Submitted by: Jonathan Haupt
A rising senior at Colleton Preparatory Academy, Jeyda Bolukbasi is the author of two novels—Tuah (2019) and the recently published fantasy adventure The Phoenix (2022). Bolukbasi is also a talented visual artist, the first junior volunteer staff member at the Center for Birds of Prey in Awendaw, and a member of the Carolina Bird Club. She has previously been featured on the ETV author interview series By the River and as a guest author of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort.
On Tuesday, August 9, at 6:00 p.m., the Colleton County Memorial Library (600 Hampton St., Walterboro) will host Bolukbasi for a free public program, presented in conversation with Friends of South Carolina Libraries student intern Millie Bennett and Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt. Books will be available for sale and signing. This special event will also be live-streamed on the Friends of South Carolina Libraries’ Facebook page.
ABOUT THE PHOENIX
The Phoenix, the second novel from Jeyda Bolukbasi is a fantastical coming of age story celebrating the power of family and friendships. On the night that she was to earn her Phoenix fire, a young phoenix named Amber discovers that her parents have been killed. Distraught and orphaned, she is left alone to survive the harsh and dangerous Northern winter in her mystical home, the Valley. Once a source of wonder and enchantment for her, the river and mountains she had known all her life were now only a foreign, unforgiving wilderness. When a midland phoenix leads her to the Southern lands to defend against a rival group known as the Radicals, Amber begins to unfold the secrets of the war-stricken father she never really knew, until a harrowing betrayal leaves her alone in the mountains again. Can she find the strength to face the Northern mountains and the secrets that resided in them in one last fight of fire against fire and blood against water?
