Leora Skolkin-Smith, Author

A new novel.

A part of HYSTERA appeared in Persea: An International Review, Persea Books.

A recent excerpt is in the Hamilton Stone Review Fall Issue, 2009.

HYSTERA tells the story of a young woman who finds herself involuntarily admitted to a mental hospital on New York City's Upper East Side, in the 1970s after a family tragedy. The story is layered with Lillian's own notebook characters as she invents people from the Middle Ages through the 19th century straight up to her present time, experiencing mysterious "mental conditions" that parallel her own. Lillian joins her invented cast of characters and that of the real people she meets on the ward as she journeys to health and stability. She finds herself, too, part of a continuum of rebellion and enigmas throughout history.