UMSL alum and STL Writers Workshop founder Bogard releases debut novel
On November 7, 2015 | 0 Comments

by Lauren Wiser

the middle step

Photo Credit Denise Bogard

Left Bank Books presents author Denise Bogard, who will sign and discuss her debut novel, The Middle Step (High Hills Press, September 2015), on Wednesday, November 18, 7pm, at Left Bank Books (399 N. Euclid).

After a series of miscarriages and the failure of her marriage, Lisa Harris, a white, suburban woman, finds herself in deep despair in The Middle Step. Eager to embrace parenthood in any way possible, she accepts a job as foster mother in an impoverished area of North St. Louis to four teenage girls who have been pulled from their homes. Lisa is immediately overwhelmed by the challenges of parenting troubled girls with a vastly different background, culture, religion and race. Yet, doggedly, she stays committed to the job, where she learns that healing herself and others requires more than good intentions.

Of The Middle Step, John Dalton, author of The Inverted Forest, says, “We all know that there are racial and economic lines that divide our community. Here’s a novel full of vivid characters—fearful, damaged, foolish, and courageous characters—who are struggling to cross that divide.” Jacquelyn Mitchard, bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean, claims The Middle Step is “…moving, thoughtful, authentic…just GOOD.”

Denise Pattiz Bogard has been writing professionally for more than 30 years and has had her award-winning fiction and non-fiction published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, among others. Denise earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and her BS in journalism and history from Indiana University. She is the founder of St. Louis Writers Workshop and coordinated the writing program at Lift For Life Academy charter middle and high school. Previously, Denise worked as a reporter and an adjunct professor at Webster University.