Cambridge Common Writers

Pleasantview by Celeste Mohammed
2021-05-01 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Massachusetts
Cambridge Common Writers is proud to host a celebration of Celeste Mohammed’s (Fiction, June 2016) debut novel-in-stories, Pleasantview. Join us for a reading by Celeste, as well as appearances by some special guests!

Click here to register for this Zoom event.

Celeste Mohammed’s work has appeared in The New England Review, Litmag, Epiphany, and The Rumpus, among other places. Several of the stories in Pleasantview have won awards, including the 2018 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, the 2019 Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction, and the 2017 John D Gardner Memorial Prize for Fiction. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Celeste graduated from Lesley University with an MFA in Creative Writing. She currently resides in Trinidad with her family.

Building Alexandria Book Launch: Clarissa Adkins
2021-05-02 19:00 - 20:00 | Online Event
Join Clarissa Adkins (Poetry, June 2018) at the launch of her first poetry collection, Building Alexandria. The event will be hosted by Eileen Cleary (Poetry, June 2016) and Clarissa will be interviewed by Rex Arrasmith (Fiction, January 2018; Poetry, June 2020).

“Clarissa Adkins has a mind I’d love to inhabit, fully attuned to the strangenesses of love, parenthood, mortality, and fleeting beauty. These poems are playful, sharp, dextrous, and witty—but they’re also filled with sonic brilliance, her mastery of the musical possibilities of language evident throughout. This is a terrific first book, one that I’ll return to with great pleasure.” — Kevin Prufer, author of The Art of Fiction

Dr. Lisa Gruenberg discusses her memoir My City of Dreams with Dr. David Urion
2021-05-11 17:00 - 18:00 | Online Event
Join author Dr. Lisa Gruenberg (Nonfiction, June 2007) for a special virtual conversation with Dr. David Urion about her second-generation Holocaust memoir, My City of Dreams. This event, hosted by the bioethics centers of Harvard Medical School and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, will not only discuss Gruenberg’s personal journey, but will also examine her memoir’s importance from the point of view of living ethically.

In My City of Dreams, Gruenberg, confronted with her elderly father’s flashbacks and nightmares, begins to inhabit the story of his sister Mia, who disappeared into Germany in 1941 when she was just fifteen years old. After her father’s death in 2005, Gruenberg traveled to Vienna, Germany and back to her childhood to explore this lost landscape, and to trace the fates of Mia, their extended family, friends and neighbors. Using letters, old photographs, primary source documents and her father’s writing, she weaves her story with theirs.

Jane Brox (Nonfiction, MFA Writing Faculty), author of Brilliant and Silence writes: “Gruenberg’s search for coherence becomes a journey of both discovery and imagination, and ultimately brings her to an understanding that proves also to be a form of healing.” My City of Dreams is a gift – an honest and thoughtful book, beautifully written and full of compassion.

Learn more about My City of Dreams here: lisagruenberg.com

White Whale Bookstore Presents Springtime Online Reading & Conversation: Karin Cecile Davidson & William Lychack
2021-05-13 19:00 - 20:00 | Online Zoom Event
Celebrating Karin Cecile Davidson’s (Fiction, June 2009) Sybelia Drive and William Lychack’s Cargill Falls.

Karin Cecile Davidson is originally from the Gulf Coast. Her novel Sybelia Drive was published by Braddock Avenue Books in Autumn 2020. Her stories have appeared in Story Magazine, The Massachusetts Review, Five Points Journal, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. Her awards include a Fine Arts Work Center Summer Residency, an Atlantic Center for the Arts Residency, a Studios of Key West Artist Residency, an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, an Orlando Prize for Short Fiction, the Waasmode Short Fiction Prize, and a Peter Taylor Fellowship. She has an MFA from Lesley University and is an Interviews Editor for Newfound Journal. For more, please visit her website.

