Podcasts about san francisco writers grotto

Eleanor Vincent joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about trying to save her challenging high conflict marriage, autism in adults and Cassandra Syndrome, what to leave out of a book, self-revelation and honest grappling, the toll of masking autism, emotional abuse, careful framing of those we write about, using a sensitivity reader, support groups for neurodiverse spouses, our narrating personas, writing fearless first drafts, disguising identities and biographical details to protect those we write about, and her new memoir Disconnected.    Ronit's upcoming memoir course: https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story   Also in this episode: -complex trauma -hyperfocus -reading unceasingly   Books mentioned in this episode: -The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick -Blow Your House Down by Gina Frangello -You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith -This American Ex-Wife by Liz Lenz -Liars by Sarah Manguso -Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset  -22 Things a Woman Must Know If She Loves a Man with Asperger's Syndrome by Rudy Simone  -Books by Anne Patchett   Eleanor Vincent's new memoir Disconnected: Portrait of a Neurodiverse Marriage is forthcoming from Vine Leaves Press. It tells the story of her gradual discovery that her husband was on the autism spectrum, and of how she tried to save a challenging high-conflict marriage. Her previous memoir, Swimming with Maya: A Mother's Story (Dream of Things, 2013) has twice been on the New York Times bestseller list and was nominated for the Independent Publisher of the Year award. Her essays have appeared in anthologies by Creative Nonfiction and This I Believe, the literary magazines 580 Split and Dorothy Parker's Ashes, as well as shorter pieces in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, and Generations Today. She has an MFA in creative writing from Mills College and is a member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto, Left Margin Lit, and the Author's Guild. She has taught creative nonfiction seminars at Mills College as a visiting writer and been awarded residencies at Hedgebrook, the Vermont Studio Center, and Writing Between the Vines. She lives in Walnut Creek, California. Connect with Eleanor: Website: https://www.eleanorvincent.com/ Book: https://vineleavespress.myshopify.com/products/disconnected-portrait-of-a-neurodiverse-marriage-by-eleanor-vincent X: https://x.com/eleanorpvincent Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eleanor.vincent/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eleanor.vincent/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleanorpvincent/ Writing the real world Substack: https://eleanorvincent.substack.com/   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

As past panelists for the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, Traci Brimhall, Melissa Faliveno, and Tanya Rey share what it was like to read and judge applications. They discuss what made an application stand out, how writers can craft the narrative and philosophy statements to good effect, the importance of submitting polished work, the inherent subjectivity of the process, persistence in the face of rejection, and more.   About the Panelists: Traci Brimhall's fifth poetry collection, Love Prodigal, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in 2024. She is also the author of Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod (Copper Canyon Press, 2020); Saudade (Copper Canyon Press, 2017); Our Lady of the Ruins (W.W. Norton, 2012), selected by Carolyn Forché for the 2011 Barnard Women Poets Prize; and Rookery (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010). Her children's book, Sophia & The Boy Who Fell, was published by SeedStar Books in March 2017.   Melissa Faliveno is the author of the debut essay collection Tomboyland, named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR, New York Public Library, Oprah Magazine, and Electric Literature and recipient of a 2021 Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement from the Wisconsin Library Association. Her writing has appeared in Esquire, Paris Review, Bitch, Literary Hub, Ms Magazine, Brooklyn Rail, Prairie Schooner, and in the anthology Sex and The Single Woman (Harper Perennial, 2022).   Tanya Rey is a queer Cuban-American writer whose work has appeared in Guernica, Granta, The Sun, Roads & Kingdoms, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Georgia Review, and Catapult, among others. She holds an MFA from New York University and has received fellowships from The Georgia Review, Rona Jaffe Foundation, San Francisco Writers Grotto, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, UCross, Blue Mountain Center, I-Park, and others. Rey has worked as managing editor for One Story and fiction editor for Epiphany and has taught creative writing at New York University and Writing Pad in San Francisco.   Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.

