**This program has been POSTPONED. We apologize for the inconvenience. We will update the calendar when the program is rescheduled.

Join us for a conversation with Author Piper Huguley about her historical fiction debut, By Her Own Design: A Novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register.

Registration is required.

About the book:

Raised in Jim Crow Alabama, Ann Lowe was taught the art of sewing from her mother and her grandmother, talented seamstresses in their own right. Ann elopes at twelve with an older man who turns out to be an abusive alcoholic. Her hopes of becoming a celebrated designer are shattered until a wealthy Tampa socialite witnesses Ann's talent and offers her the opportunity to create clothing for Florida's society elite. With her young son, Ann escapes her previous life to embark on a dream of a lifetime.

By Her Own Design is a biographical novel and is based on "the incredible, untold story of how Ann Lowe, a Black woman and granddaughter of slaves, rose above personal struggles and racial prejudice to design and create one of America's most famous wedding dresses of all time for Jackie Kennedy."

About the author:

Piper G. Huguley’s biographical historical fiction, By Her Own Design: a novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register (William Morrow Publishing) tells the inspiring story of the Black fashion designer of Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress. By Her Own Design was a Booklist top 100 Editor’s Choice selection for 2022, was named one of the top 100 books of 2022 in Canada by the Globe and Mail newspaper and was selected as the historical fiction winner for 2022 by the American Library Association’s Reading Council.

Her next historical fiction book, American Daughters ( April 2024), is the story of the decades-long interracial friendship between Alice Roosevelt and Portia Washington, the rebel teenage daughters of President Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington, respectively. She is a literature professor at Clark-Atlanta University and blogs about the history behind her novels at http://piperhuguley.com . She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and son.  This program is made possible by the generous donors to the Cary Library Foundation.

Copies of the book are available for purchase through Book Ends in Winchester or available to borrow through the Minuteman Library Network.

In partnership with the Association of Black Citizens of Lexington (ABCL).

This program is made possible by the generous donors to the Cary Library Foundation.