The Beauty and Urgency of Nature Writing
As Tom Comitta notes in the Preface to The Nature Book, readers of fiction (too) often gloss over descriptions of nature, but this session invites readers to really pay attention to nature writing, in all its marvelous variety. Comitta's stunningly…
The Art of Life: Writing Autobiography Across the Genres
If, like Whitman, we contain multitudes, the life of every writer should bear no shortage of material. But few of us are getting book deals from our Tweets and TikToks. Writing from real life seems to be the domain of memoirists and writers…
Crossing the Finish Line: New Books from SJSU MFA Faculty, Steinbeck Fellows, and Students
What does it take to get beyond outlines and sh*tty first drafts to a finished manuscript? And, from there, how do you make it across the finish line to publication? Five San José State University faculty members, students, and Steinbeck Fellows…
True Stories: Northern California
Northern California is home to countless compelling stories—in this session, authors of nonfiction books each get twelve minutes to share one with you. The first one tells a tale as old as time, or maybe even older—in Deep Oakland, geologist…
One Long Listening: A Habit of Love, a Memoir of Offering Care
We instantly fell in love with Chenxing Han’s one long listening: a memoir of grief, friendship, and spiritual care. A hospital chaplain and caregiver in the making, Han journeys from a mountaintop monastery in Taiwan to oncology wards in…
Reckoning: Falling, Femicide, and Dreaming the New World: A Conversation with Award-Winning Playwright and Activist V (formerly Eve Ensler)
Perhaps you're most familiar with V as the Tony Award-winning playwright (often under her former name Eve Ensler) of groundbreaking works such as The Vagina Monologues. Or maybe you've been inspired by V's global activist movement, launched…
Echoes of Exclusion
In her memoir Orphan Bachelors, Fae Myenne Ng includes a haunting quote from her father: "America didn’t have to kill any Chinese, the Exclusion Act ensured none would be born.” The Chinese exclusion era started in 1882 and ended (at least…
Bridging the Distance: Nicole Chung and A Living Remedy
Nicole Chung's debut memoir, All You Can Ever Know, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, among other honors. Chung follows up her exquisite debut with a wrenching new memoir, A Living Remedy, written…
Finding Nature, Saving Time
Time stretches out in front of us, but there is never enough of it and you simply cannot borrow, buy, or make more. In Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock, Jenny Odell (acclaimed for her prior book How to Do Nothing) shows how the…
Memoir: In Search of Our Fathers
We often find ourselves looking back on our parents’ lives to understand our own place in the world. This might be particularly tricky when, for example, your father led a secret life in the CIA, as Leslie Absher's did. In her memoir Spy Daughter,…