Janis Cooke Newman is the author of a memoir (about adopting her son from a Russian orphanage) and two award-winning historical novels. She has also been a well-published travel writer for the past two decades. Ever since she published her first book in 2001, she’s been committed to helping other writers get their work out into the world. In 2009, she started the highly successful writing classes program at the San Francisco Writers Grotto, and curated them for 5 years. In 2012, she founded Lit Camp, a juried writers conference now held every year at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. In 2020, she launched an online community for writers called Creative Caffeine Daily. She’s also an experienced writing coach, offering coaching packages, mentoring and editing for writers through her business Highbeam Editorial. She’s also developed a series of workshops and retreats that combine mindfulness and writing, which she teaches at both Esalen and the San Francisco Zen Center, where she practices sitting alone with others. Get full access to SparkZen at sparkzen.substack.com/subscribe

Jenny Qi is the author of Focal Point, winner of the 2020 Steel Toe Books Poetry Award. Her essays and poems have been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Tin House, ZYZZYVA, Rattle, and elsewhere, and she has received fellowships and support from Tin House, Omnidawn, Kearny Street Workshop, and the San Francisco Writers Grotto. Born in Pennsylvania to Chinese immigrants, she grew up mostly in Las Vegas and Nashville and now lives in San Francisco. She completed her Ph.D. in Biomedical Science (Cancer Biology) from UCSF, where she studied novel drug candidates in preclinical models of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. She currently works with life science and biopharma groups as a competitive intelligence manager, with a focus on ovarian cancer. Find the book and more at: https://jqiwriter.com/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: A ballad is a music-based poem that tells a story. This form isn't especially complicated but it does have very specific requirements. Webexhibits.org has great instructions on how to write your own ballad. (If you google “webexhibits” and “ballad,” webexhibit.org's “Make Your Own Ballad” page will be the first hit.) “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred Tennyson and “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Thayer are examples of ballad poems. Next Week's Prompt: Write a spooky poem for Halloween. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

EPISODE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION: Bonnie Tsui is an American author and journalist of Hong Kong descent. She was born in New York, New York, graduated from Harvard University, and currently lives in San Francisco. She grew up a competitive swimmer. Her book American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods was published by Simon & Schuster's Free Press in 2009 and won the 2009-2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. The Los Angeles Times said it "explored their class struggles, rivalries, customs, and dialects," of the cities' Chinatowns. Tsui also contributes essays and cultural commentary to well-known American magazines, including The New York Times and California Sunday. Her accolades include the 2019 National Press Foundation Fellowship and the Jane Rainie Opel Young Alumna Award at Harvard University. In 2020, she published a memoir, Why We Swim, with Algonquin Books, which delves into the history of swimming. The New York Times called it an enthusiastic and thoughtful work. Her third book, Sarah & the Big Wave, about big-wave women surfers, will be published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers in spring 2021. She is a member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto. A longtime contributor to The New York Times, Bonnie has also performed numerous times at Pop-Up Magazine and other live storytelling events. She helped to launch F&B: Voices from the Kitchen, a storytelling project from La Cocina that shares stories from cooks and kitchens that are less often heard. She also appeared as a talking head in the documentary The Search for General Tso, to explain the curiously foreign-yet-familiar quality of Chinese-American food and was featured in the History Channel series “America: Promised Land.” NEXT STEPS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: 1. Get the book Why We Swim. TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS VIDEO:  – Intro  – This Water Thing  – Water & Healing  – Water & Spirituality  – Fear of Water  – Gudlaugur Frithorsson's Journey  – Cultures Around Swimming  – Water Kept Her Safe for Security  – Water is Special  – Called to Write about Water  – Soul Speaking to Another Soul  – Who Needs the Book & Could be Convinced  – Yin & Yang  – To Be Able to Reach You Where You Are ABOUT ME: Hi, I'm Stephen Scoggins. After fighting from homelessness and depression to build multiple businesses employing hundreds of amazing people, I've learned a lot about what it really takes to overcome your limitations and build your dream life. Now, my goal is to help one million people get from where they are today to where they want to be in life. To help with that, I'm releasing videos on this channel several times per week and posting regularly on social media. On this YouTube channel, I interview the world's most foremost thought leaders on what it takes to master your life. I also have a library of free resources, downloadable eBooks, and personality tests to help you become the person you've always wanted to be. Just check out my websites below! MASTER YOUR LIFE WITH FREE RESOURCES: My Website: https://www.stephenscoggins.com Free eBooks & Resources: https://www.stephenscoggins.com/resources My Blog: https://stephenscoggins.com/blog/ Stuck to Unstoppable Podcast: https://stephenscoggins.com/stuck-to-unstoppable/ CONNECT WITH ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephen_scoggins/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephenscoggins/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenscoggins Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephen_scoggin