William Lychack is the author of Cargill Falls, The Wasp Eater, and The Architect of Flowers, and his work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, The Best Small Fictions, and on public radio’s This American Life. He currently teaches at the University of Pittsburgh, where he is Director of the Graduate Writing Program. For more, please go to www.lychack.com

Chapter and Verse Reading Series -- Jennifer LeBlanc and Jane Brox
2021-05-14 19:30 - 20:30 | Online Zoom Event
Join Jennifer LeBlanc (Poetry, June 2012) with Jane Brox (Nonfiction, MFA Writing Faculty) and Jeffrey Harrison for a reading hosted by Susanna Kittredge at Chapter and Verse.

Massachusetts Poetry Festival -- Voices Amidst the Virus: Poets Respond to the Pandemic
2021-05-15 18:00 - 19:00 | Online Zoom Event
When coronavirus started closing down New England in March 2020, life changed dramatically. People quickly rethought their approaches to work, school, shopping, socializing and more. In response, Lily Poetry Press created an anthology, Voices Amidst the Virus, edited by Eileen Cleary and Christine Jones, which features poems by Kevin Prufer, Annie Finch, Daniel Summerhill, Dzvinia Orlowsky, Anne-Marie Oomen, Sean Thomas Dougherty, and many others that explores our shared experiences of isolation, lock-down, re-entry. In this panel discussion, the editors and two poets from the collection will talk about the inspiration behind the project as well as their experiences writing through the pandemic. They will read a selection of poems that confront despair and reach for hope. And there will be sourdough! During the interactive session, the audience will be invited to share their own Covid-19 stories and poems.

Participating CCW community members:

Steven Cramer (Poetry, MFA Writing Faculty)Eileen Cleary (Poetry, June 2016)Christine Jones (Poetry, January 2014)

We Contain Multitudes: Supporting Diverse Diversity Within Asian American Voices
2021-05-17 20:00 - 21:00 | YouTube
Featuring Debbi Michiko Florence, Christina Soontornvat, Andrea Wang (WFYP, June 2011), Veera Hiranandani, and Mike Jung.

Join Middle Grade authors as they share their experiences growing up as Asian Americans and how their backgrounds influence the books they write. Discussion will center on the need for MANY Asian American penned novels to reflect the diversity of the Asian American experience. Alum Andrea Wang will be talking about her upcoming MG, The Many Meanings of Meilan.

Blue Desert by Celia Jeffries -- Book Launch
2021-05-18 19:00 - 20:00 | Online Zoom Event
Author Celia Jeffries (Fiction and Nonfiction, 2008) will be joined in conversation with Janet Pocorobba (Nonfiction, 2006), Associate Director of the Lesley MFA Program, to celebrate the launch of Jeffries’ new book, Blue Desert.

Blue Desert is the story of Alice George, a headstrong young British woman, and her life among the Tuareg, a tribe of nomadic warriors. While the outside world faced the catastrophe of World War I, the Tuareg continued to crisscross the Sahara as they always had. A matrilineal society in which the men are veiled and the women hold property—a world in which anything can happen—it was a world well suited to eighteen-year-old Alice, who discovers a life she could never live in corseted England.

Jeffries and Pocorobba will focus their discussion on the fine art of revision and read from their books.

Jeffries’ work has appeared in numerous newspapers and literary magazines including Westview, Solstice Literary Magazine, and Puerto del Sol, as well as the anthology Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper. She has received grants from Turkey Land Cove Foundation, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, and La Muse. Jeffries holds an MA from Brandeis and worked in news and educational publishing before earning an MFA from Lesley University. She has worked with writers at all levels, from elementary school to university both here and abroad, and in many different communities, including incarcerated, literacy, and ESL programs. Her own writing has been nurtured in the community of writers in Western Massachusetts, where she is on the steering committee of Straw Dog Writers Guild, and where she offers workshops at Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop. Pocorobba’s book, The Fourth String: A Memoir of Sensei and Me, was published in 2019. Her essays and memoirs have appeared in publications including The Rumpus, River Teeth, Harvard Review, Nixes Mate, The Writer, and forthcoming in Writers’ Digest. She is also a book editor and coach and works with writers in all stages of the projects as The Book Whisperer.

