Biography
Virginia Evans attended James Madison University for her bachelor’s in English literature. After starting a family, she went back to school for her master’s of philosophy in creative writing at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where she had the good fortune to study under Carlo Gébler, Claire Keegan, Harry Clifton and Kevin Power.
She now lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with her husband, Mark, two children, Jack and Mae, and her Red Labrador, Brigid.
The Correspondent is her debut novel, although she spent approximately 20 years writing before its publication.
A recommendation from Ann Patchett gave this book a significant boost. Published April 2025.
Biography
She began writing at age 19, 20 years before The Correspondent was published. She completed 7 full manuscripts, spending 2 to 4 years on each, but none was published.
While studying for her Master of Philosophy at Trinity College in Dublin, she completed a novel titled American Photographic, which was not published.
Video
Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7V2qKsV27Q
Authors TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBMEILUaZRY&t=7s
Interview--NHPR
The book is having a viral moment because people are asking, as two of the book’s characters do, “What are you reading?” That’s the way Sybil and a friend have ended letters to each other since childhood, and it’s part of a trove of letters, exchanges between the 70-something Sybil Van Antwerp and her garden club, a customer service rep, the suicidal son of a colleague, or famous authors like Joan Didion and Ann Patchett, whom Sybil befriended through letters written on perfect stationery, with perfect pens.
But an imperfect world is pressing in on her. We see that Sybil’s controlled prose, as good as some of the authors she writes to, is covering a terrible grief, as well as guilt, over the loss of a child.
As the real Ann Patchett writes about “The Correspondent,” ‘It’s a book about how one woman changes at a point where change seems impossible.’
Interview--NHPR
Who would you say Sybil is?
“I would say Sybil is a woman who has lived with grief for a long time and disappointment. But that’s not all that she is. She’s funny and she’s very smart and she’s very kind and she’s a little misguided at times.”
She has a quaint way of speaking. It’s very formal, like how an older woman might speak on Masterpiece Theater.
“I think the way Sybil curates her communication in letters is not, I imagine, necessarily how she speaks. There’s something really beautiful about her habit of correspondence, but there is also something about it that she’s always editing herself. Her written self is so proper and so perfectly articulated, and I think some of that is authentic, but some of that is her being very careful to keep it all looking quite perfect on the outside.”
Interview--NHPR
Are people telling you they’re writing more letters?
“Yes, it is amazing. There’s some statistics that there’s been more mail circulating. That is so thrilling. There’s something about the vehicle of letters in the story that provides this beauty.
“So, I’m a letter writer. I think there is something so beautiful and permanent and timeless about receiving a letter and keeping a letter. And it is an artifact. If somebody reads this book and sends a letter that says something meaningful, that uplifts someone in their [life]. I mean, that feels like the best possible result from all of this.”
Interview--NHPR
“This is from an early letter Sybil is writing to Joan Didion.
“She says, “In response to your second more complex question, I’ve sat and thought for nearly a week, how does it all feel to me now? I suppose there is this one part of it which is Gilbert never left me, and the circumstances of his death have never for one day diminished. And as I age, it feels so strange that the majority of people with whom I come in contact don’t have the slightest inkling that he ever lived. I had him for so much less time than I’ve lived without him. And yet his presence is enormous, though I keep it to myself. It is as if I have swallowed a hot air balloon. But try not to let on.’
“And there she’s talking about the death of her son when he was 8 years old.”
Interview--NHPR
In your author acknowledgments, we find out a real loss of your dear friends. You write, ‘Six-year-old Wade died and time stopped’. Can you tell us about Wade’s impact?
“I’m so happy that you asked. I love to be able to talk about Wade. We have these great friends and their son became sick. He passed away. He was 6 years old. It’s hard to even articulate.
“But it was an act of the imagination, you know, to take it to having lived with that sadness for 40 years [as Sybil did].
“I became very, very thoughtful and careful about a parent or parents losing a child and what it can feel like and what it doesn’t feel like. And they were so enthusiastic for me to include that in the acknowledgments.
“I remember his mother saying to me, ‘Any person who gets to read my son’s name, because they read it in the back of your book, that is an added gift to me in my life. It just lets his name be repeated and repeated and read and read.’”
Interview--NHPR
Why a whole book of letters? You call out authors, including John Williams and his book Stoner.
“I love a book, and letters. I think it’s such a generous vehicle for the reader because there’s so much space to turn the page and take a breath and change your perspective. It really started there and then it was kind of this question of, ‘OK, well, what story can you tell through letters? Like whose story could be told in this quaint, old-fashioned way?’
“It’s interesting you mentioned Stoner by John Williams. That book really was part of the inspiration behind this book because at the beginning of Stoner, there’s that one- page sort of summary of his life for his obituary sort of at the beginning, and it seems very dull. And then the whole book is the story of his life and how compelling it is. Even though it seems one dimensional, it’s not.
