Hartford the city, stirring phoenix-like after decades of decline, is being touted in a current ad campaign as "New England's Rising Star," and author Marci Alborghetti '82 is adding her own punctuation to the catch phrase. Her latest book, A Season in the South, a novel slated for release this spring, sets her protagonist in the state's capital. The character's two daughters wander right into the University of Hartford's backyard. One works at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center; the other is a student at the Hartford Art School.

Although Alborghetti now lives in Stonington, Conn., she spent 20 years in Hartford, beginning when she herself was a University student. That one of her characters should call this campus home is a natural extension. "My two years at [the University] were among the best in my life," the author recalls, "and I loved the idea of featuring it in a novel."

A Season in the South is the story of a woman in her 50s who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. As the book opens, she has received her first round of treatments and appears to be cancer free but is also aware that the future is uncertain. In her search for understanding and resolution, she relocates from Connecticut to Key West, Fla., where she spends the winter writing.

In Alborghetti's words, "It's a novel about physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. It's about how everything changes and one has to find a new way to live, perhaps even a new place with new people."

Devastating illness is a topic that the author knows well. When she was 6 years old, Alborghetti's best friend died from cancer. In a previous book, Freedom from Fear: Overcoming Anxiety through Faith, Alborghetti tells us that experiencing someone's illness and death with a child's eye "is a uniquely devastating perspective." It left an imprint that has stayed with the author all her life, together with "the small, sharp icicles of fear it left in my heart, soul and mind."

Some of Alborghetti's interest in promoting Hartford and her alma mater results from the dynamic changes she's witnessed at the University. Though her major was political science in the College of Arts and Sciences, she finds the future University of Hartford Performing Arts Center a particularly exciting project. And her enthusiasm extends beyond the center to the University president behind it. "I'm really, really impressed with Walt Harrison," she says.