Story Time with Asian American Picture Books
2021-05-22 12:00 - 13:00 | YouTube
Featuring Andrea Wang (WFYP, June 2011), Kristen Giang, Benson Shum, Wendy Wan-Long Shang, Gracey Zhang, and Mượn Thị Văn

Entertain your little ones! Join six Asian American/Asian Canadian authors as they read their recent picture books: Andrea Wang (WATERCRESS), Kristen Giang (GINGER AND CHRYSANTHEMUM), Benson Shum (ALEX’S GOOD FORTUNE), Wendy Wan-Long Shang (THE RICE IN THE POT GOES ROUND AND ROUND), Gracey Zhang (LALA’S WORDS), and Mượn Thị Văn (WISHES).

MOTHERS, A Virtual Reading of New Works
2021-05-23 17:00 - 18:00 | Online Event
A Reading of New Works… in honor of mothers everywhere. Featuring works from:

“A Lovely Day Outside” by Rhiannon Ciara Vaughn (WSS, January 2019)

“Leftovers” by Sarah Hunter

“You’ve Got to Keep Mother Alive” by Vance Walker

“Counterpoint” by Hortense Gerardo

“Crusades” by John Mabey

“Mom’s Recipes” by Ken Levine

CCW Debut Book Launch for Clarissa Adkins and Poetry Open Mic
2021-05-23 19:00 - 20:00 | Online Zoom Event
CCW book launch, featuring Clarissa Adkins (Poetry, June 2018) author of Building Alexandria (Lily Poetry Review, 2021).

Join on Sunday, May 23, 2021 at 7:00 pm Eastern to hear Clarissa read from her book and for you to share your poetry. After Clarissa’s reading there will be time for an open-mic for those who are interested.

K-pop in YA panel -- Axie Oh
2021-05-28 19:00 - 20:00 | YouTube
Featuring: Kat Cho, Axie Oh (WFYP, June 2017), Lyla Lee, Stephan Lee, Maurene Goo

A BTS look at the Blood, Sweat, and Tears that goes into creating the DNA of a K-Pop Young Adult book. From the bright lights of the stage to the sweet bloom of first love, these authors write it all amid the backdrop of the Hallyu wave.

The Shores of Self: Creativity and Complex Narratives in Diasporic Communities
2021-06-02 18:30 - 19:30 | Online Zoom Event
The Faraday Publishing Company will be hosting their first event of the year, “The Shores of Self: Creativity and Complex Narratives in Diasporic Communities”, on Wednesday, June 2 at 6:30pm EDT. They will be joined by writers and scholars: Alyss Dixson, Tony Medina, Lisa Pegram (Poetry, June 2012), and Craig Santos Perez.

This panel discussion, which will be moderated by Enzo Silon Surin (Poetry, 2012), has been convened due to the number of incidents of anti-Black and anti-Asian/Pacific Islander violence in America, which have been an all-too-frequent refrain in headlines for the past few years. The realities of Black and Asian and Pacific Islander communities are complex and dynamic, and our panel of world-class writers and scholars will be sharing their work and insights to “trouble” (as Paisley Rekdal says in Appropriate: A Provocation) the ways these communities are portrayed in the media.

Voices Amidst the Virus Reading
2021-06-08 19:00 - 20:00 | Online Zoom Event
Please join Cambridge Commons Writers for a night of poetry featuring pieces published recently in Voices Amidst the Virus by Lily Poetry Press, edited by Lesley graduates Eileen Cleary (Poetry, June 2016) and Christine Jones (Poetry, January 2014). Fellow poetry Lesley alums Suzanne Edison (July 2016), Cindy Hunter Morgan, Jon Lee (January 2017), Robert Gamble (January 2017), Anne Riesenberg (Nonfiction), Michael Mercurio (January 2017), Frances Donovan (June 2019), and MFA Writing Faculty Steven Cramer and Kevin Prufer will read a selection of poems inspired by their experiences of isolation, lock-down, and re-entry in this time of Covid. We will also play film clips from MSU’s Filmretry Festival based on the anthology’s text.

