The new novel · Out March 17, 2026
Two sisters return to the orchard their mother refused to sell, in the last autumn before the sea takes it. A novel about inheritance, salt, and what we owe the people who stayed.
Hardcover, ebook and audiobook (read by the author). Pre-orders receive a signed bookplate while supplies last.
A novel
Wren Hollis
“Hollis writes the coast the way other people write about lovers.” — sample praise, The Literary Review
Praise
Quotes shown are sample press copy. Replace them with your own reviews, blurbs and reader notes.
“A novel that moves like weather — slow, then all at once. Hollis has written the book about sisters I have waited a decade for.”
The Literary Review
“Precise, unsentimental, and quietly devastating. Every sentence has been weighed.”
Coastal Books Quarterly
“Hollis understands that grief is mostly logistics. The Salt Orchard is funny about it, and then it isn’t.”
The Sunday Supplement
“One of the most assured literary voices working today.”
Harbor Public Radio, “Open Book”
The books
Each novel stands alone. Read together, they map a stretch of shore and the families who refuse to leave it.
2019 · Debut
Linked stories · Debut · 240 pages
Twelve stories about departures — from marriages, towns, faiths and bodies.
About the book
New · 2026
Novel · Hardcover, ebook, audio · 352 pages
Two sisters, one failing orchard, and the last autumn before the sea takes it.
About the book
2022 · Paperback
Novel · Shortlisted, Coastal Fiction Prize · 304 pages
A hydrologist returns to the town her family flooded.
About the book
At home in Port Ellery, Maine. Photo: Ida Marchetti.
The writer
Wren Hollis grew up in a fishing town that no longer fishes and spent a decade as a court stenographer before her first stories appeared in print. Three books later, she still writes the first draft by hand, before the light comes up over the harbor.
On the road
Launch readings, conversations and a small spring workshop. Most events are free; a few need a ticket. Signed copies at every stop.
Mar 21
Ticketed
The Clerestory · Boston, MA · 6:30 pm
A ticketed evening conversation.
Apr 18
Festival
Harbor Hall · Portland, ME · 11:00 am
Festival keynote and signing.
Mar 17
Reading & signing
Driftwood Books · Port Ellery, ME · 7:00 pm
Signed copies, a short reading, and questions.
Apr 04
Workshop · 12 seats
Marsh Light Arts Center · Wellfleet, MA · Sat–Sun
A small spring workshop.
Can’t make it? Order a signed, personalised copy through Driftwood Books and they will ship it anywhere.
“The letter is the closest thing I have to a studio with the door open.”
The letter
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What I’m reading, what I’m failing to write, and one photo from the coast.
Cover reveals, excerpts and tour dates before they go anywhere else.
A free short story on sign-up, and signed-copy giveaways a few times a year.
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