Susan Straight

Susan Straight writes from the unique perspective of a white woman immersed in the black community in which she lives. Her gifts are acute perception and a breathtaking ability to express what her heart discovers. The epiphanies of Aquaboogie: A Novel in Stories illuminate the delicate balance Straight’s characters maintain as they evolve within their culture and the wider world. Her second novel is Living Large.

Elizabeth Strout

ELIZABETH STROUT is the author of three novels: Amy and Isabelle, which won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, Abide With Me, a national bestseller and Book Sense pick, and her latest book, the wonderfully rich and unforgettable, Olive Kitteridge. Her short stories have been published in numerous magazines, including The New Yorker and O, The Oprah Magazine.

Lalita Tademy

LALITA TADEMY, in her debut novel, Cane River, recounts with compelling detail the lives of her matriarchal ancestors who were born into slavery in pre-Civil War Louisiana. Tademy describes her historical novel, an Oprah’s Book Club selection, as a work of fiction that is “deeply rooted in years of research, historical fact and family lore.” This universal story of strong-willed survivors is illustrated with documents and evocative photographs.

Haley Tanner

Haley Tanner’s breakout novel, Vaclav & Lena, is a magical story about the strength and endurance of love. Her poignant tale of two Russian immigrant children who meet in an ESL class in Brooklyn will steal your heart as you follow the story of these unforgettable protagonists, the endearing budding magician, Vaclav, and his “lovely assistant,” Lena.

Diane Thomas

Diane Thomas….The success of Romancing the Stone turned this 33-year-old Long Beach screenwriter into Hollywood’s Cinderella of 1984. “Hollywood loves an overnight success, ” says Ms. Thomas, “but, as everyone knows, it’s never overnight.”

Rufi Thorpe

BALLROOM SPEAKER

Blisteringly funny and filled with sharp insight, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman’s attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world. Rufi Thorpe has created a tender tale starring an endearing young heroine in a playful and honest examination of the art of storytelling and controlling your own narrative.

Judith Thurman

Judith Thurman’s Isak Dinesen:The Life of a Storyteller is the result of penetrating research into the private world of the author of Out of Africa. This widely travelled New Yorker is a translator and a contributor to Vogue, Ms., Cosmopolitan and the Village Voice, as well as poet, anthologist and and associate producer of Out of Africa starring Meryl Streep.

Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews’ recently released novel, Irma Voth, explores the inner life of a young woman living in an isolated Mennonite community. It is a similar theme to her award-winning novel A Complicated Kindness. Miriam’s other works are The Flying Troutmans, a novel that affirms the bonds of family; and Swing Low: A Life, a moving memoir about her manic-depressive father.

Susan Allen Toth

Susan Allen Toth was born in Ames, Iowa in 1940. She writes of her years there with wit and an eye for remembered detail in Blooming: A Small Town Girlhood, which in 1981 received the New York Times Book Review Notable Book Award. It’s sequel, Ivy Days: Making My Way Out East, brings us universally recognized moments and characters from the tumultuous college years. Her most recent book is How to Prepare for Your High School Reunion and Other Midlife Musings.

Gail Tsukiyama

GAIL TSUKIYAMA was born in San Francisco, California, to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father. Initially a poet, she now uses her cross-cultural experiences in all her novels, the latest of which is Dreaming Waters. She teaches at San Francisco State Universality and is book review editor for the on-line magazine Pacific Rim Voices.

Kathleen Tyau

Reflecting her own background of mixed race and traditions, Kathleen Tyau’s widely acclaimed novels play out against the lush background of Hawaiian cultures and landscapes. The deeply layered, interwoven strands of both Makai and A Little Too Much Is Enough result in works that are, according to The Asian Reprter, “entertaining, innovative, and emotionally satisfying.”

Shelby Van Pelt

With wit and charm, Shelby Van Pelt’s luminous debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, explores the unlikely friendship of a widow and a giant Pacific Octopus. After her husband dies, Tova begins working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium where she encounters curmudgeonly Marcellus. In the midst of this remarkable friendship the mysterious past of two young men begins to unfold, untangle, and ultimately offer a future that once seemed impossible.