Virtual Event: Chaney Kwak in conversation with Daniel Handler
2021-06-08 21:00 - 23:00 | Online Zoom Event
Chaney Kwak (Fiction, June 2009) appears in conversation with the legendary Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) to discuss The Passenger at Green Apple Books in San Francisco. Handler is the author of seven novels, including Bottle Grove.In March 2019, the Viking Sky cruise ship was struck by a bomb cyclone in the Arctic Sea. Rocked by 60-foot swells and 87-mile-per-hour gales, the ship lost power and began to drift straight toward the notoriously dangerous Hustadvika coast in Norway. The Passenger: How a Travel Writer Learned to Love Cruises & Other Lies from a Sinking Ship is the suspenseful, harrowing, funny, touching story by one passenger who contemplated death aboard that ship. The Passenger takes readers for an unforgettable journey from the Norwegian coast to the South China Sea, from post-WWII Korea to pandemic-struck San Francisco. Kwak weaves his personal experience into events spanning decades and continents to explore the serendipity and relationships that move humans. Chaney Kwak has been traversing the globe for more than a decade to write about food and travel. His work appears regularly in newspapers such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, as well as magazines such as Afar, Condé Nast Traveler, and Travel + Leisure. Mr. Kwak teaches nonfiction writing at the Stanford Continuing Studies program and lives in San Francisco.Daniel Handler is the author of seven novels, including Why We Broke Up, We Are Pirates, All The Dirty Parts and, most recently, Bottle Grove. As Lemony Snicket, he is responsible for numerous books for children, including the thirteen-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events, the four-volume All the Wrong Questions, and The Dark, which won the Charlotte Zolotow Award. His books have sold more than 70 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages, and have been adapted for film, stage and television, including the recent adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events for which he was awarded both the Peabody and the Writers Guild of America awards.

Chaney Kwak in conversation with Lori Ostlund
2021-06-10 20:00 - 21:00 | Online Event
Chaney Kwak (Fiction, June 2009) appears in conversation (virtually) with Lori Ostlund to discuss The Passenger hosted by Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis.In a starred review, Foreword Reviews writes, “The Passenger, with its bare-bones honesty and dry, cynical humor, reveals that when all is said and done, it’s the little things that matter: small acts of courage and kindness, words of love, and gratitude for the gift of another day.”In March 2019, the Viking Sky cruise ship was struck by a bomb cyclone in the Arctic Sea. Rocked by 60-foot swells and 87-mile-per-hour gales, the ship lost power and began to drift straight toward the notoriously dangerous Hustadvika coast in Norway. The Passenger: How a Travel Writer Learned to Love Cruises & Other Lies from a Sinking Ship is the suspenseful, harrowing, funny, touching story by one passenger who contemplated death aboard that ship.Chaney Kwak has been traversing the globe for more than a decade to write about food and travel. His work appears regularly in newspapers such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, as well as magazines such as Afar, Condé Nast Traveler, and Travel + Leisure. Mr. Kwak teaches nonfiction writing at the Stanford Continuing Studies program and lives in San Francisco.

Lesley MFA Evening Reading Series - Michael Lowenthal (Fiction) and Celeste Mohammed (Fiction)
2021-06-18 18:00 - 19:30 | Online Zoom Event

