Michelle St. Romain’s debut novel, Song of Belonging, will be released April 21, 2026 by She Writes Press with distribution to the trade by Simon and Schuster. For fans of Kate Morton, Amy Harmon, and Sally Page, Song of Belonging is a multi-generational novel with hints of magical realism, about a woman learning to find her place in an uncertain world as she unravels the stories of her grandmothers in a family lineage of light and dark.
In 1934, a child’s death tears open a family and shakes the small town of Richarme, Louisiana. Recalling her grandmother’s hidden gifts that had been shut down decades earlier, Grace Paschal begins writing to her deceased daughter as she navigates grief and guilt for Lily’s death, which will haunt their French community for generations.
In 2019, Alice, Grace’s great-granddaughter, awakens in her apartment in Berkeley and opens a jewelry box given to her decades earlier upon Grace’s death. When she explores its contents, the lines between past and present fade. As she works to meet the demands of her career, she battles increasing ancestral memories that mingle with experiences at work, causing her to question everything about the life she has chosen.
A haunting and magical story of a family with hidden gifts and secrets, the story follows Alice, a young journalist who begins having memories that are not her own and must find her place in a lineage of women healers who are protectors of the waters that surround their Louisiana home.
Michelle is a writer, poet and educator. She is the co-author with Alma Rosa Alvarez of two poetry collections, Promised Fruit and Water’s Edge. In addition to writing and teaching, she works in the nonprofit field raising funds and awareness for issues close to her heart. Song of Belonging began as an idea in her mind when she was seven years old and her great-grandmother gave her a green jewelry box when she died.
Michelle grew up in Louisiana surrounded by siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, and the novel combines her love of the environment and the natural world with stories from her French Acadian heritage. She leads creative writing workshops and retreats and has taught English and creative writing to children and teens in California, Hawai’i, and Oregon. She holds a B.A. in English from Loyola University, New Orleans and an M.A. in English/ Creative Writing from California State University, Sacramento. Her work has been featured in the Poetry Phone Line Project of the Oregon Humanities, The Rapids literary magazine, The Stanford Challenge 2026 Anthology (Wild Poets Press), and on Jefferson Public Radio and Ashland Community Radio. Michelle was volunteer poetry reader in 2025 for The Timberline Review.
Michelle lives in Southern Oregon with her wife, two spaniels, and a wise, aging cat. They are enjoying watching their three creative young adults launch into the world.
Song of Belonging received three 5-star reviews from Readers Favorite and is available wherever books are sold. Books launch events are planned in Portland, Eugene, and Southern Oregon. Michelle will also be a panelist at the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley in late May and at the Northwest Book Fair and Media Fest in Vancouver, Washington in June.
View a full list of upcoming events with Michelle here.