Podcast host Matthew Félix talks with authors Laurie Ann Doyle and Ryan Sloan about community: What is it, really? Why is it so important to us as writers? How do we find it? Sharing their own personal stories, as well as their respective experiences in academia, participating in writers groups and organizations, and organizing literary events, Matthew, Laurie, and Ryan engage in a comprehensive discussion about the notion of community, its importance to writers, and the many ways we can find it. LAURIE ANN DOYLE is the author of World Gone Missing, winner of the Nautilus Award in Fiction. Recipient of the Alligator Juniper National Fiction Award and a Pushcart Prize nomination, Laurie's stories and essays have appeared in McSweeny's, Alta Journal, The Los Angeles Review, and many others. Laurie teaches writing at UC Berkeley Extension and The Writers Grotto in San Francisco. RYAN SLOAN is a novelist and essayist who teaches writing at the University of California, Berkeley. Ryan has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his work has been published or is forthcoming in LA Weekly, Joyland Magazine, Opium Magazine and many other publications. Ryan has done multiple residencies, including the 2019 Lit Camp Writers' Conference and the 2019 Arctic Circle Residency on the Summer Solstice Expedition. Special shout-outs went out to The Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference, Left Coast Writers, The San Francisco Writers Grotto, Babylon Salon, NaNoWriMo, LitCamp, and LitWings, as well as other organizations, events, and sites that foster community among writers.   Listen here or on: iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | TuneIn | Amazon | Player FM | Deezer Watch on YouTube   Links http://laurieanndoyle.com https://rrsloan.com https://www.babylonsalon.com

A.H. Ann Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to the U.S. as a young child. She was educated at Harvard College and Berkeley Law School, where she was an editor of the California Law Review. She is a practicing attorney and has served as chief of staff to the CEO and head of investor relations at a Fortune 200 company. A.H. Kim is the proud mother of two sons, a longtime cancer survivor, community volunteer, and member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto. A GOOD FAMILY is her first novel. https://www.ahkim.net/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dallas-woodburn/support

Do ignore me at the beginning when I say it's the 19th of September. It's definitely October :)This week I had the pleasure of talking to horror author Beverley Lee about writing short stories and getting them published in anthologies. Beverley has published four books so far and has been featured in several anthologies this year alone, and she shares her top tips in this episode.Want to write short stories for anthologies?Do your research - if you have a fantasy story, don't submit it to a pure horror listingWrite to the brief - if it's asking for graveyards, make your short story about graveyardsSet a goal - find one or two anthologies you want to submit to, and get writing or you'll fall down the submission rabbit hole.Not used to writing short stories? Here are some prompts for you:Write a short story that includes a scarecrow in a graveyard. (thanks, Beverley!)Write about an object that has personal meaning to you.Scientists announced they've discovered the secret to immortality. Write a petition letter to save the event of death. Write down as many cliches and aphorisms as you can think of. Go back and star the ones you actually say. (not the kind of prompt we were expecting, but I promised to include it, so here you go!)Keep your story under 6,000 words. Have fun!Writing prompts 2-4 are from the book 642 Things to Write About by the San Francisco Writers Grotto.  Disclaimer: this is an affiliate link)Find places looking for submissions on: The Horror Tree Cemetery Gates Media Kandisha Press We also mentioned Forest App,  a productivity timer I use to stay focussed.***Come join The Writing Sparrow on its very own Facebook fan page or its very own Instagram account!To find out more about Beverley, check out her Instagram, her Twitter, and her website.Find out more about Sarina and her books on her website, and find her on Instagram and on Facebook.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/sarinalanger)