Virtual Event: Chaney Kwak in conversation with Nathan Hake
2021-06-18 20:30 - 23:30 | Online Event
Chaney Kwak (Fiction, June 2009) appears in conversation with travel writer Nathan Hake to discuss The Passenger at Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver.In March 2019, the Viking Sky cruise ship was struck by a bomb cyclone in the Arctic Sea. Rocked by 60-foot swells and 87-mile-per-hour gales, the ship lost power and began to drift straight toward the notoriously dangerous Hustadvika coast in Norway. The Passenger: How a Travel Writer Learned to Love Cruises & Other Lies from a Sinking Ship is the suspenseful, harrowing, funny, touching story by one passenger who contemplated death aboard that ship. The Passenger takes readers for an unforgettable journey from the Norwegian coast to the South China Sea, from post-WWII Korea to pandemic-struck San Francisco. Kwak weaves his personal experience into events spanning decades and continents to explore the serendipity and relationships that move humans.Chaney Kwak has been traversing the globe for more than a decade to write about food and travel. His work appears regularly in newspapers such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, as well as magazines such as Afar, Condé Nast Traveler, and Travel + Leisure. Mr. Kwak teaches nonfiction writing at the Stanford Continuing Studies program and lives in San Francisco.Originally from Denver, Colorado, Nathan Hake is a recovering corporate lawyer turned travel blogger, digital nomad, and entrepreneur. His travel blog, TravelLemming.com, focuses on promoting emerging destinations around the world as a solution to the problem of overtourism. He also founded a small B2B software company, Collection Harbor, and has done some freelance writing work along the way.

Lesley MFA Evening Reading Series - Pam Petro (Nonfiction) and Kevin Prufer (Poetry)
2021-06-20 18:30 - 20:00 | Online Zoom Event

Lesley MFA Evening Reading Series - Sara Farizan (WFYP) and Kate Snodgrass (WSS)
2021-06-21 18:30 - 20:00 | Online Zoom Event

Virtual Author Visit: Lori M. Lee with Axie Oh
2021-06-23 20:00 - 21:00 | Online Event
Author Lori M. Lee introduces the second book in her Shamanborn series, BROKEN WEB! Joined by fellow YA author Axie Oh (WFYP, June 2017), this is going to be an event you don’t want to miss! Order the first book in Lori’s series, FOREST OF SOULS from Mystery to Me, and place your pre-order for Axie’s XOXO, coming in July!

About Broken Web

The Soulless is free from his centuries-long imprisonment. Now, he lurks in the Dead Wood recovering his strength, while Sirscha and her allies journey east to the shaman empire of Nuvalyn. Everyone believes she is a soulguide–a savior–but Sirscha knows the truth. She’s a monster, a soulrender like the Soulless, and if anyone discovers the truth, she’ll be executed. But there’s nothing Sirscha won’t risk to stop the shaman responsible for the rot that’s killing her best friend. While the Soulless is formidable, like all shamans, his magic must be channeled through a familiar. If Sirscha can discover what–or who–that is, she might be able to cut him off from his power. With Queen Meilyr bent on destroying the magical kingdoms, Sirscha finds herself caught between a war brewing in the east and the Soulless waiting in the west. She should be trying to unite what peoples she can to face their common enemies, but instead, her hunt for clues about the Soulless leads to a grim discovery, forcing Sirscha to question who her enemies really are.

Cambridge Common Writers Alumni Reading
2021-06-23 20:00 - 21:00 | Online Zoom Event
Join us for an evening of reading and celebration with our CCW community. Open to current students and members of the public.

Featured Readers:

Nada Samih-Rotondo (Fiction, June 2012)Diane Griffin (Nonfiction, January 2018)Kate Kearns (Poetry, June 2008)Patty Pearson (WFYP, June 2015)Wendy Ewan (WSS, June 2018)

Chaney Kwak in conversation with Paul Lisicky
2021-06-30 19:30 - 20:30 | Online Event
Debut author Chaney Kwak (Fiction, June 2009) appears in conversation with award-winning author Paul Lisicky to discuss The Passenger at Greenlight in Brooklyn. Lisicky is the author of six books including Later: My Life at the Edge of the World, one of NPR’S Best Books of 2020.

In a starred review, Foreword Reviews writes “The Passenger, with its bare-bones honesty and dry, cynical humor, reveals that when all is said and done, it’s the little things that matter: small acts of courage and kindness, words of love, and gratitude for the gift of another day.”

