Never Ready

In 1992 Henrietta Drake's affluent family has life of the mind obsessions that may have fueled her academic ascent, but also made high school an impossible holding tank for her.

The dream was always getting to New York, but this was not what she had in mind. Now she's living with a half sister she barely knows and working for a dance company she's never heard of - a wizard-of-oz storm that drops her in a world where everyone knows the steps and the secret handshake. Amid complexities and compromises inherent to independence, can she face the fragility of found family and friendship?

Never Ready features an anxious heroine whose journey with artists and art, design and dance crosses generations. Mark Carpenter, American Genius, shows her the best and worst of the downtown dance world as Henri leans on Carmen, Luke, Ajax and, of course, Kit, who never had to say anything… but who, for some reason chose to say so much.

Never Ready features an anxious heroine curating her own life within a beautiful, terrible time. Art helps her hang on, but is she ready for more goodbyes?

Readers and critics are attached to Never Ready and its cinematic sweep from the suburbs to the city and back. They've imprinted on Henri and cheer her acceptance of light and dark, myth and modernity, and most of all, love and loss.