There are few writers who have as devoted a following as celebrated novelist Jane Austen. But is she really the “first” great English female author?

Bohannon appears at Santa Cruz Bookshop, 1520 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, at 7 p.m. April 7 and with Angie Coiro at Kepler's Books, 1010 El Camino Real in Menlo Park, at 7 p.m. April 8.