She Writes, She Reads: Women and the New World of Publishing
Avid Reader "Active", Saturday, May 17, 2014 at 7:30pm
On May 17th at 7:30 p.m., the Avid Reader bookstore in Davis will present an evening of readings and discussion with authors Judith Newton, Jessica Levine, and Rossandra White. Their recent books are published by She Writes Press, a Bay Area publisher founded to serve members of She Writes, the largest global community of women writers online and women writers everywhere.
The program showcases the diversity and power of the She Writes list and reflects the reality that more women are writing for public consumption than ever before. As Professor Emerita in Women and Gender Studies at U.C. Davis, Newton will offer some historical perspective on important factors in the surge of women’s public writing and will moderate the conversation following the readings. The books by the three featured writers span genres and are products of the new wave of entrepreneur publishers and authors redefining the path to publication. In addition to reading selections from their books, the authors will discuss the new publishing possibilities available to authors today, their own journeys to publication, and the ways in which women’s lives and stories are as central to history and culture as those of men.
The audience is invited to participate in this discussion and celebration of women’s voices and their potential empowerment in publishing today. Tasting Home: Coming of Age in the Kitchen, Newton’s award winning memoir, tells the history of a woman’s emotional education, relays the romantic tale of a marriage between a straight woman and a gay man, and explores the ways that cooking can lay the groundwork for personal healing, intimate relation, and political community. Organized by decade and by the cookbooks that shaped her life, the book takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the cuisines, cultural spirit, and politics of the 1940s through 2011, complete with recipes. Tasting Home has won six awards and received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly.
Newton is also the author and co-editor of five works of non fiction on nineteenth-century British women writers, feminist criticism, women’s history, and men’s movements. Four of these works were reprinted by Routledge and the University of Michigan Press in the fall of 2012. Her most current work has appeared in The Huffington Post (“A Valentine for My Gay Ex-Husband”; “Reclaiming the Kitchen: Women’s History Month Meets the Food Justice Movement”; Saying Goodbye to a Difficult Mother,” and “How Mastering the Art of French Cooking Turned My Life Around”), in The Redwood Coast Review (“‘The Trip’: Male Midlife Crisis Meets Modernist Cuisine,” Winter 2012), poetalk (“There’s None Can Die,” Summer, 2011). She is currently at work on a feminist mystery and lives in the East Bay of California, where she tends her garden and cooks for family and friends. More information is available on her website at tasting-home.com.
In Jessica Levine’s debut novel, The Geometry of Love, an aspiring poet is living with her reliable boyfriend when she is thrown off-balance by a chance meeting with a composer friend, who catalyzes her creativity. Torn between her need for stability and her desire for independence, the poet grapples with questions of artistic inspiration, erotic love, and infidelity. Just published April 8, Booklist starred their review of this novel, calling it “outstanding.”
Levine’s stories, essays, poetry, and translations have appeared in many journals, including Green Hills Literary Lantern, North American Review, and The Southern Review. She earned her Ph.D. in English at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Delicate Pursuit: Literary Discretion in Henry James and Edith Wharton (Routledge, 2002) and has translated several books from French and Italian into English. She was born in New York City and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her website is jessicalevine.com.
Rossandra White’s memoir, Loveyoubye: Holding Fast, Letting Go, and Then There’s the Dog, also published on April 8. The book compels readers with a personal history that moves from a childhood in Zambia, through early marriage and motherhood in South Africa, to her emigration to the United States at the age of 24. Her story reflects fierce and evolving cultures and the changing landscapes of women’s roles from the 1950s and 60s of the turbulent apartheid era to the 21st Century and newfound independence in later life. Loveyoubye begins as White’s world falls apart during a collision of crises on two continents. Just as her American husband disappears to Mexico, her brother’s health crisis calls her back to Africa, and her beloved dog receives a fatal diagnosis. Standing on the edge of the past and future as she travels between her birth country and the shifting foundations at home, she finds courage to face a painful decision — stay in a crumbling marriage, or leave her husband of twenty-five years and forge a new life alone. Her story reveals the power of choice in shaping a woman’s identity and forging a meaningful life.
A fourth generation South African, White is the author of two YA novels, Monkey's Wedding and Mine Dances, set in Zimbabwe and Zambia. A recipient of many writing awards, her short stories have been published in Writer's Digest and Interstice, among others. Currently at work on a new novel, she lives in Laguna Beach, California where she hikes the hills and canyons with her Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Fergie and Jake. More information can be found on her website and blog at rossandrawhite.com.
She Writes Press is an independent partnership publishing company. It is a curated press that’s both mission-driven and community-oriented, aiming to serve writers who wish to maintain greater ownership and control of their projects while still getting the highest quality editorial help possible for their work. She Writes Press titles have traditional distribution through Ingram Publisher Services. You can find them online at shewritespress.com.
