Author Event! "Run, Darling" by Karen Essex

Karen Essex, an award-winning novelist, journalist and screenwriter, will discuss her novel Run, Darling at 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 18, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

This event is free of charge and open to the public.

Run, Darling is a fictionalized account of the Gabor Sisters flight from Europe to avoid Nazi persecution. Before the Sexual Revolution, reality TV, and social media, there lived the Gabors, a family of beguiling glamour icons with a global following. For decades, the gorgeous trio of Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda, with their Auntie Mame mother, dominated gossip columns, TV and movie screens, talk shows, and tabloids with their talent, clever quips, branded beauty products—and utter disregard for society’s rules.

While we many remember their whipped blonde hair, jewelry and gowns, multiple marriages, and the word, ‘dahlink,’ sprinkled like sugar into every sentence, few knew of this Jewish family’s shocking secrets, painful pasts, and harrowing journey from Nazi-dominated Europe to America and from obscurity to celebrity.

Karen Essex is an award-winning novelist and journalist and a screenwriter. She is the author of the national and international bestselling novel, Leonardo’s Swans, about the muses of Leonardo daVinci; Stealing Athena, the story of the controversial Elgin Marbles; and Dracula in Love, a retelling of the original vampire tale. Leonardo’s Swans, a bestseller in Italy, won the Premio Roma Prize for foreign fiction. 

Essex also wrote two biographical novels, Kleopatra and Pharaoh, which she adapted into a screenplay for Warner Bros. Lionsgate Entertainment. More recently, Netflix has developed the books for television.

Essex adapted Anne Rice’s novel, The Mummy, into a screenplay for Avatar director James Cameron and 20th Century Fox, and has written a script about the first king of Hawaii for Columbia/Tristar and Dwayne Johnson. She wrote a dance movie for Jennifer Lopez Entertainment and Paramount Pictures, a pilot for Fox TV, and continues to develop a variety of film and television projects.

Essex’s articles and essays have been published in Vogue, Playboy, L.A. Weekly, L.A. Style, and many other periodicals. Awarded highest honors from the Los Angeles Press Club for her story about the missing 1950s pinup icon Bettie Page, She then co-authored the biography, Bettie Page: Life of a Pinup Legend.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Essex graduated from Tulane University, attended graduate school at Vanderbilt University, and received an MFA in Writing from Goddard College. She divides her time between New Orleans, Los Angeles and Europe.

Program inquiries should be directed to Chris Smith, Adult Programming, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.