Laura Harrington Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Plays

Laura Harrington is an American published author.

She resides in Gloucester, Massachusetts in a home painted by Edward Hopper. Laura says that she loves this town and describes it as a place that has welcomed artists for nearly 200 years. T.S. Eliot had a home there, and Nell Blaine went there to paint every summer, along with many other New York artists. Hopper had early success with paintings of Gloucester architecture and ee cummings was known for visiting the area.

Laura grew up in a farmhouse on six acres in a suburb of Rochester, New York. She describes the land as the ‘kingdom of her childhood’. The author recounts that they had fields, a stream, a stand of American elms, a vegetable garden, asparagus and strawberry beds, the remains of an apple orchard, and two grape arbors. They would spend summer afternoons at the picnic table under an elm tree’s shade, and she recalls melting paraffin and sterilizing canning jars as she assisted her father with making grape jelly, tomato sauce and more as her family raised four children on modest means.

The author graduated from high school in 1971 and described the world that she entered to as one in turmoil. She wanted to go on adventures as a potential writer and worked and traveled in Europe for a year. She says that she had no plans on going to college but then she sold used office furniture, worked in childcare, washed dishes in restaurants, temped in offices, and worked on a factory floor pressing plastic checkbook covers. This ended up waking her up to the privilege that getting an education is.

Laura was an English major who minored in art history and studied singing. Once college was done she got married and moved to New York with her husband where he restored Central Park and she attended grad school with the idea of writing a novel. She took a play writing class with Arthur Kopit in her first semester and the class changed her life. Laura says that she found an art form built from language, image, and music, the ‘three loves’ of her life.

Over the course of the next 25 years, Laura wrote things for the theater. She wrote operas, plays, musicals, screenplays, teleplays, radio plays, librettos and lyrics. She was in love with the theater and the intoxicating never-ending challenges. She had tons of opportunities with collaborators like directors, composers, designers, performers and more. Her work was put on not only in the U.S. but in Canada and Europe as well.

In 2008, Laura was given an award that changed her life. The Kleban Award was a nice affirmation of her career in theater that also came with a cash stipend that afforded her two years to write. When she received the award, the author recounts that she thought she wanted to do something that she had never done before, which is to reconnect to the creative process and be a beginner once more.

The result of that experiment would become her debut fictional novel, Alice Bliss. Her second novel A Catalog of Birds led her to deepen not only her thinking but her craft too. Clear Water is her third novel and it is still being written, as Harrington discovers once more the challenge and delight that comes with changing genres.

Alice Bliss is a 2011 novel by Laura Harrington. Harrington makes her debut on the literary scene with the release of this dramatic novel that will have you reading along to the end and maybe even reaching for some tissues along the way.

Main character Alice Bliss finds out that her father Matt is being deployed to Iraq. When she finds out this fact, she feels broken-hearted. Alice has always looked up to her father, idolizing him. She enjoys working alongside him in the garden, going with him on the odd roofing job, and playing baseball together. When he is shipped out, Alice has to discover a way to try and fill up all the emptiness that he left behind.

Matt is going to miss a lot of the everyday things that he got to experience while being home. He’s going to miss seeing his daughter grow up from being a tomboy into a teenager. Alice is going to learn to drive, will join the track team, will attend her first dance, and also fall in love. At the same time, she is going to try and be strong for her mother Angie while also taking care of her little sister Ellie.

Alice wears his blue shirt but the scent of Matt is starting to fade from it. They’re missing everyday events in each others lives, and no matter how many phone calls Alice gets from Matt, she feels that the calls are never long enough.

This is a novel about coming of age as well as love and its many different variations. The characters struggle in a way that is relatable but overall this is a personal and transforming story about the people who go to war and those that they leave behind as well as a young girl’s attempt to take on the future and adapt to it, no matter what may come about as a result.

A Catalog of Birds is the second novel to come out from Laura Harrington. If you’re interested in the story of a Vietnam veteran who has been wounded and is coming home and enjoy a combination war story and thriller, this might be your next read.

Billy Flynn has always had a desire to fly. He draws birds with his paints and pencils. He also is a patriot. In 1970 he cannot turn down the call to serve in Vietnam. A year goes by and he is the only one that makes it when his helicopter gets shot down.

Billy is wounded and goes home to his family in upstate New York. This includes Nell, his young sister who adores him. He finds out that while he has been gone, the woman he cares for has gone missing. He is dealing with wounds that make it tough to hold a pencil, while his hearing loss has made him separate from the world that he loves so much.

Nell is a smart student who is making her way to a science career and is determined to do everything that she can in order to save him. Can she do it and will Billy’s wounds heal? Read A Catalog of Birds by Laura Harrington to find out!