Irving Ruan is a Chinese American writer, actor, comedian, playwright, and software engineer. His work has been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Funny Or Die, CollegeHumor, and elsewhere. He is a member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in Computer Science and has studied improv, sketch writing, and satire at The Second City in Chicago. Irving lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is represented by Danielle Svetcov at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. We are grateful for Irving's continued hosting on our podcast and highlighting the art of writing and comedy! https://www.instagram.com/irvingruan/ One of the pieces we discussed on the podcast: https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/tv-game-shows-inspired-by-online-dating --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bravemaker/support

If you are a parent, then you don't want to miss this episode! The author of the book How to Raise an Adult, Julie Lythcott-Haims, joins us as we talk about strategies for raising children to be independent, well-adjusted, and happy. Julie shares so many nuggets of wisdom in this discussion, including the acronym ARC, which is a focus in parenting on agency, resilience, and compassion. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes so you know when my next episode is released and leave a review because your feedback counts! Podcast website: http://invitationstolearn.com/ Twitter: @MrsLanghorne Email: invitationstolearn@gmail.com Follow Ms. Lythcott-Haims @jlythcotthaims and visit her website to learn more about her and her books at http://julielythcotthaims.com/. Julie Lythcott-Haims believes in humans. Humans need agency in order to make their way forward; Julie is deeply interested in what gets in our way. She is the New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult, an anti-helicopter parenting manifesto that gave rise to one of the top TED Talks of 2016, which has been viewed close to 5 million times. Her second book is the critically-acclaimed and award-winning prose poetry memoir Real American, which illustrates her experience with racism and her journey toward self-acceptance. She wrote the foreword for Writing Memoir, a book of writing prompts developed by Julie and her colleagues at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, for those hungry to share their lived experiences. A fourth book, It’s Your Turn: The Real How-to on Adulting, will be out in early 2021. Julie is a former corporate lawyer and Stanford dean, and she holds a BA from Stanford, a JD from Harvard, and an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts.

