THE GREAT PRETENDERS

An ambitious young agent's fight to protect blacklisted writers in McCarthy-era Hollywood and her passionate relationship with an African American journalist.

In Hollywood during the height of the 1950s' "Red Scare", a young woman sets out to become a film agent. With family ties in the film business she expects to take to it naturally, but sexism, the advent of television, and paranoia about hearings targeting suspected Communists make it hard. Then an unexpected opportunity arises: a screenwriter approaches her with a script to sell, and Roxanne is pulled into the dangerous business of "fronting" for blacklisted writers.

Laura Kalpakian has won a Pushcart Prize, and the PEN West Award among others. Laura lives in the Pacific Northwest.