Shakirah Bourne presents Josephine Against the Sea: In conversation with Tracey Baptiste
2021-07-06 18:00 - 19:00 | Online Zoom Event
Bajan author and filmmaker Shakirah Bourne joins Greenlight (virtually!) to launch her debut middle grade novel, Josephine Against the Sea, a magical, heartfelt adventure inspired by Caribbean mythology!Eleven-year-old Josephine knows that no one is good enough for her daddy. That’s why she makes a habit of scaring his new girlfriends away. She’s desperate to make it onto her school’s cricket team because she’ll get to play her favorite sport and use the cricket matches to distract Daddy from dating. But when Coach Broomes announces that girls can’t try out for the team, the frustrated Josephine cuts into a powerful silk cotton tree and accidentally summons a bigger problem into her life. Can Josephine convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save Daddy from the clutches of his new girlfriend, a vengeful sea creature, before it’s too late?

Tracey Baptiste (WFYP, MFA Writing Faculty), bestselling author of the creepy Caribbean series The Jumbies and several other books, joins Bourne in conversation at this magical virtual book launch!

What The Universe Is: Rob Arnold, Lisa Pegram, Robbie Gamble
2021-07-08 20:00 - 21:00 | Online Zoom
ROB ARNOLD is a Chamoru poet whose work has appeared in Ploughshares, Hyphen, Gettysburg Review, Poetry Northwest, RED INK, Yes Poetry, The Ocean State Review, Peripheries, and The Volta, among others. His poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and have received support from the Somerville Arts Council, the Jack Straw Cultural Center, and Artist Trust. Rob has two decades of experience in literary publishing and related positions, most recently as an agent with Aevitas Creative Management and as events curator for Hugo House. Previously, he co-founded the online journal Memorious, and worked with Ploughshares, Fence, Beacon Press, PEN New England, The National Poetry Series, and Grid Books. He lives in Seattle, where he is writing a manuscript that explores indigeneity through violence and survival, divisions of self and fragmentations of family.LISA PEGRAM, MFA (Poetry, June 2012), is a Washington, DC native writer, educator, literary publicist and acquisitions editor. Author of Cracked Calabash (Central Square Press) and winner of the DC Mayor’s Arts Award, her work has been published in anthologies by Random House and Black Classic Press, and magazines such as L’Officiel and Atlas Obscura. Lisa was DC WritersCorps program director for a decade and has over 20 years of experience in literary program design for such organizations as the Smithsonian Institute, Corcoran Gallery of Art and National Geographic. In 2018, she completed an Executive Certification in Arts & Culture Strategies from UPenn. She is currently based on the Caribbean island of St. Martin.ROBBIE GAMBLE (Poetry/Nonfiction, January 2017/June 2020) (he/him) received an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. His poems and essays have appeared in the Atlanta Review, Cutthroat, Poet Lore, RHINO, Rust + Moth, and Tahoma Literary Review, among others. He was the winner of the 2017 Carve Poetry prize, and was a 2019 Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Sumer Writers Workshop. Robbie is the Associate Poetry Editor at Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices. He worked for many years as a nurse practitioner at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, and now divides his time between Boston and Vermont.

Virtual Launch with Nisha Sharma and Axie Oh
2021-07-13 18:00 - 19:00 | Online Event
Celebrate the releases of Nisha Sharma’s Radha & Jai’s Recipe for Romance and Axie Oh’s (WFYP, June 2017) XOXO in conversation with Ayman Chaudry hosted by Books of Wonder. There will be a Q&A portion with the audience.

Blurred Lines Writing Workshop with Novuyo Masakhane and Leah Young
2021-07-17 00:00 - 2021-07-18 23:59 | Online Event
A 2-day generative writing workshop with teachers Novuyo Masakhane (Fiction, January 2021) and Leah Young (Nonfiction, January 2018). July 17-18 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. each day.

Day 1 Saturday:

We will focus on comparing and contrasting craft elements of fiction and creative non-fiction, such as: voice, setting, character and inspiration. Participants will work with a variety of writing prompts. There will be discussion of writing process and time for Q&A.

