Diane Frank reads from her new novel, Mermaids and Musicians, wherein a virtuoso violinist falls madly in love with a mermaid, but can he deal with loving a woman who isn’t completely human? And can their love travel through time? The novel begins on Signal Mountain in Tennessee and migrates to the coast of Northern California. As a poet and musician, Diane reveals what it takes to become a musician, what music means to those who play it, and what music gives to the world.

“One of the best ways to learn about humans is to listen to their songs.” Every chapter in Mermaids and Musicians sings. With exquisite language, Diane Frank weaves joy and heartbreak, community and loneliness, surrealism and realism into a novel of hope. This delectable book uproots readers from the Appalachian Mountains and transports them to the Pacific coast, following the dreams of various characters, all of them artists and musicians, all believers that this wild, precious earth is worth saving. Frank delights in every color and sound, every magical moment we sometimes forget as we traverse from childhood into adults. This is a book I would devour first, then go back and luxuriate in the second, third, and subsequent readings. A must-read for anyone who longs to return to a world of compassion and beauty.
— KB Ballentine, author of Spirit of Wild

Joining Diane on the program is poet Janet Popesco Archibald.