BLUE ORCHARD
JACKSON TAYLOR

When Verna Krone, a white nurse under the employ of a black doctor, is arrested for performing "illegal surgeries," a firestorm of newspaper scandals spreads across 1954 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  As the trial rages, Verna reflects on her life in order to understand how she finds herself facing a prison sentence along with a dignified man who was once the pillar of the African-American community-and what, if anything, they might have done wrong.
 
Based on the life of the author's own grandmother, THE BLUE ORCHARD a debut novel by Jackson Taylor, is a beautifully drawn portrait of a woman with an indomitable spirit who is willing to do anything to build a better life for herself and eventually for her son. The child of dirt-poor Irish immigrants living in the hills outside of town, young Verna is taught to submit to her lot, and to stay small. On the eve of the Great Depression, her mother orders her out of school so that she can support her family by working as a maid.  Verna's first employer takes inappropriate liberties, leading to a shameful pregnancy and a lasting mistrust of the men.  Yet, through sheer force of will and a few chance encounters, she continues to educate herself, becomes a nurse, and begins to defy the forces aligned against her.
 
Taylor interviewed nearly 300 people tied to the events he so artfully fictionalizes.  Exploring issues of race, class, and gender, THE BLUE ORCHARD re-creates the experiences of the poor, agrarian, and uneducated people from the 1920s to 1950s.  It wrestles with power-the power of men, wealth, and religion to manipulate people, no matter how bright they may be.  And, through Verna Krone, it offers hope-hope that a determined woman can have as big a life as she likes, and have the strength to keep it when it becomes threatened.
 
"In what could be a modern classic, poet and fiction writer Taylor takes an unblinking look at abortion in America many decades before Roe v. Wade . . .  In this powerful, vivid debut novel, Taylor parses issues of race, power, and religion in unflinching terms while believably inhabiting the mind of a conflicted woman."
~Publishers Weekly Starred Review
 
 
"The Blue Orchard is a classic, a great American novel that will astonish and quicken dead and bored parts of our hearts."
~Sapphire, author of Push
 
 
Jackson Taylor is the Associate Director of The New School's Graduate Writing Program.  He is also the Director of The Prison Writing Program at PEN American Center.  He has worked at The New York Times and published short fiction and poetry.  Taylor lives in Manhattan.
 
The Half King is thrilled to host this fine novelist of extraordinary talents.