Day 2 Sunday:

We will pivot to projects in development and new writing, working with writing prompts, discussion and Q&A.

NOTE: Enrolled participants will receive their unique link to the online event the day before the workshop.

About the Presenters:

Novuyo Masakhane MFA s an interdisciplinary artist: writer, dancer/choreographer, filmmaker, and educator. Masakhane is a graduate of Lesley University’s creative writing program. She’s the founder and producer of String of Pearls Creative Writing Salon. Last but surely not least, Novuyo is mother and grandma, and makes her home in Santa Monica, California. She’s currently working on her novel, ‘House of Jewels’ and a short story collection. Her work appears in the Milvia Street Art and Literary Journal.

Leah Young MFA teaches English Rhetoric & Composition at College of Southern Nevada, is a visual artist and published author. She is the founder and director of The Art of Women Foundation and owner of Powher Books. Leah created and taught an online blogging course for beginners and The Creative Fire writing workshop. Leah is also a graduate of Lesley University’s creative writing program. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Powher Books LIVE with Celeste Mohammed
2021-07-20 16:00 - 17:00 | Online Event
Join Powher Books (founded by Nonfiction alum Leah Young) and Celeste Mohammed (Fiction, June 2016) for a discussion of Celeste’s debut novel, Pleasantview, along with guest author panelists Suzanne Edison (Poetry, June 2016), and Benjamin Roesch (Fiction, January 2016).

Celeste has been a lawyer since 2001 but she has been telling stories all her life. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, in 2016, she graduated from Lesley University with an MFA in Creative Writing. Celeste’s goal is to dispel all myths about island-life and island-people, and to highlight the points of intersection between Caribbean and North American interests. In particular, she aims to showcase Trinidad’s entrenched political, racial, and class alliances; the generosity (and yet, cruelty) of the average Trini; the sense of optimism (and yet, harsh reality) which permeates everyday interaction; and the musicality and resonance of Caribbean creole (kriol) expression. She currently resides in Trinidad with her family.

Powher Books Live with Tavi Taylor Black
2021-08-03 17:00 - 18:00 | Online
Join Lesley MFA alum-founded Powher Books for a conversation about her work.

Tavi Taylor Black (Fiction, June 2008) lives on an island near Seattle where she designs sets for the Vashon Dance Academy, works as the tour manager for Deva Premal & Miten with Manose (a musical mantra group), and was the founding director of the Dove Project, an anti-domestic violence non-profit organization. Before earning an MFA from Lesley University, Tavi spent 14 years touring with rock bands. Her work has been published in Literary Mama, The Zodiac Review, and is forthcoming in Levee Magazine.

Book Launch with Andrea Wang in Convo w/ Debbi Michiko Florence
2021-08-17 20:00 - 21:00 | Online Event
Celebrate the launch of THE MANY MEANINGS OF MEILAN with award-winning author Andrea Wang (WFYP, June 2011), in conversation with Debbi Michiko Florence who is celebrating the release of JUST BE COOL, JENNA SAKAI. Copies of Debbi’s books are not able to be personalized at this time. Only Andrea’s MG novel will offer personalization.

Andrea Wang is the award-winning author of the picture books The Nian Monster, Magic Ramen, and Watercress. The Many Meanings of Meilan is her debut middle-grade novel. The first character in Andrea’s Chinese name is an archaic one that means fragrant, but her parents’ friends all thought it was the character for jade, which sounds exactly the same. That sparked her lifelong interest in names and identity. She’d much rather be a rock than smelly. Andrea likes to write about family, food, and culture. She spent her childhood in Ohio and Boston and now lives in Colorado with her family.

Debbi Michiko Florence is the author of middle grade novels Just Be Cool, Jenna Sakai, which received a starred review from Kirkus, Keep It Together, Keiko Carter, a New England Book Award finalist; and the Jasmine Toguchi chapter books. A third-generation Japanese American and native Californian, Debbi lives in Connecticut with her husband, rescue dog, rabbit, and duck. Visit her online at debbimichikoflorence.com.
