THE ONES WE CHOOSE

Interview with Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar + THE MAP OF SALT AND STARS giveaway

I’m so thrilled to welcome my friend Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar to the Debutante Ball this week! Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar is the author of the novel, The Map of Salt and Stars (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2018) and a member of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI) and of American Mensa. Joukhadar’s work has appeared in Salon, The Paris Review Daily, The Kenyon Review, The Saturday Evening Post, and elsewhere, and…

Saturday, December 1, 2018
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Interview with Cinelle Barnes + MONSOON MANSION giveaway

Saturday, November 24, 2018
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I’m so thrilled to welcome Cinelle Barnes to the Debutante Ball this week! Cinelle Barnes is an essayist, memoirist, and educator from Manila, Philippines, a recipient of fellowships and scholarships from Kundiman and Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA), and is the writer-in-residence at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. She received an MFA from Converse College. Her work has appeared in Catapult, Buzzfeed, Literary Hub, Hyphen, The Margins, and…

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Interview with Vijaya Nagarajan + FEEDING A THOUSAND SOULS giveaway

Saturday, November 17, 2018
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I’m delighted to welcome my friend Vijaya Nagarajan to the Debutante Ball this week! Vijaya Nagarajan is an Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Theology/Religious Studies and in the Program of Environmental Studies at the University of San Francisco. She writes about Hinduism, gender, ritual, ecology and the commons. Recently her work has centered around spiritual autobiographies of place, especially around immigration and motherhood. She has been active in…

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Interview with Christine O’Brien + CRAVE: A MEMOIR OF FOOD AND LONGING giveaway

Saturday, November 10, 2018
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I’m so thrilled to welcome Christine O’Brien to the Debutante Ball this week! Christine is a lecturer in the English Composition Department at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, CA. She earned a BA in English at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a double MFA in non-fiction and fiction from St. Mary’s College, where she was awarded the college’s Agnes Butler Scholarship for Literary Excellence. Christine has previously worked…

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Attacus Atlas & Other Inventions: Burying The Time

Tuesday, October 23, 2018
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When I was a reporter, the best and worst part of my workday resided next to each other. The best moment was when I beat the deadline and turned in my news story to the impatient copy editors. The worst moment came next, when the copy editors and I would engage in a competitive dance off, figuratively speaking, questioning each other’s word choices and grammar (I have a thing for…

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Attacus Atlas & Other Inventions: Chronicles of an X-American (part 1)

Tuesday, October 2, 2018
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  Chronicles of an X-American (part 1) The best training is to read and write, no matter what — Grace Paley I’ve always been a poet, and it’s always some tributary of poetry that I return to when I have my teeth, metaphorically, kicked in. I started writing poems, mostly nature poems, when I turned nine. I was fast with my first drafts and slow to revise. Only my fifth-grade…

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Attacus Atlas & Other Inventions: The Twice-Born Book

Tuesday, September 11, 2018
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The Twice-Born Book:   I wrote my first book because I wanted to read it – Toni Morrison I’m a voracious reader. I admit it. I started young – one of my favorite books came in to my possession when I turned nine. A friend of the family gave me Anthony B. Lake’s A Pleasury of Witticisms and Word Play. Inside those pages I learned all about anagrams and palindromes,…

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Farewell and See You Soon!

Thursday, August 30, 2018
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  This has been an amazing year! I’ve learned so much — about publishing, about myself as a writer, about the writing and reading community. I’m so thankful I had the opportunity to write for the blog every week, to push me to think about topics I might not have otherwise. I have four amazing friends who have my back, and I’m so thankful for that.   The writing community…

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Bloopers and Embarrassing Moments

Thursday, August 23, 2018
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  This week is all about mistakes we’ve made. I’m sure I made plenty over the last year, but thankfully I don’t remember them. As far as I know, there is one typo in my printed book. My friend, Lindsay, is holding onto that information for me, with strict instructions not to say more until I ask. But one funny thing that happened to me in the process, is something…

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All About Launch Parties

Thursday, August 16, 2018
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Launch parties are fun! But you don’t have to stress about them. My top tips below:   Choose an independent bookstore to host your party. They are the best allies for writers, and your success depends on them. Bring them gifts and say thank you. Return often to sign stock. Bring them more gifts. Buy books. Let all your friends and family know about your launch party. But count on…

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