Grand Finales: The Creative Longevity of Women Artists

In Grand Finales, Susan Gubar offers a bold and tender celebration of late-life creativity. Drawing on her own experience (surviving a terminal diagnosis to flourish) Gubar spotlights nine remarkable women who embraced their later years as a time of renewal and reinvention. From George Eliot and Colette, whose passions bloomed anew, to Georgia O’Keeffe and Marianne Moore, who defied expectations with daring works in their golden years, she reveals how age can unlock unexpected artistry.

Through strikingly categorized portraits, Lovers, Mavericks, Sages, Gubar traces how these women refused invisibility and instead redefined elderhood on their own terms. With “pizzazz, bravado, and geezer machismo,” they created, loved, and dared, proving that creative energy often intensifies, not diminishes, with time.

A luminous blend of memoir and cultural history, Grand Finales challenges societal myths about aging. It’s an inspiring testament: the final act doesn’t signal closure—it can be the most creative encore of all.