SNHU's Jacquelyn Mitchard Writes Powerful New Novel

Jacquelyn Mitchard, a faculty member at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester and best selling novelist, writes what some are referring to as her most effective novel yet.

Jacquelyn Mitchard is back with a fascinating story that only she can tell. The characters are the sort that stay with you long after the last page is turned, said Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, a book that was recently made into a Hollywood movie.

Second Nature was released by Random House in September and is receiving rave reviews, including a starred review from Booklist, which stated, Make no immediate plans. This book will take over your life.

In a recent interview with Psychology Today, Mitchard, who teaches in SNHU's MFA program in fiction and nonfiction, said, This was the book I was meant to write since I was a tiny kid, and a fire at Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church on the west side of Chicago, where I grew up, killed 92 children and three teaching nuns. No one in Chicago was untouched by that fire. It blew that neighborhood up. People didn't move to the suburbs. They moved to Florida, to Canada. I combined that with the novelist's eternal question to find out what happens after the headlines, after the door is closed, and the people go back to their lives forever changed.

We are in the hands of a gifted writer and a gifted teacher, said Diane Les Becquets, director of SNHU's MFA program, where Mitchard was awarded the program's first faculty fellowship. Les Becquets said when Mitchard read from her novel prior to its release, The power of her word and of her story was nothing short of riveting and altering.

Mitchard is not only teaching but also earning her MFA degree from SNHU. Her MFA thesis is a two-book series of dystopian teen mysteries. And when I say dystopian, these books are out there, the most daring thing I've ever written, said Mitchard. After writing 20 books, I never imagined there was much I could learn about pace and plotting. Then I met Mitchell Wieland, my mentor in SNHU's program, and everything changed. I am learning more than I ever learned from any editor. I thought I would learn only to teach. I'm learning to write.