Author Lily King to discuss ‘Heart the Lover’ at Aspen Winter Words

Award-winning novelist Lily King is coming to Aspen to discuss “Heart the Lover” at the 29th annual Winter Words speaker series.

The event will take place from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Paepcke Auditorium, 1000 N. Third St. The conversation will be moderated by Mitzi Rapkin.

Since September, King has been on the West Coast leg of her book tour for the 2025 release of her novel.

“It is about a senior in college who goes on a bad date with a smart guy, and that changes the course of the rest of her life,” she said. “It’s really about love and time.”

The novel, set in her hometown in Massachusetts, follows a young woman named Emily as she navigates her emotional development over time — including a love triangle; some intense, sometimes challenging relationships; the desire to be loved and understood; and the ways longing, insecurity, and self-worth shape those choices.

She said the first spark came as she read another novel. An avid reader, she felt like the other author was having more fun.

“I just thought she’s having so much fun, and I’m having no fun. I want to have fun, and I flipped to the back of my notebook and just started writing this book,” she said. 

The challenge for this latest work came in the rewriting process and how to structure the book, she shared.

King is known for her emotionally-powerful literary fiction that explores personal growth, love, ambition, creativity, and the complexities of inner life. 

“I’m really only interested in deeply emotional stories,” she said. “I want to follow someone. I know the emotional arc of the character before I start the novel, and the rest is in service to that arc.”

Her first 1999 novel, “The Pleasing Hour,” won the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and was named a New York Times Notable Book. Since then, she has penned “Euphoria,” “Writers & Lovers,” “Father of the Rain,” and “The English Teacher”; and ten short stories in “Five Tuesdays in Winter,” before her latest 2025 release.

“I do think that a lot of my books are about learning how to communicate emotionally with people and who to trust,” she said. “It’s the connection between the characters that really keeps me going, and I’m always trying to forge that sort of deeper and deeper as we go.”

King graduated with a Masters in Creative Writing from Syracuse University in 1991, where she won the Raymond Carver Prize for short story fiction.

“I met some really great people there — some really great writers who have remained friends and readers and just kind of important colleagues, really in this whole thing, who make you feel much less crazy for doing what you’re doing,” she said.

Although she considers herself an introvert, she claims her extrovert side kicks in during her tours.

“I love meeting readers. I love having the conversations,” she said. “This book in particular — because it’s sort of intimate — really encourages people to tell me their stories. The signing lines can be long because I need to chat with everybody and people like to say what’s going on with them and how it relates to the book — and I love that! I find it very moving and connective, and I just feel so grateful to my readers.”

After this leg, the 2025 “Heart the Lover” tour will continue internationally, and afterward she will start sharing the paperback version.

King teased that the next novel she is writing will be a heavily-researched book, mostly set in the 1960s. 

She added, “I think I’ll be doing that for months.”

For more information and tickets, visit aspenwords.org/winter-words/.