Deborah Harkness—The All Souls Trilogy: A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night The Provost’s Writers Series

Visions and Voices

Book signing and reception to follow.

Deborah Harkness is a professor of European history and the history of science at USC. She will read from the first two titles in her All Souls Trilogy, a rich and compelling tapestry of alchemy, magic and history.

Deborah Harkness is a professor of European history and the history of science at USC. Her books include two works of nonfiction: John Dee’s Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature and The Jewel House:… Show more Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution. She began writing fiction in 2008 and in 2011 published A Discovery of Witches, which debuted at number two on the New York Times Best Sellers list. This was the first title in her All Souls Trilogy, a rich and compelling tapestry of alchemy, magic and history. Join us as Harkness reads from A Discovery of Witches and the second title in the trilogy, Shadow of Night.

For the past 28 years, Harkness has been a student and scholar of history, and has researched the history of magic and science in Europe, especially from 1500 to 1700. She has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the National Humanities Center. In 2006, she entered the world of blogging and Twitter, creating, among other things, a wine blog, Good Wine Under $20. Her career in fiction began when she wondered, “If there really are vampires, what do they do for a living?” A Discovery of Witches is the unexpected answer to that question. The book was a best seller in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. A Discovery of Witches is the first title in Harkness’s All Souls Trilogy, which continues with Shadow of Night.

The Provost’s Writers Series highlights the extraordinary talents of USC authors. The series provides opportunities for students and the community to engage with USC authors, learn about the incredible diversity of their work and celebrate the written word.

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