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CRISTINA
GARCIA
was born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in New York City. She has authored
Dreaming in Cuban and A Handbook
to Luck, as well as The Aguero Sisters,
Cubanisimo!, Monkey Hunting
and is the editor of Bordering Fires. Writing
in beautiful prose with a unique social insight, her novels explore
political, personal and familial issues surrounding a dual cultural
identity. Cristina is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a
Hodder Fellowship at Princeton and the Whiting Writers Award. She
currently resides in California.
www.lasmujeres.com/cristinagarcia
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MARY
HERSHEY
is an author of fiction for children and young adults. Her novel,
The One Where the Kid Nearly Jumps to His Death
and Lands in California (2007), was described
by Publisher's Weekly as “…a poignant novel populated
with complex, memorable characters.” Mary's first novel, My
Big Sister is So Bossy She Says You Can't Read this Book
(2005), was selected as a Book of the Week in the Washington Post.
Mary reports that she is an heiress to the Hershey fortune, a lesbian,
a coach, a former undercover hooker and a new instructor with the
UCLA Extension Writer's Program. (She notes that one of those
could very possibly be a big fat lie.)
www.maryhershey.com
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GINA
NAHAI
is the author of Sunday’s Silence,
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith and Cry
of the Peacock. Caspian Rain
is her most recent work, published in September 2007. She is a contributing
author to The Modern Jewish Girl’s Guide to Guilt,
which won the 2005 Jewish Book Award. Gina is also a frequent lecturer
on the contemporary politics of the Middle East and has been a regular
guest on CNBC. She is currently at work on a new novel, In
the Kingdom of the Pearl Canon.
www.ginabnahai.com
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NANCY
PEARL
loves books so much that she has an endless list of them that she
has read, still wants to read and that she recommends to us. She has
authored three guides to good reading: Book Lust: Reading
for Every Mood, Moment and Reason,
More Book Lust and, for children and teens,
Book Crush. Nancy also reviews books for
Seattle’s NPR-affiliate KUOW and on local television. She founded
the “If All Seattle Read the Same Book” project, now imitated
nationwide, including the local “Santa Barbara Reads”
program, and is honored as the “shushing librarian” action
figure doll complete with computer and book cart. Want a good book
to read? Nancy has suggestions…
www.nancypearl.com
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TANYA
SHAFFER
is an award-winning playwright, solo performer and author. Her most
recent play, Baby Taj, based on her travels
in India, was selected by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland
Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News as one of the Top Ten Plays
of 2005 and nominated for a Bay Area Theatre Critics' Award and an
American Theatre Critics' Association Steinberg Award. Her solo show,
Let My Enemy Live Long! garnered a Bay Area
Theatre Critics' Award for solo performance. The San Francisco Chronicle
selected her book, Somebody's Heart is Burning: A Woman
Wanderer in Africa, as one of the Best Books of 2003.
www.tanyashaffer.com
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MONIQUE
SONOQUIE
is a storyteller, writer, director and producer of documentary films.
She is Chumash, Apache , Yaqui, Zapotec, and Irish. She is dedicated
to keeping the stories and languages of her people alive, expanding
the traditional oral tradition of storytelling to include the written
word and 21st century methods such as film, video, and sound recording.
Her book The Beginning of the Chumash: A Chumash Oral
History is based on the creation story as told by Chumash
elder, Semu Hurate, and is written in English with inclusion of Chumash
words.
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PAULA
L.WOODS
is the author of the acclaimed Charlotte Justice
mystery series. Her most recent work, Strange Bedfellows,
has been called "searing" and was lauded for its "rich
portrait of LAPD politics and of the African-American community"
by Publisher's Weekly. Previous books in the series, Dirty
Laundry, Stormy Weather and
Inner City Blues have won numerous awards
and named to the "best of" lists in Los Angeles, Seattle and
Orlando. Paula is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and regularly
reviews books for the Los Angeles Times.
www.woodsontheweb.com
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