Hosted by WeHo Reads, we consider motherhood–joys, hardships, challenges, graces–and the role they play in shaping ourselves and future generations. Each of us read from our work that focuses on the often underrepresented parenting experience. We’d spend time considering our experience of motherhood and reflecting on how that understanding has changed and informed us, impacted us as writers, while considering how we portray motherhood in our work. Watch the discussion below or on YouTube.
Hosted by Skylight Books, Gerda, Cassandra, Carla, and I read from our work and discuss writing complex women characters who struggle to navigate the pressing issues of their day. Listen below or on Apple Podcasts by clicking here.
Hosted by Skylight books, Deesha, Sejal, and I discussed the ins and outs of publishing with small presses. Click here to watch our conversation, read the very helpful comments in the chat, and order our books from Skylight, or watch below.
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A Sundress Roundtable with Shauna Evans, Ashley C. Ford, and Leigh Stein.
How do you move from being a writer in the corner to a writer at the table? Writing may happen in solitude, but careers are built on community. This panel will explore how to create accessible writing communities—particularly among marginalized, underserved and non-traditional writers—where members provide feedback and share information about craft, publication, and more.
Now, more than a century later, I find myself amidst a deadly pandemic, worried about keeping my family safe while staying afloat financially. I dread that my family will wind up where my grandmother’s did: ravaged by loss, fighting to rebuild in the outbreak’s aftermath.
Usually, I mine story inspiration from experienced or observed moments that I can’t get out of my head: a trip to San Simeon where I fell in love with elephant seals and Hearst Castle; my first voice teacher’s decision to stop singing when she no longer sounded the way she did at the height of her career; my grandmother’s insistence on flying from Newark to Michigan with a whole lamb in her suitcase for my and my twin sister’s very first Easter. I let those moments brew in my head along with the characters who attach themselves. Once the characters’ voices get loud enough, I start writing.
…books I hate: books that fail to surprise me, especially those that value linguist gymnastics over great, active storytelling. I’ll take a page-turner of a story told with unobtrusive prose over one filled with elegantly crafted sentences that fail to advance a character-driven, engrossing plot.
… it wasn’t writing or LA’s literary history that brought me here. It was fear.
What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?
Show don’t tell is bullshit.
…This story started me thinking, what if someone just wanted to disappear?
Interviewed by Pat Hazell
Interviewed by Karri Offstein Rosenthal and Dr. Jenni Silberstein
Interviewed by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Interviewed by Jennifer Caloyeras
Interviewed by Ilana Masad
Interviewed with Charles Jensen
Interviewed by Ana Conception
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