Madhuri Vijay

In her debut novel, The Far Field, Madhuri Vijay follows a young Indian woman on an odyssey for a lost figure from her childhood to seek resolution of uncertainties about her deceased mother. It is a journey that takes her from her privileged life in Southern India to a remote Himalayan village in the troubled region of Kashmir; and unwittingly, to the brink of a devastating political and personal reckoning.

Helena Maria Viramontes

Helena Maria Viramontes, another prizewinner, brings a unique insight into Chicano Literature. Born in East Los Angeles, a lecturer and short story writer, her first book, The Moths and Other Stories, will be out this Spring.

Padma Viswanathan

PADMA VISWANATHAN’s bestselling debut novel The Toss of a Lemon, was inspired by family history. It takes the reader into the private world of a Brahmin clan in early twentieth century India, a turbulent time of social and political change. At the novel’s heart is Sivakami, a young widow bound by rigorous rules, which she observes – with the exception of a single defiant act.

Lane Von Herzen

Lane Von Herzen’s lyrical first novel Copper Crown portrays an interracial friendship that transcends the bigotry and violence of rural Texas in the early 1900’s. Published in 1991, it was a Literary Guild selection and a featured novel in B. Dalton’s Discover Great New Writers series. Von Herzen won the 1990 Los Angeles Arts Council Fiction Prize. That same year she received her M.F.A. degree from the University of California at Irvine.

Susan Vreeland

Susan Vreeland has enjoyed a thirty-year career teaching English and ceramics while publishing newspaper pieces and short fiction. Her books about women include What Love Sees, the best seller Girl in Hyacinth Blue, and her recently released The Passion of Artemisia that explores a woman’s struggle to paint in seventeenth-century Italy.

Amy Waldman

In The Submission, a finalist in the Hemingway Foundation/PEN First Fiction Award, Amy Waldman creates a fascinating look at the jury’s selection in an anonymous competition for the 911 memorial. A Muslim-American wins and the jury goes into a tailspin. Waldman eloquently considers the multiple issues that spring from this event.

Karen Thompson Walker

An ordinary town is transformed by a mysterious illness that triggers perpetual sleep in this mesmerizing novel from bestselling author Karen Thomas Walker. Written in luminous prose, The Dreamers is a breathtaking and beautiful novel, startling and provocative, about the possibilities contained within a human life—in our waking days and, perhaps even more, in our dreams.

Joyce Weatherford

A finalist for the Willa Cather Award, JOYCE WEATHERFORD’s debut novel, Heart of the Beast, has been lauded as “not a book, but a spell, an act of magic.” This saga of the American West told from a female perspective comes alive with fiercely rich details grounded in Weatherford’s own experiences growing up on a ranch in eastern Oregon.

Elaine Weiss

Nashville, August 1920. It is the last stand for the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote; Tennessee, the best hope for the final vote needed to ratify the amendment, becomes the battleground. In her book, The Woman’s Hour, Elaine Weiss tells the dramatic story of the vicious political battle waged that hot summer between the suffragists and their fierce opponents. Intrigue, bribery, betrayals and bigotry abound.

Dorothy Wickenden

From the intimate perspective of three friends and neighbors—the “agitators” of the title—acclaimed author Dorothy Wickenden tells the fascinating stories of abolition, the Underground Railroad, the early women’s rights movement, and the Civil War. These crucial American stories are enriched by glimpsing them through the friendship of these exceptional women who spent decades violating the laws and conventions of their time.

Isabel Wilkerson

The Warmth of Other Suns, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson, is an epic narrative focusing on the lives of three African Americans who represent the stories of millions who migrated from the South from 1915 to 1970. A major part of American history, this great migration has been called the most underrated story of the 20th century.

Jincy Willet

JINCY WILLETT is a Southern California author living in Escondido. Her novel, The Writing Class is a clever mystery set in a writing class comprised of adult students with varying degrees of writing ability. The reader learns a lot about the craft of writing while laughing at the hilarious situations and wry, witty writing. Willett’s other books include Winner of the National Book Award and Jenny and the Jaws of Life.

Jacqueline Winspear

JACQUELINE WINSPEAR is the author of the award-winning Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie is a one-of-a-kind psychological investigator who has captured the attention of mystery lovers and history buffs alike. In the fourth installment, Messenger of Truth, Winspear explores both the sinister aspects of the London art world and the bitter legacy of World War I.