Free public forum welcomes author, teacher and scholar Dean de la Motte for a discussion about his first novel, Oblivion: The Lost Diaries of Branwell Brontë with Lenny Mendonca, Former Chief Economic and Business Advisor at State of California, and founder of The Half Moon Bay Brewing Company

Where: Mavericks House (107 Broadway, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019)

Admission and snacks are complimentary. Beer, wine, and other beverges will be available for sale at the event.

Oblivion: The Lost Diaries of Branwell Brontë is both a compelling reconstruction of the life of the famous literary sisters’ often-misunderstood brother and a dramatic, sweeping portrayal of a century in rapid transition to modernity. It is a meticulous, loving tribute to the language, structure and themes of the Brontës’ own works, as de la Motte at times weaves the very words of their correspondence, novels and poems seamlessly into his lively narrative. Books will be available for online purchase from Ink Spell Books. You are welcome to bring your book to the event for signing. *Please order by December 5th to ensure delivery by December 21st.

A native of California’s San Joaquin Valley, Dean de la Motte has degrees in comparative literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; he studied French and German at the Université de Poitiers (France) and the Deutsche Schule of Middlebury College (Vermont), respectively. The co-editor of Making the News: Modernity and the Mass Press in Nineteenth-Century France (with Jeannene Przyblyski) and Approaches to Teaching Stendhal’s The Red and the Black (with Stirling Haig), he has published a wide range of articles on nineteenth-century French literature and culture and numerous essays on the teaching of literature.

From 2000 to 2014 he worked as a chief academic officer; a ‘recovering administrator’, he now teaches courses in French and English, including an annual seminar entitled Scribblemania: The Brontës and the Passion of Writing. In the fall of 2021, he was a visiting scholar in Lyon, France. The father of two grown children, de la Motte lives and works in Newport, Rhode Island, and spends most summers in France. His first novel, Oblivion: The Lost Diaries of Branwell Brontë, was published by Valley Press in July 2022.