HIGH NOON: ST. LOUIS AUTHOR MICHELLE COLLINS ANDERSON READS FROM HER DEBUT NOVEL THE FLOWER SISTERS

Michelle Collins Anderson reads from and discusses the origins of her new novel The Flower Sisters, which is based on the Bond Dance Hall explosion in her hometown of West Plains, Missouri in 1928. The tragedy took 39 lives and injured 22 others in this small town of only 3,000. The reason for the blast was never determined. Michelle Collins Anderson was born in St. Louis and grew up on a farm outside of West Plains, deep in the Missouri Ozarks — a place and way of life that have shaped her writing. She graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Journalism degree and spent the next fifteen years as a copywriter in advertising and public relations in Palo Alto, Denver, and Houston before pursuing a freelance career and teaching at the University of Missouri and Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. She received her MFA in Fiction from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina in 2013. Her stories have appeared in Nimrod International Journal, Midwestern Gothic, Literary Mama, bosque, Literal Latté, Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozarks Studies and more. Michelle and her husband, Clay, have three adult children and live in a 1907 brick row house in Tower Grove East with two cats and a border collie. The Flower Sisters is her first novel. Michelle Collins Anderson was born in St. Louis and grew up on a farm outside of West Plains, deep in the Missouri Ozarks — a place and way of life that have shaped her writing. She graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Journalism degree and spent the next fifteen years as a copywriter in advertising and public relations in Palo Alto, Denver, and Houston before pursuing a freelance career and teaching at the University of Missouri and Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. She received her MFA in Fiction from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina in 2013. Her stories have appeared in Nimrod International Journal, Midwestern Gothic, Literary Mama, bosque, Literal Latté, Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozarks Studies and more. Michelle and her husband, Clay, have three adult children and live in a 1907 brick row house in Tower Grove East with two cats and a border collie. The Flower Sisters is her first novel. Kranzberg Arts Foundation High Noon offers free cultural and artistic programming, during your lunch hour! The High Noon series features St. Louis thought leaders from across the arts, cultural, and educational spectrum. Spend a lunch hour enjoying presentations and performances in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere – take a break, and feel free to bring your lunch! High Noons in the Listening Room at High Low (3301 Washington Avenue) take place every Thursday from 12 to 1pm.