Ep. 238: The original Obama, FAITH ADIELE is the author of The Nigerian-Nordic Girl’s Guide To Lady Problems and Meeting Faith: The Thai Forest of a Black Buddhist Nun, which won the PEN Open Book Award. She is also writer/narrator/subject of My Journey Home, a PBS documentary film about growing up Nordic-American and then traveling to Nigeria as an adult, co-editor of the international anthology Coming of Age Around the World, and senior editor at Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. Named as one of Marie Claire’s “5 Women to Learn From” and educated at Harvard University, the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Adiele is Associate Professor of Creative Nonfiction at California College of the Arts and Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA Program faculty. A member of San Francisco Writers’ Grotto and The Ruby, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, runs African Book Club, and lectures around the world. She is completing Twins, an epic family memoir completing the story begun in the PBS film. Visit her at http://adiele.com and@meetingfaith. For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Real American: A Memoir (Henry Holt & Company) Julie Lythcott-Haims, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult, has written a different kind of book this time out – a deeply personal, biting and affecting account of her life growing up as a biracial black woman in America in Real American: A Memoir Bringing a brisk, poetic sensibility to her prose, Lythcott-Haims stirringly evokes her personal battle with the low self-esteem that American racism routinely inflicts on people of color. The only child of an African-American father and a white British mother, she shows indelibly how so-called "micro" aggressions in addition to blunt force insults can puncture a person's inner life with a thousand sharp cuts. Real American expresses also, through Lythcott-Haims’s path to self-acceptance, the healing power of community in overcoming the hurtful isolation of being incessantly  considered "the other" Real American is a fearless and powerful memoir. Lythcott-Haims’s eloquent words deserve to be studied, memorized, and repeated. Here is a book that should be read again and again, and then once more after that. Praise for Real Americans “A compelling, incisive and thoughtful examination of race, origin and what it means to be called an American. Engaging, heartfelt and beautifully written, Lythcott-Haims explores the American spectrum of identity with refreshing courage and compassion.” —Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption “Real American is a courageous, achingly honest meditation on what it means to come to consciousness as a mixed race child and adult in a nation where Black lives weren't meant to matter.” —Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness “Breaks the silence on what it means to grow up mixed-race in America. Her spare but powerful prose has an emotional rawness that will profoundly resonate with all readers and help many feel a little less alone.” ―Heidi W. Durrow, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky “A cathartic and bold truth-telling.” ―Danzy Senna, bestselling author of Caucasia and New People “A powerful, honest book that should be required reading for everyone.” —Anita Amirrezvani, author of The Blood of Flowers and Equal of the Sun “To write with such an open heart about race and Blackness takes great courage. To do so in prose that is at once elegant and raw takes great talent.” —Ayelet Waldman, bestselling author of Bad Mother and of A Really Good Day “A true achievement . . . so much more than a personal memoir . . . [Lythcott-Haims] channels the shrewdness of Eula Biss and the compassion of Ta-Nehisi Coates.” ―Lee Daniel Kravetz, international bestselling author of Strange Contagion and Supersurvivors “Powerful . . . a memoir that [illuminates] the psychic cost of racism to those who are cast as ‘other.’ The journey of self-healing and the empowerment  . . .  is a story of triumph from which all of us can learn.” —Beverly Daniel Tatum, author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Can We Talk About Race? “Stands for, and stands up for, Americans who are questioned, confronted, disregarded and unnerved by our citizen country . . . Real American will be one of those books that is passed from hand to hand, with passages marked where readers find strong words that speak truth.” ―A.J. Verdelle, author of The Good Negress “. . . shows once again, plainly and unforgettably, that if you are Black in America, it does not matter who you are, racism will come knocking. Lythcott-Haims . . . . Real American is the story of that insidious harm and of a woman who became alert to the American racism within herself and fought back. . . . not only an excellent, satisfying read but a book that can help us “stay woke”—as we must—to the sometimes stealthy and always life-threatening danger of racism, so that we all can fight back.” —U.S.Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) Julie Lythcott-Haims served as dean of freshmen and undergraduate advising at Stanford University, where she received the Dinkelspiel Award for her contributions to the undergraduate experience. She holds a BA from Stanford, a JD from Harvard Law School, and an MFA in writing from California College of the Arts. She is a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, and resides in the Bay Area with her husband, their two teenagers, and her mother.

  Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Shanthi Sekaran, author of the new novel Lucky Boy, a book that has been getting a lot of pre-publication buzz and is an Indie Next Great Read pick for January 2017.   In this episode Shanthi and I discuss: The importance of fiction in humanizing different groups of people by bringing them and their experiences to life on the page. Using both research and imagination to create a vivid experience for your readers, and in particular how she crafted the dramatic immigration scenes in her book. Connection to the point of view of the characters and how to capture their experiences and emotions with authenticity. Crafting her book around the theme of motherhood, and how “mother” can mean very different things to different people. The universality of the “immigrant experience” in America, and how there are many common threads between immigrants from wildly different experiences. How there are also stark differences between immigrants with different levels of privilege, and how it’s important for us to understand these varied experiences. Why it’s important that writers live their lives and be present in the world. Plus, her #1 tip for writers. About the Author Shathi teaches creative writing at California College of the Arts, and is a member of the Portuguese Artists’ Colony and the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. Her work has appeared in Best New American Voices and Canteen, and online at Zyzzyva and Mutha Magazine. A California native, she lives in Berkeley with her husband and two children. Lucky Boy Lucky Boy is a moving story about two unforgettable women in California: an undocumented Mexican woman and an Indian-American wife. Both love the same child but can’t have him. The novel beautifully weaves together the themes of motherhood, immigration, infertility, adoption and minority life in America (and tackles immigrant detention centers) and is a must-read in our current political environment. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/132