Location: Street: 617 2nd St City: Davis, Province: California Postal Code: 95616-4620 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)
The program showcases the diversity and power of the She Writes list and reflects the reality that more women are writing for public consumption than ever before. As Professor Emerita in Women and Gender Studies at U.C. Davis, Newton will offer some historical perspective on important factors in the surge of women’s public writing and will moderate the conversation following the readings. The books by the three featured writers span genres and are products of the new wave of entrepreneur publishers and authors redefining the path to publication. In addition to reading selections from their books, the authors will discuss the new publishing possibilities available to authors today, their own journeys to publication, and the ways in which women’s lives and stories are as central to history and culture as those of men.
The audience is invited to participate in this discussion and celebration of women’s voices and their potential empowerment in publishing today. Tasting Home: Coming of Age in the Kitchen, Newton’s award winning memoir, tells the history of a woman’s emotional education, relays the romantic tale of a marriage between a straight woman and a gay man, and explores the ways that cooking can lay the groundwork for personal healing, intimate relation, and political community. Organized by decade and by the cookbooks that shaped her life, the book takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the cuisines, cultural spirit, and politics of the 1940s through 2011, complete with recipes. Tasting Home has won six awards and received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly.
Newton is also the author and co-editor of five works of non fiction on nineteenth-century British women writers, feminist criticism, women’s history, and men’s movements. Four of these works were reprinted by Routledge and the University of Michigan Press in the fall of 2012. Her most current work has appeared in The Huffington Post (“A Valentine for My Gay Ex-Husband”; “Reclaiming the Kitchen: Women’s History Month Meets the Food Justice Movement”; Saying Goodbye to a Difficult Mother,” and “How Mastering the Art of French Cooking Turned My Life Around”), in The Redwood Coast Review (“‘The Trip’: Male Midlife Crisis Meets Modernist Cuisine,” Winter 2012), poetalk (“There’s None Can Die,” Summer, 2011). She is currently at work on a feminist mystery and lives in the East Bay of California, where she tends her garden and cooks for family and friends. More information is available on her website at tasting-home.com.
In Jessica Levine’s debut novel, The Geometry of Love, an aspiring poet is living with her reliable boyfriend when she is thrown off-balance by a chance meeting with a composer friend, who catalyzes her creativity. Torn between her need for stability and her desire for independence, the poet grapples with questions of artistic inspiration, erotic love, and infidelity. Just published April 8, Booklist starred their review of this novel, calling it “outstanding.”
Levine’s stories, essays, poetry, and translations have appeared in many journals, including Green Hills Literary Lantern, North American Review, and The Southern Review. She earned her Ph.D. in English at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Delicate Pursuit: Literary Discretion in Henry James and Edith Wharton (Routledge, 2002) and has translated several books from French and Italian into English. She was born in New York City and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her website is jessicalevine.com.
Rossandra White’s memoir, Loveyoubye: Holding Fast, Letting Go, and Then There’s the Dog, also published on April 8. The book compels readers with a personal history that moves from a childhood in Zambia, through early marriage and motherhood in South Africa, to her emigration to the United States at the age of 24. Her story reflects fierce and evolving cultures and the changing landscapes of women’s roles from the 1950s and 60s of the turbulent apartheid era to the 21st Century and newfound independence in later life. Loveyoubye begins as White’s world falls apart during a collision of crises on two continents. Just as her American husband disappears to Mexico, her brother’s health crisis calls her back to Africa, and her beloved dog receives a fatal diagnosis. Standing on the edge of the past and future as she travels between her birth country and the shifting foundations at home, she finds courage to face a painful decision — stay in a crumbling marriage, or leave her husband of twenty-five years and forge a new life alone. Her story reveals the power of choice in shaping a woman’s identity and forging a meaningful life.
A fourth generation South African, White is the author of two YA novels, Monkey's Wedding and Mine Dances, set in Zimbabwe and Zambia. A recipient of many writing awards, her short stories have been published in Writer's Digest and Interstice, among others. Currently at work on a new novel, she lives in Laguna Beach, California where she hikes the hills and canyons with her Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Fergie and Jake. More information can be found on her website and blog at rossandrawhite.com.
She Writes Press is an independent partnership publishing company. It is a curated press that’s both mission-driven and community-oriented, aiming to serve writers who wish to maintain greater ownership and control of their projects while still getting the highest quality editorial help possible for their work. She Writes Press titles have traditional distribution through Ingram Publisher Services. You can find them online at shewritespress.com.
Location: Street: 617 2nd St City: Davis, Province: California Postal Code: 95616-4620 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)
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