'Constellations of Eve' by Abbigail Rosewood '17 Coming Spring 2022

Constellations of Eve, a new novel by alumna Abbigail Rosewood '17, will be released through a collaboration between Texas Tech University Press and the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network in Spring of 2022. 

The mission of the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network, which was founded by Isabelle Thuy Pelaud and Pulitzer Prize winning author Viet Thanh Ngyuen, who is now funding DVAN's collaboration with Texas Tech with his MacArthur Genius Grant, "is to celebrate and foster diasporic Vietnamese literary voices. DVAN presents nonfiction, fiction, and poetry to empower Vietnamese artists in the diaspora and to promote understanding and dialogue within our community, and with others." 

Constellations of Eve, which draws from Rosewood's own upbringing and the untimely death of her father, will be the inaugural publication of this collaboration. The novel traces three reincarnations of Eve—an artist, wife, and mother—and her loved ones. Each reincarnation is a chance to "get it right" and ward off her most crippling fear: the loss of her loved ones. 

In a nonfiction piece titled "The Debt of Love," published by The Southampton Review, Rosewood eloquently discusses the personal preoccupations that led to the writing of Constellations of Eve. "I’m preoccupied with the Buddhist concept of reincarnation—a different reality in which my parents could be together. And because I also believe in symmetry, karmic balance, I imagine that they might not be as happy, as in love, or they may have lost something else in exchange. In my second novel, Constellations of Eve, I put two lovers through multiple trials as their souls migrate through three reincarnations. In my mind, they might change fundamentally as people, but their love transcends time and space. I wonder what debts they would have to pay before arriving at peace, together, wanting nothing else...Three reincarnations, one love story, I wrote with the hope that love may transcend death, that my parents will meet in another lifetime. I also wrote it with the trepidation of losing the person I most value to death, a roll of the dice."

In a statement about the upcoming publication of the novel, Rosewood shared, "This book has been a labor of love for some time now. My hope for it goes beyond the personal to the larger aspiration to be a part of the Vietnamese diasporic community, to tell Vietnamese stories, showcase our multifaceted, diverse inner lives, and expansive imaginations. The DVAN/TTUP partnership represents that artistic/social/cultural/political mission. I cannot imagine a more perfect home." 

Abbigail N. Rosewood was born in Vietnam, where she lived until the age of twelve. Her debut novel, If I Had Two Lives, has been hailed as “a tale of staggering artistry” by the Los Angeles Review of Books and “a lyrical, exquisitely written novel” by the New York Journal of Books. Her short fiction and essays can be found at Electric Lit, LitHub, Catapult, The Southampton Review, The Brooklyn Review, Columbia Journal, and The Adroit Journal, among others. In 2019, her hybrid writing was featured in a multimedia art and poetry exhibit at Eccles Gallery. She is the founder of Neon Door, a forthcoming immersive literary exhibit.