Bodies in Arabesque

A Novel

by Terri Lewis

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Pub Date Mar 9 2027 | Archive Date Feb 12 2027

Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity, for She Writes Press | She Writes Press

General Fiction (Adult) | Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction

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Description

For fans of Meg Howrey, a coming-of-age story of two ballerinas, friends and rivals, whose choices after getting pregnant—one before Roe v. Wade and one after—affect their friendship, careers, and life paths.

When friends Gemma and Patrice receive their first lead roles in the Rocky Mountain Ballet’s Nutcracker, they’re on their way to the life of their dreams. Then Gemma discovers she’s pregnant. It’s 1972; abortion is illegal. Her lover, an opera singer, wants to marry, have the baby, and move to New York to continue their careers, but Madame, the controlling company director, concocts a different plan that hinges on Gemma leaving her lover entirely.

While Gemma struggles to decide her future, Patrice is botching her romantic pas de deux. Madame demands that she dance with passion. Patrice has never had a boyfriend—her religious mother warned her against men—but she’ll do anything to succeed. To her delight, sexual exploration lifts her dancing up to Madame’s rigorous standards—until she too discovers she’s pregnant.

In an engrossing narrative that unfolds over four years, love and betrayal will force all three women into wrenching decisions.

A Note From the Publisher

TERRI LEWIS’ first career was as a principal ballerina at the beginnings of the Colorado Ballet. She went on to dance with ballet companies in Würzburg and Nuremberg opera houses. Returning to the United States, she founded ballet companies at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, and in Los Angeles. Her debut novel, Behold the Bird in Flight, A Novel of an Abducted Queen, was one of The Washington Independent Review of Books’ Favorite 2025 titles. When They Came Home, a lyrical telling of hardship and love inspired by family mementos from WWI, won the 2025 Miami University Press Novella Prize. Bodies in Arabesque will be released in March 2027 by She Writes Press. Her writing has been honed through workshops with Jill McCorkle, Laura van den Berg, and Rebecca Makkai, and she has published in several literary magazines. She lives with her husband in Denver, Colorado.

Advance Praise

“…an irresistible story of love in which the passions of the body and the spirit converge. Operatic and intimate, Terri Lewis’s novel is not just a great ballet novel (which it certainly is). It is a great novel. Period.”—SARI WILSON, author of Girl through Glass, Amazon Book of the Month & Editors’ Pick for Best Literature and Fiction, Long-listed for Center for Fiction First Novel prize

"…two young ballerinas at the beginning of their careers navigate their ambitions, romantic desires, and the demands of their Svengali-like ballet mistress. Set in the early 1970s, the novel is also a rumination on women's bodies and women's choices.”—TAMMY GREENWOOD, author of The Still Point, Amazon Editor's Pick and IndieNext Selection

“An outstanding, immersive novel of constant artistic striving, ambitions rewarded and thwarted, and the unfaltering quest to define and attain success.”—MARGARET PORTER, author of Sequins and Starlight

“…a behind-the-scenes look at discipline and rivalry in a professional ballet company…A beautifully written novel about art, career, family, and sacrifice.”—BARBARA ESSTMAN, author of The Other Anna and Night Ride Home

Marketing Plan

Trigger warning: abortion

Available Editions

EDITION	Paperback
ISBN	9798896364429
PRICE	$18.99 (USD)
PAGES	256

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