Fort Washington native Carly Hillman, a Peabody Award-winning producer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, releases her debut novel on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
The book, "The Refuge," follows three generations of women in rural Montana, two of whom live on a fictional privately owned wildlife preserve called the Amarant. Published by Crooked Lane Books, the 304-page hardcover is priced at $27.95.
Hillman, a 2011 Germantown Academy graduate, spent a decade as a producer and writer for The Late Show before turning to fiction. PhillyVoice reported that the fictional Amarant preserve is based in part on the American Prairie, a real organization that buys private land, implements conservation work and opens the spaces to the public.
The idea for the main plot came to Hillman while she was hiking, she told PhillyVoice, though multiple years passed before she was ready to write it.
Her path from television to fiction started with the job itself. As a Late Show producer, Hillman researched the career arcs of guests who appeared on the program. She told PhillyVoice she called it "this decade-long masterclass in studying people who had achieved the thing they wanted to do."
That research, she said, led to a realization: the one consistent thing among successful people was believing in themselves enough to try.
After Germantown Academy, Hillman earned a degree in English from Harvard University, graduating with honors. She went on to work at NBC10 Philadelphia and Good Morning America before joining The Late Show. She now lives in Philadelphia.
Residents can meet Hillman at a launch event at Main Point Books in Wayne on Thursday, Sept. 10, at 6:30 p.m. Alli Hoff Kosik will host the conversation. The bookstore is at 116 N. Wayne Ave.
What's coming up
- Sept. 8: "The Refuge" by Carly Hillman hits bookstores nationwide.
- Sept. 10: Launch event at Main Point Books, 116 N. Wayne Ave., Wayne, 6:30 p.m.
- Sept. 26: Jeanes Library fall book sale in Lafayette Hill.