“That really was part of the inspiration with this book: Pick somebody out of the world who you think that would be a boring story to tell and see, ‘Can you show how that’s not a boring story because nobody’s story is boring?’ And so I thought, ‘OK, if you take a woman who’s in her seventies and eighties, she’s retired, she’s divorced, she lives alone, keeps to herself, pretty set in her ways. And can you tell the story of her life that is interesting?”
Interview—Deborah Kalb Books
Q: What inspired you to write The Correspondent, and how did you create your character Sybil Van Antwerp?
A: First, I read the book 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, and was inspired by the letter format. I wanted to try to write a book that way. Then it was a matter of what type of person would write enough letters to make a story?
I’d made the acquaintance of a woman whose house I was interested in purchasing. When I went to see the house and meet her, we spent a brief hour chatting. She was very interesting, lived alone, had been married, her children were grown.
She had stunning, interesting art on the walls, music playing, lovely little things collected over a life, and as we chatted she dropped little things, like breadcrumbs, little details from her life. I thought she was fascinating, lovely, classic. She planted the little seeds in the ground that became Sybil, and eventually this book.
Interview—Deborah Kalb Books
Q: Can you say more about why you decided to write an epistolary novel?
A: I found the letter format to be very digestible when I read it myself—Guernsey, Dear Committee Members, even Gilead. So much can be said with directness. I liked that, and I wanted to try it myself, but I wanted the specific kind of book I was wanting to read. Something warm, expansive, total.
Interview—Southern Review of Books
I’d love to know how your writing journey began! Your “writer” origin story, so to speak. Can you talk about the journey to The Correspondent?
Yes, I wrote my first novel when I was 19 years old and have always been teaching myself to write. I had one book that came close to publication in the 2010s. I had signed on with an agent, and it seemed promising, but after 18 months of revisions, it was clear that my vision for the book and hers were not the same, so we parted ways. Fast forward a few years, I moved to Ireland, attended Trinity College in Dublin, and worked on another novel during that time as part of my degree. That novel led me to my current agent, Hilary McMahon, at Westwood Creative Artists. We both loved that book, but it never sold. It was pretty heartbreaking. During the year we were in limbo about whether the book would sell, I wrote The Correspondent. And it has been quite a journey! I’m breezing over 20 years of querying book after book, year after year, rejection upon rejection. So, some people approach me in conversation about this book as if it’s my first book, but this is my ninth novel!
Interview—Southern Review of Books
What did your writing process look like for this novel? Did you have any routine or habits while writing The Correspondent — for instance, writing at a particular time of day — that helped you immerse yourself in Sybil’s world of letters?
This is a true story…I wrote The Correspondent in the master closet of our townhouse! We were living in this small and sweet, open-concept townhouse, which I loved. But there were no doors and nowhere to go, and my two kids were very little at the time. One day, I went into the master closet, which was also small. I took my husband’s clothes out and moved them to our daughter’s closet, cleared a wall, and slid a small desk into that space. I made myself a little office where I could write. I mean, it was terrible and dark with no windows, boxes piled up, and shoes and clothes all around, and you didn’t even know when the sun would come up…it was really bleak, HA! But I could close the door and write from 4:30 to 7:30 am, which was always my writing window, especially since I had small kids and was working full-time. I wrote the entire book in that closet!
Interview—Southern Review of Books
The Correspondent explores some profound themes: finding solace in literature, forging connections across distance and time through correspondence, confronting past and present trauma, the effects of lingering grief and, ultimately, seeking and receiving forgiveness. What inspired you to center the story on an older woman at such a pivotal crossroads in her life?
I’ve always been drawn to the stories of people’s lives. With Sybil, you’re getting her whole account of all she knows about living, how to be a child, how to be a parent, how to be a friend, how to navigate the world, and what she’s learned about human beings. You get to see her from start to finish, to find out what she knows about her life, what she discovers and what she remembers.
Evans’ writing and the beautiful way she tells the story of a life will leave you awestruck. In Sybil’s words, “I am an old woman, and my life has been some strange balance of miraculous and mundane,” and throughout this story, you find exactly that: all the evidence of a life both miraculous and mundane.
Cast of characters
Sybil Van Antwerp (Née Stone), primary correspondent, narrator, in this novel, age 73, and losing her eyesight. When we meet her, she's retired from her legal partnership with Circuit Court Judge Guy Donnelly, divorced from Daan, with two surviving children, Bruce and Fiona. Son Gilbert died, age 8, from a broken neck diving into a lake. She blames herself for the accident; he asked permission to dive, but did so from a boulder rather than the dock. She wasn't paying attention.
