Because I Could Not Stop for Death: An Emily Dickinson Event (ONLINE)

Honor Women’s History Month with a fun and engaging celebration of Emily Dickinson! Joining us to discuss Dickinson in a new, mysterious way is Agatha Award-winning mystery novelist Amanda Flower. In her latest Edgar, Mary Higgins Clark, and Agatha Award-nominated book Because I Could Not Stop for Death, the first in an all-new series, Emily Dickinson and her housemaid, Willa Noble, realize there is nothing poetic about murder. Flower is joined in conversation by author and scholar Peter Coviello.

Hear how Flower found inspiration from Dickinson’s life and work, plus get insights into the mystery writing genre from a bestselling author of more than 35 mystery novels.

This event is the live online broadcast of an in-person event. When you register for this event you will get a link to view the broadcast via Zoom. If you would like to attend the event in-person at the American Writers Museum, register here.

More about Because I Could Not Stop for Death:

January 1855. Willa Noble knew it was bad luck when it was pouring rain on the day of her ever-important job interview at the Dickinson home in Amherst, Massachusetts. When she arrived late, disheveled with her skirts sodden and filthy, she’d lost all hope of being hired for the position. As the housekeeper politely told her they’d be in touch, Willa started toward the door of the stately home only to be called back by the soft but strong voice of Emily Dickinson. What begins as tenuous employment turns to friendship as the reclusive poet takes Willa under her wing.

Tragedy soon strikes and Willa’s beloved brother, Henry, is killed in a tragic accident at the town stables. With no other family and nowhere else to turn, Willa tells Emily about her brother’s death and why she believes it was no accident. Willa is convinced it was murder. Henry had been very secretive of late, only hinting to Willa that he’d found a way to earn money to take care of them both. Viewing it first as a puzzle to piece together, Emily offers to help, only to realize that she and Willa are caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse that reveals corruption in Amherst that is generations deep. Some very high-powered people will stop at nothing to keep their profitable secrets even if that means forever silencing Willa and her new mistress…

Praise for Because I Could Not Stop for Death:

“[Flower] brings beloved American poet Emily Dickinson to life in a nuanced portrayal, giving us glimpses of the brilliant literary mind at work, turning over ideas and phrases, even as she teams up with an able and sympathetic maid to solve a murder. Well-researched, richly textured, and skillfully plotted, readers will fall for Flower’s lyrical mystery—word, verse, and stanza.”
—Anna Lee Huber, USA Today bestselling author of A Perilous Perspective

“Amanda Flower captures the culture of mid-19th century American society in the absorbing and well-written Because I Could Not Stop For Death. Flower adds her plotting and pacing skill to make this book hard to put down.”
—Charles Todd, New York Times bestselling author of A Game of Fear

“A fascinating glimpse into the life of beloved poet Emily Dickinson as she and her maid solve a murder together. You will be delighted by this clever premise set in a little-explored historical time period.”
—Victoria Thompson, USA Today bestselling author of Murder on Madison Square

AMANDA FLOWER is a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of over thirty-five mystery novels. Her novels have received starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Romantic Times, and she had been featured in USA Today, First for Women, and Woman’s World. She currently writes for Penguin-Random House (Berkley), Kensington, and Sourcebooks. In addition to being a writer, she was a librarian for fifteen years. Today, Flower and her husband own a farm and recording studio, and they live in Northeast Ohio with their six adorable cats, Editors Cheeps and Tummy and Studio Cats Cheddar, Michelangelo, Dr. Z, and Fender.

PETER COVIELLO is a writer of criticism, scholarship, and literary nonfiction. He has written about stepparenthood, Mormon polygamy, queer children, pop heartbreak, Whitman and Dickinson, and the American history of sexuality. His books include Tomorrow’s Parties, a finalist for a 2013 Lambda Award in LGBT Studies; Long Players, a memoir selected as one of ARTFORUM’s Ten Best Books of 2018; and Is There God After Prince?: Dispatches from an Age of Last Things, which appears in the fall of 2023 from the University of Chicago Press. He taught for many years at Bowdoin College and since 2014 has been at the University of Illinois-Chicago, where he is Professor and Head of English.