In this Chaitime, we talk to author and journalist Zahir Janmohamed. He went to India for the first time in 2002 to Gujarat, India and found himself in the midst of one of the worst incidents of communal violence. He was 25 years old then, and this experience changed his worldview forever and motivated him to work in politics, human rights and now as a journalist and author. Zahir Janmohamed is based in Portland, Oregon and Ahmedabad, India. He is currently writing a book about the largest ghetto of Muslims in India, an area known as Juhapura. He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, where he was the inaugural co-recipient of the Anne Cox Chambers fellowship for long-form journalism, as well as from the Mesa Refuge, the Djerassi Resident Arts Program, the Norman Mailer Center, and the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Guernica, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek, The Boston Review, The Guardian, Scroll India, and many other publications.At the moment, he is a regular contributor to The Economic Times. Prior to working on his book, he spent a decade working in politics. From 2006 to 2009, he worked as the Advocacy Director for Amnesty International where he managed the organization’s lobbying, public outreach, and media work on the Middle East and North Africa. While at Amnesty International, he appeared on CNN, Fox News, BBC, NPR, and Al Jazeera. He has briefed senior officials at the White House and the State Department and authored numerous Congressional resolutions. In 2009, he was asked to testify before the US Congress about human rights abuses in the UAE. As a result, he was given an award by the UN for his commitment to human rights.

