Megan Mayhew Bergman is obsessed with swamps. As a child in North Carolina, she was continually drawn to Great Dismal Swamp, a place that anchors the title story of her collection Birds of a Lesser Paradise. In this acclaimed debut, songbirds, parrots, whales and wolves populate prose that, according to the New York Times, “provides alluring glimpses into the strangeness, the ruthlessness of the animal kingdom.” The Vermont-based writer transfers this keen eye to an examination of the human race in the forthcoming Almost Famous Women. Fierce, independent and occasionally reckless females, such as Lord Byron’s illegitimate daughter and Oscar Wilde’s troubled niece, make for captivating characters.

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