She and brother Felix were both adopted. Through DNA research, she locates her biological family in Scotland, discovering that her biological parents were a Scottish woman named Louisa and a Crow man named Charles Thorne. She has a sister Hattie and half-siblings in Scotland with whom she reconnects.
She's been writing letters since childhood, including letters to authors whom she admires. She's also an avid reader, and gardener. She's also losing her eyesight.
Cast of characters
Daan Van Antwerp—Sybil's ex-husband and father to Bruce, Gilbert, and Fiona. Also brother to Lars and brother-in-law to Rosalie Van Antwerp. Originally from Belgium, Daan had had a career in teaching. After Gilbert died, neither Sybil nor Daan could cope with the grief. They tried to stay together, but divorced. Daan writes to Sybil when he's dying of cancer, she doesn't reply in time, or attend his funeral although Bruce has bought a ticket. Nevertheless he leaves her a substantial amount of money.
Fiona is an architect, lives in London, with two children, Charles and Frances. Fiona and Sybil have a contentious relationship. Fiona is closer to godmother Rosalie.
Felix Stone, Sybil’s brother, also adopted. He lives in France, in a committed relationship with Stewart. It is Felix who gives Sybil the birthday gift to research their ancestry.
Rosalie Van Antwerp, Sybil’s best friend since childhood, married to Lars Van Antwerp, Daan’s brother. Lars has Alzheimer's and son Paul is in a wheelchair. She's also godmother to Fiona with whom she has a close relationship. Rosalie is the last person to send Sybil a letter before she dies.
Cast of characters
Dezi Martinelli, son of Enzo Martinelli, who sends threatening messages to Sybil, signed only "DM." His father was sent to prison by Guy Donnelly, although his mother pleaded with Sybil to ask for mercy. But Gilbert had just died and she refused. So Dezi, his mother and brother went back to Italy.
When his father was released from prison, he tried to rejoin the family but Dezi's mother was too ashamed to take him back. Leaving a bar, his father had a car accident and was killed. Dezi therefore blames Sybil and Donnelly for his family's misfortunes. Eventually they reconcile. Dezi too has lost his children. When she dies, Sybil leaves him the money she inherited from Daan.
Cast of characters
Harry Landy, one of Sybil’s main correspondents, and a teenager. Harry is the son of James Landy, Sybil’s former associate when she worked with Guy Donnelly. Because he feels socially ostracized, he begins writing to Sybil. At one point, he runs away to Sybil's, attempts suicide, and comes back to Sybil to recuperate. They become, more or less, grandmother and grandson. He attends MIT and credits her for finishing his first manuscript.
Theodore Lüdbeck is Sybil's long-time neighbor, a romantic interest, and a refugee from Germany. He and his mother escaped the death camps, but his father and brother didn't. He's a widower, with one daughter. When Sybil dies, he sends to Fiona the letter she had attempted to write Daan, explaining why she felt so guilty over Gilbert's death.
Cast of characters
Mick Watts, retired lawyer, and adversary of Guy Donnelly. Meets Sybil at Guy's funeral. He attempts to court Sybil, invites her to his ranch in Texas, even proposes, but she declines in favor of Theodore.
Basam Mansour, a customer service representative at the Kindred Project where Sybil's ancestry is traced. He's a refugee from Syria, and an engineer. Sybil volunteers to review his resume, which gets him fired. But she then refers him to an engineer friend. Presumably he gets a job.
Melissa Genet, Dean of English at the University of Maryland, who refuses Sybil's request to audit a literature course, until they meet and strike up a friendship.
Henrietta “Hattie” Gleason, Sybil’s biological sister
Questions for discussion
This is a character-driven novel and, as with all epistolary novels, those characters are revealed progressively through the letters they write. So, who is Sybil?
Questions for discussion
During an interview, the host notes that writer Ann Patchett said of the book, "Subtly told and finely made, The Correspondent is a portrait of a small life expanding."
To which the author answered:
When I first read Ann's blurb of the book I was floored. I felt she was able to capture it perfectly and succinctly. I think she was right that the book is a portrait of a life.
What do you think? Is this the portrait of a life?
Questions for discussion
Sybil explains how she developed the habit of writing letters.
When I was young, by writing letters I found a framework that made living easier, and that has never changed. However, I do wonder if by conducting the most intimate relationships of my life in correspondence, I have kept, since I was a child, a distance between myself and others (p. 239).
What does letter writing represent as a mode of communication for Sybil?
Questions for discussion
Why does Sybil write to authors? Joan Didion is the most important of these. She's written:
I Write to Find Out What I Am Thinking
We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live
The Year of Magical Thinking (about the death of her daughter)
Blue Nights: A Memoir (grief and loss)
Notes to John (her husband, written while seeing a psychiatrist)
Next WeeK:
Spring Break
Week after: background on Girl Braiding her Hair