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WHISPERS AT THE GARDEN GATE™ Seasonal Experience
A literary experience and video library of beloved authors, secret gardens, and the whispered stories left behind.
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Voices of New England
To conclude our celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, this fall we explore the profound evolution of the American narrative, bridging the revolutionary and Transcendentalist roots of Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne with the intellectual genius of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the Saturday Club breakthroughs, all paving the way for the complex Gilded Age landscapes of Edith Wharton and Emily Dickinson.
Join us as we cozy up with a blanket and a cup tea, and travel back in time listening for the whispered stories left behind.
Timeless Tales of Home & Heart…
The literary Heart of New England: The Stories beneath the Splendor
This season we close our celebration of America’s 250th anniversary with the literary portrait of a young nation through the writers who witnessed, questioned, and shaped its cultural identity. This theme is particularly close to my heart, as this year I am also celebrating 25 years in the United States. It was the dreams built and nurtured by the stories we’ll discuss that made me not only strive to build a better life for myself and my family, but also find the strength needed to leave all I knew behind, pack my duffle bag sawn by my mother, and fly across the globe, just a teenager out of high school, to pursue higher education.
Books were my companions during those days away from home. The stories of a nation that was built not on fear, but “on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand”, as president Truman once said, and the strong, remarkable women, who lived between the pages of my favorite American classics, inspired and empowered me as I began building life of my own. Today I am a writer, poet, literary associate, a finance manager, and a mom who also celebrated her firstborn graduating from high school and starting college himself this year.
So this season we turn to New England and the the voices that continue to resonate with readers today. Inspired by the lives and works of Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, and Edith Wharton, this series of literary discussions will explore their lives, works, and the history that shaped them.
The Literary Heart of New England: The Stories Beneath the Splendor
This Season’s Special Guests…
Whispers at the Garden Gate™ Welcomes Heather Webb
Beneath the Glitter: Secrets, Society, and the Hope we Carry
Heather Webb is the USA Today and international bestselling author of eleven historical novels, including her latest The Hope Keeper and her other recently published Queens of London, The Next Ship Home, and Christmas with the Queen. In 2015, Rodin’s Lover was a Goodread’s Top Pick, and in 2018, Last Christmas in Paris won the Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award. Meet Me in Monaco, was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Goldsboro RNA award in the UK, as well as the 2019 Digital Book World’s Fiction prize. Three Words for Goodbye was a Prima Magazine’s 2022 Book of the Year. To date, Heather’s books have been translated to twenty languages. She lives in New England with her family and two mischievous cats.
Books by Our Featured Guests & Classic Authors
Find this season’s featured titles in our Bookshop
Featured Guests at Whispers at the Garden Gate!
To watch all previous episodes check out our video library or listen to the interview on your favorite podcast provider.
Mike Berenstain – Bestselling author and illustrator of the Berenstain Bear Series. 
Lady Fiona Carnarvon, the 8th Countess of Carnarvon, bestselling author, historian, and the chatelaine of the historic Highclere Castle in Berkshire, England, the Real Downton Abbey. 
Natalie Jenner is the internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society, Bloomsbury Girls, Every Time We Say Goodbye and Austen at Sea, 
SARAH McCOY is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of the novels Whatever Happened to Lori Lovely?, Mustique Island, Marilla of Green Gables, The Mapmaker’s Children, and The Baker’s Daughter 
Genevieve Graham is the USA TODAY and #1 bestselling author of The Forgotten Home Child, and has been nicknamed “The Queen of Canadian historical fiction’. 
Pamela Smith Hill is a New York Times best-selling editor, author, educator, and Laura Ingalls Wilder Biographer 
Francine Matthews/ Stephanie Barron is the author of over 30 novels including the critically acclaimed bestselling Jane Austen Mystery series 
Virginia Kantra is the New York Times bestselling author of over thirty novels about strong women, messy families, and the search for a place to call home. 
Vicki Johnston – Laura Ingalls Wilder Home & Museum Supervisor