Holiday Author Blogs 2011
Michael Lindsay-Hogg studied at Oxford before becoming a director of the 1960s British television rock series "Ready, Steady, Go!" On Broadway, he has directed "Whose Life Is It Anyway?," "Agnes of God," and "The Boys of Winter." His films include "Nasty Habits," "Frankie Starlight," "The Object of Beauty," and "Waiting for Godot." He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Lisa. Here he talks about the pleasures of learning to read --- and how he was rewarded with the first book he ever received as a gift!
Joseph Monninger, twice a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, is also the author of ETERNAL ON THE WATER. Currently a college professor, he has published award-winning fiction and nonfiction. He lives with his family in a converted barn near New Hampshire’s Baker River. Here he talks about the Christmas he observed with his family when he was 18 --- his mother's last.
Barbara O’Neal fell in love with food and restaurants at the age of fifteen, when she landed a job in a Greek café and served baklava for the first time. She sold her first novel in her twenties, and has since won a plethora of awards, including two Colorado Book Awards and six prestigous RITAs, including one for THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS in 2010. Her novels have been published widely in Europe and Australia, and she travels internationally, presenting workshops, hiking hundreds of miles, and of course, eating. She lives with her partner, a British endurance athlete, and their collection of cats and dogs, in Colorado Springs. Here she talks about recovering memories on Christmas.
Sarah Addison Allen is the New York Times Bestselling author of GARDEN SPELLS (2007) THE SUGAR QUEEN (2008) THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON (2010) and THE PEACH KEEPER (2011). She was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. Here she talks about anticipation on Christmas Eve...or early Christmas morning.
Like her protagonist, Jean Kwok was born in Hong Kong. Along with her family, she immigrated to Brooklyn when she was five and worked in a Chinatown clothing factory for much of her childhood. After entering public elementary school unable to speak a word of English, she was later admitted to Hunter College High School, one of New York City’s most competitive public high schools. She won early admission to Harvard, where she worked as many as four jobs at a time and graduated with honors in English and American literature, before going on to earn an MFA in fiction at Columbia. She has worked as an English teacher and Dutch-English translator at Leiden University in the Netherlands. In addition, she has been a professional ballroom dancer, a reader for the blind, a housekeeper, a dishwasher, and a computer graphics specialist for a major financial institution. Her work has been published in Story magazine, Prairie Schooner, and the NuyorAsian Anthology. Here she talks about how she came to understand Christmas.
Mira Bartók is a Chicago-born artist and writer and the author of twenty-eight books for children. Her writing has appeared in several literary journals and anthologies, and has been noted in The Best American Essays series. She lives in western Massachusetts, where she runs Mira List, a blog that helps artists find funding and residences all over the world. She has received awards from such organizations as the Fulbright-Hayes Foundation, the Associated Writing Programs, the Illinois Arts Council, Pollock-Krasner Grant, and the Carnegie Fund for Writers. Here she talks about the Christmas she spent in the Arctic while on a Fulbright Fellowship.
Ellen Meister is the author of three novels. Her most recent book, THE OTHER LIFE (Putnam/Berkley), appears on several Best Fiction of the Year lists, was singled out by the American Booksellers Association for the prestigious Indie Next List, and is under option with HBO for a television series. She currently edits manuscripts for published and aspiring authors, teaches creative writing at Hofstra University Continuing Education, does public speaking about writing-related issues, and is at work on her fourth novel FAREWELL, DOROTHY PARKER (Putnam, 2013). Here she talks about gifting books in harder times during the holidays.
Donna M. Johnson is the author of HOLY GHOST GIRL, a new memoir that has been acclaimed by numerous publications and blogs, including the New York Times, O Magazine, The New York Review of Books, and People Magazine. She writes about religion for the Psychology Today blog, the Dallas Morning News, and the Austin American Statesman. Donna was awarded a writing residency by the Ragdale Foundation (Lake Forest, IL) in Spring 2009 and won the Mayborn Creative Nonfiction Prize for the Holy Ghost Girl manuscript in progress in 2007. She lives in Austin with her husband, the poet and author Kirk Wilson. Here she talks about THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE AND HIS TRAVELING CLOAK, one of the only things she has retained from when she was a little girl.
Nancy Jensen’s work has appeared in numerous literary journals, and her first book, WINDOW, a collection of short stories and essays, was published by Fleur-de-Lis Press in 2009. She has been awarded an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and an Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council. Nancy shares her home with eight rescued cats and her dog Gordy, who is her partner on a pet therapy team with Pawsibilities Unleashed of Kentucky, visiting hospitals, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, and daycare centers. When she isn’t writing or enjoying the company of her furred family, she teaches as a member of the core faculty in the MFA in Writing Program at Eastern Kentucky University. Her first novel, THE SISTERS, has been selected by the Independent Booksellers Association as the #1 Indie Next Pick for December and Kirkus Reviews has included it in its list for Best Fiction of 2011. It is also one of Carol Fitzgerald’s Bet’s On Picks for 2011. Here she remembers receiving Black BEAUTY as a Christmas present.
