You're invited to a conversation about debut novels, young people finding meaning in their lives, questions of family and responsibility, and-- engaging summer reading! Noa Silver's new novel, CALIFORNIA DREAMING, is a coming-of-age story between the Occupy and #MeToo movements and against the backdrop of the 2016 election and California's ever-worsening fire season. It's a book about how we come to understand our motivations and values, and we're lucky to welcome Noa Silver to discuss her writing process on this July evening.
Delightfully, Christine Grillo, author of the beloved HESTIA STRIKES A MATCH ("an irreverent, incisive, laugh-out-loud interrogation of modern love"), will moderate this conversation.
We hope you'll join us!
Click here to order CALIFORNIA DREAMING!
Noa Silver was born in Jerusalem and raised between Scotland and Maine. After receiving her BA in English and American literature and language from Harvard University, Noa lived and taught English as a Second Language on Namdrik—part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the smallest inhabited atoll in the world. She later completed her MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and then worked as an editor on various oral history projects, ranging from an archive documenting the Partition of India and Pakistan to a cancer researcher telling the stories of trauma experienced by cancer survivors. Noa lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband, Jack, and their two daughters, Alma and Leila.
Christine Grillo’s debut novel, Hestia Strikes a Match (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2023), was included in NPR’s Books We Love 2023. Her short fiction has appeared in The New England Review, StoryQuarterly, The Southern Review, and other journals. Her nonfiction covers science, public health, food systems, agriculture, and climate change, and has been published in outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic: CityLab, Audubon, NextTribe, and Real Simple. She lives in Baltimore.
