Author Ellen Prentiss Campbell grew up in Rockville. She returns to the Rockville Memorial Library to talk about her most recent novel Frieda’s Song, set nearby at Frieda Fromm-Reichmann’s Cottage.

Please note: Until further notice, masks and social distancing are required for all participants attending MCPL indoor programs. Seating is limited for this program.  Registration is required.

Ellen will talk about how places, people, history, and experience inspire her, and how imagination transforms these influences into fiction.

Ellen Prentiss Campbell’s fiction explores the way history and chance, work and the people we love, shape lives. Her debut novel The Bowl with Gold Seams received the National Indie Excellence Award for Historical Fiction. Campbell’s new novel Frieda’s Song (Apprentice House Press, May 2021) is inspired by renowned psychiatrist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann who fled Nazi Germany in 1935 and spent the rest of her life working at the Chestnut Lodge Sanatorium in Rockville, Maryland. Campbell’s collection of stories Contents Under Pressure was nominated for the National Book Award. Her second collection Known By Heart appeared in 2020. Her short fiction has been recognized by The Pushcart Press. Campbell is a reviewer and columnist for The Washington Independent Review of Books and a contributing editor at The Fiction Writers Review. Campbell practiced psychotherapy for many years in Rockville. She grew up in Rockville, and raised her own family walking distance from the Library. Her very first library card was from Montgomery County.

Sponsored by Friends of the Library, Rockville Memorial Chapter.

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Accommodation Requests

Please place your request for English-language captioning or sign language interpretation at least five days before the library-sponsored program you plan to attend. Contact the Assistant Facilities and Accessibility Program Manager at 240-777-0002 with all other accommodation requests.