In collaboration with the History Book Festival, join us for a talk with E. J. Levy, author of The Cape Doctor, an offering of the 2021 virtual History Book Festival.

This novel is based on the true story of James Miranda Barry, who began life as a penniless Irish girl but ended up successfully practicing medicine as a man in 19th-century Cape Town, South Africa. Barry changed from daughter to son in order to enter medical school and provide for family but soon embraced the freedom of living life as a man. After befriending the aristocratic Cape Governor, he rose to the pinnacle of society, before the two were publicly accused of a homosexual affair that scandalized the colonies and nearly cost them their lives.

E. J. Levy’s work has been featured in The Best American Essays, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation and Paris Review. She is the author of a prize-winning story collection, Love, In Theory, and her anthology, Tasting Life Twice: Literary Lesbian Fiction by New American Writers, won the Lambda Literary Award. Levy teaches in the MFA Program at Colorado State University.  

We invite you to support the author by purchasing copy of their book from Browseabout Books. Call-in orders are accepted at (302) 226-2665 or you can stop by the store to purchase a copy. For store hours, please visit their website. Each copy purchased comes with a signed bookplate.

NOTE: this meeting is being conducted through Zoom. You MUST REGISTER to receive instructions for joining the meeting.

If you have need assistance with registration or getting your Zoom invitation, please email the History Book Festival.

Basic written instructions for using Zoom may be found here and a brief video tutorial may be found here. Closed captioning is available for this session. Information on enabling closed captioning in Zoom may be found here.