Natalie is the author of Queen Sugar, soon to be adapted for television by writer/director Ava DuVernay of “Selma” fame, and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey for OWN, Oprah’s television network. Natalie has an M.A. in Afro-American Studies from UCLA  and is a graduate of Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers where she was a Holden Minority Scholar. An early version of Queen Sugar won the Hurston Wright College Writer’s Award, was a co-runner-up in the Faulkner Pirate’s Alley Novel-in-Progress competition, and excerpts were published in Cairn and ZYZZYVA. She has had residencies at the Ragdale Foundation where she was awarded the Sylvia Clare Brown fellowship, Virginia Center for the Arts, and Hedgebrook. Her non-fiction work has appeared in The Rumpus.net, Mission at Tenth, and in The Best Women’s Travel Writing Volume 9. She is a former fiction editor at The Cortland Review and is a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. Natalie grew up in Southern California and lives in San Francisco with her family. Queen Sugar - Now available in Paperback, Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bam! | IndieBound | iTunes . Queen Sugar; A mother-daughter story of reinvention—about an African American woman who unexpectedly inherits a sugarcane farm in Louisiana. Why exactly her late father left her eight hundred acres of prime sugarcane land in Louisiana is as mysterious as it is generous. But for Charley Bordelon, it’s also an opportunity start over: to get away from the smog and sprawl of Los Angeles, and to grow a new life in the coffee-dark soil of the Gulf coast. Accompanied by her eleven-year-old daughter Micah, Charley arrives with high hopes and just in time for growing season. Charley is as unfamiliar with Southern customs as she is with cane farming—which poses serious challenges both on and off the farm, especially when her farm manager leaves without warning. But, rolling up her sleeves and swallowing her pride, Charley finds the help of a colorful cast of characters—blood relatives and townspeople alike—who all become a family to her and Micah. As the cane grows, Charley is tested by a brother who is quickly using up her patience, and it will take all of her heart to keep the sugar growing and her family intact. Queen Sugar is a story of Southern wisdom, unexpected love, and one family flourishing against all odds. Reviews : Baszile is an eloquent and descriptive writer. . . [Queen Sugar] artfully captures the timelessness of the struggle to survive, the virtues of perseverance, and the undying bonds of blood. —Bust Magazine “Queen Sugar is a page-turning, heart-breaking novel of the new south, where the past is never truly past, but the future is a hot, bright promise. This is a story of family and the healing power of our connections—to each other, and to the rich land beneath our feet.” —Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow “In her heartfelt and beautiful debut novel, Natalie Baszile tells a tale of the South that is as deeply rooted in time and place as it is universal. How do we make sense of family? Loss? The legacies passed down to us? These are the questions that Charley, a young widowed mother, grapples with as she tries to save the sugarcane plantation that is her inheritance and which, unbeknownst to her, holds the answers to both her past and her future.” —Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being “After turning the last page of Queen Sugar, I already miss the gutsy, contemporary African American woman who ditches California and migrates to Louisiana to run her inherited cane farm. Natalie Baszile is a fresh, new voice that resists all Southern stereotypes, and delivers an authentic knock-out read.” —Lalita Tademy, New York Times bestselling author of Cane River and Red River “Natalie Baszile debuts with an irresistible tale of family, community, personal obligation, and personal reinvention. The world is full of things that keep you down and things that lift you up—Queen Sugar is about both and in approximately equal measure. Smart and heart-felt and highly recommended.” —Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves “Raw with hardship and tender with hope, Queen Sugar digs deep to the core of a courageous young widow’s life as she struggles to keep her farm in Louisiana’s sugarcane country. Natalie Baszile writes with a bold and steady hand.” —Beth Hoffman, New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Me and Saving CeeCee Honeycutt “Queen Sugar is a gorgeous, moving story about what grounds us as brothers and sisters, as mothers and daughters, and all the ways we fight to save each other. Natalie Baszile’s characters put brave roots into inhospitable ground, looking for a place, a person, a community to call home home. I alternately laughed and wept as they failed each other, forgave each other, lost each other, found themselves. It’s a wise, strong book, and I loved it. You will, too.” —Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Gods in Alabama “Natalie Baszile’s Queen Sugar is a sweeping, beautifully wrought, and uniquely American story that brings to vibrant life the little-known world of Louisiana’s sugarcane country. I fell in love with Charley Bordelon—her huge heart, her kindness, her courage, and her resilience. A lyrical and page-turning meditation on second chances, reinvention, family, and race, Queen Sugar casts quite a spell.” —Melanie Gideon, author of The Slippery Year and Wife 22 “Queen Sugar is an accomplished, confident narrative that announces the arrival of a writer to watch.” —Krys Lee, author of Drifting House “Gorgeous . . . an exquisitely written book about the joys and sorrows of family, love, endurance, and hard work. I can’t ask much more of any novel.” —Peter Orner, author of Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge “Queen Sugar is story of reinvention and reconciliation about an African American woman who unexpectedly inherits a sugarcane farm in Louisiana. It is a remarkable tale of hope, endurance, and love.” —Ann Trice, Garden District Bookshop Thank You for checking out Hollywood Breakthrough Show This podcast main purpose is to serve up positive information. Join us at Hollywood Breakthrough Show, as we interview some of the most talented people in the business, which names you may, or may not know! But you have seen their work! Whether they're well- established veterans of the business, or current up and comers, these are the people who are making a living in Hollywood. Screenwriters, directors, producers and entertainment industry professionals share inside perspective on writing, filmmaking, breaking into Hollywood and navigating SHOW BUSINESS, along with stories of their journey to success! HELP SPREAD THE WORD PLEASE! SCREENWRITERS, DIRECTORS, AUTHORS, we would love to help spread the word about your Film, Book, Crowdfunding, etc., Contact us! (EMAIL: Info@hollywoodbreakthrough.com ) See Videos of all interviews at Hollywood Breakthrough Show Please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! Follow us on: Social Media Sites | Twitter @TheBreakThur| Facebook: facebook.com/HollywoodBreakthroughPodcast Subscribe! 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Welcome to UnderClothes: Episode 4 featuring Hunter Oatman-Stanford, a writer and producer for Collectors Weekly. Vintage lovers and collectors of all kinds, this one’s for you. Recorded at the San Francisco Writers Grotto, the podcast dives into the buying and selling of vintage, just how much...