers an essential glimpse into a previously overlooked chapter of American history. Attendees are invited to reflect, learn, and share their own family connections to this powerful legacy.
Contact Lindsay for details!