Blog
Melanie Gideon is the author of the memoir THE SLIPPERY YEAR: A Meditation on Happily Ever After, an NPR and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2009, and a New York Times bestseller, as well as three young adult novels. Her novel, WIFE 22 (to be published in 30 countries and translated into 26 languages and currently in development with Working Title Films) is forthcoming from Ballantine in May 2012. She was born and raised in Rhode Island and now lives in the Bay Area with her husband and son. Here, she talks about how her mother has encouraged her to read and write throughout her life.
Leslie Maitland is a former award-winning reporter and national correspondent for The New York Times who specialized in legal affairs and investigative reporting. After breaking stories on the FBI’s undercover “Abscam” inquiry into corruption in Congress, she moved to The New York Times Washington Bureau to cover the Justice Department. Among other projects since leaving The Times, she began extensive research for CROSSING THE BORDERS OF TIME, including five reporting trips to Europe, one to Cuba, and another to Canada. Maitland lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and a 12-pound Cockapoo named Thisbe. Here, she talks about her lifelong need to write her mother's story.
T. Greenwood is the author of seven novels --- most recently, GRACED, published this past March. She has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and, most recently, the Maryland State Arts Council. She teaches creative writing at for San Diego Writer's, Ink. She and her husband, Patrick, live in San Diego, CA with their two daughters. She is also an aspiring photographer. Here, she talks about the joys of being a mother.
Lisa Brackmann is a writer, Chinese student and beach bum. Her first published novel was ROCK PAPER TIGER (Soho Press, 2010), which made a number of year’s end “best” lists, including Amazon’s Top 100 Books of 2010 and Top 10 Mystery/Thrillers. Her second, GETAWAY (Soho Press, 2012), is about a Mexican vacation gone very wrong. She blames the margaritas…
Below is an interview between Lisa and her mother, Carol.
Donia Bijan is a San Francisco Bay Area chef who left Iran in 1978 when her parents’ lives were threatened by the Islamic Revolution. After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1984, Donia went to Paris to attend the Cordon Bleu before returning to San Francisco and eventually opening her own restaurant. Since closing her restaurant in 2004, Ms. Bijan has divided her days between raising her son, catering, and writing MAMAN'S HOMESICK PIE, a memoir where she reimagines her passion for cooking as a vessel to travel back and forth between the kitchens of her childhood and the formal kitchens of her training. Here, she talks about a time in her childhood when her mother had to work every day, but took the time each morning to write her long, detailed letters. Her parents are pictured in the photos below.
World Book Night was a huge success! Our readers from across the country told us about their experiences throughout the week on our Facebook page and in emails to Carol. We are happy to share comments from 17 of them, along with photos from some. Reading these stories made us realize how many in this country are without a book to read. For a look at just how farflung the book givers were, see this map: http://www.facebook.com/worldbooknightusa
A Missouri native, Jane Myers Perrine earned her B.A. from Kansas State University and her M.Ed. in Spanish from the University of Louisville. She was a finalist in the Regency category of the Golden Heart Awards, and her short pieces have appeared in the Houston Chronicle and Woman's World magazine. A high-school Spanish teacher as well as an ordained minister, she currently lives in Texas with her husband, who is the minister of a local Christian church.
This year Carol's schedule did not permit her to attend the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, but we are lucky to have a report from Kathy Jund, a reader from Rancho Cucamonga, CA, who Carol has enjoyed spending time with at the Festival the past two years. She interviewed Kathy (in photo, second from the left) earlier this week while she was still on a high from the weekend.
Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times bestselling author of PICTURES OF YOU and eight other novels. Her new novel, IS IT TOMOROW, will be published by Algonquin Books, Spring 2013. She can be reached at www.carolineleavitt.com. She will also be participating in a live webcast with Anne Lamott on April 26th, which you can find out more about here.
Amanda Hodgkinson is a British writer and journalist who grew up in a small Essex fishing village before moving to Suffolk, and attending the University of East Anglia. She now lives and works in south west France with her husband Guy and their two daughters. 22 BRITANNIA ROAD is Amanda Hodgkinson’s first novel. Here, she talks about being inspired by her mother and her bustling childhood home.
