Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts - Virtual Book Launch

Join us for the launch of the fascinating new biography, Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts, coming from Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press on January 1, 2026.

Featured writer for the Washington Post at twenty. Author of a hit novel at twenty-one. Coaxed Greta Garbo out of seclusion for a Hollywood party. Ghostwrote the memoirs of New York’s most famous madam, Polly Adler. It’s no wonder Virginia Faulkner was spoken of as the next Dorothy Parker.

But Faulkner also struggled with alcoholism and depression, lost respect for her own work as a writer, and at age forty-two returned to her hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, unsure what her next move would be. Asked to assemble an anthology to celebrate Nebraska, she joined the University of Nebraska Press and soon found herself fascinated by the challenges of work as an editor. The press, she realized, offered her the opportunity to champion the work of the writer she respected above all others: Willa Cather. And after finding an ideal colleague and life partner in Bernice Slote, Faulkner launched a series of books that helped establish Cather as one of America’s greatest writers.

In Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts, Brad Bigelow tells Faulkner’s story—one that’s lively, irreverent, and rich in its commitment to literature of lasting importance. Though her own books have since been forgotten, Faulkner left a legacy of achievement and success in American literature against social and personal odds, and her voice and spirit shine forth in the pages of this book.

Join author Brad Bigelow, Pulitzer Prize winner Debby Applegate, and writer Will Fellows to learn about the remarkable yet little-known Virginia Faulkner. Virginia ghost-wrote the memoirs of Polly Adler, the subject of Debby Applegate's 2021 biography Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age, and worked closely with Mildred Bennett, the subject of Will Fellow's biography-in-progress.