Emily Fridlund

With a thriller’s sense of foreboding and the poetic language of literary fiction, Emily Fridlund’s daring debut novel, History of Wolves, tells an eerily quiet coming of age story. She is a master at describing the natural world and then weaving the elements of place and relationships into an unforgettable tale. A finalist for the 2017 Man Booker Prize, TC Boyle raves it is “as exquisite a first novel as I have ever encountered.”

Fridlund received her MFA in Fiction from Washington University in St. Louis and completed her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at University of Southern California. She lives in Ithaca, New York.

Kim Fu

This wildly imaginative story collection, Lesser-Known Monsters of the 21st Century, mesmerizes readers with original worlds that blur the boundaries of real and fantastic, and confirms Kim Fu as one of the most exciting short story writers in contemporary literature. The twelve unforgettable tales offer surprising insights into human nature while unmasking contradictions that make the strange seem familiar and the familiar feel strange.

Marcela Fuentes

Set in a fictional Texas town on the U.S.– Mexico border, the memorable debut novel, Malas, links the stories of two women: Pilar a young wife and mother in the 1950s and Lulu a 14-year-old in 1994. Fuentes creates a vibrant portrait of these two strong women who are considered mala, bad and willful, by those around them. When Pilar crashes the funeral of young Lulu’s grandmother, Lulu’s curiosity about the glamorous stranger leads to their unlikely friendship.

Lisa Fugard

LISA FUGARD’s first novel, Skinner’s Drift, illuminates the complicated relationships and loyalties between blacks and whites in South Africa at the end of the apartheid era. The novel vividly captures the African landscape and the troubled and conflicted personalities who inhabit it. Fugard is the daughter of acclaimed playwright Athol Fugard.

Alexander Fuller

ALEXANDRA FULLER’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight is a tender, intensely moving and even delightful journey through a white African girl’s childhood. In wry and sometime hilarious prose, Alexandra Fuller describes an unruly life in an often inhospitable place. Winner of several awards, this tale of terrible beauty soars.

Betty Harper Fussell

As a matter of fact

Afternoon Session
Betty Harper Fussell, author of Mabel, a biography of Hollywood’s first ‘I-don’t-care’ girl! She is joined by Elaine Kendall for this presentation.

Elizabeth Gaffney

In her first novel, Metropolis, ELIZABETH GAFFNEY, advisory editor of The Paris Review, has placed vividly imagined characters in the brawling, rapidly changing New York City of the post-Civil War era. The Dickensian novel captures the violence and splendor of the emerging modern city, as well as the “luck and misfortune” of its immigrant hero. Gaffney’s short stories have appeared in publications such as North American Review, Mississippi Review and The Reading Room.

Cristina Garcia

Cristina Garcia lends her rich voice to the chorus of Latina writers whose work brings vitality to modern literature. Critical acclaim accompanied publication of both her novels, Nation Book Award nominee Dreaming in Cuban and her more recent work The Aguero Sisters. Garcia weaves mesmerizing stories of individuals under the powerful influence of Cuban American family life.

Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay is the author of the novel The Untamed State, which was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction; the essay collection Bad Feminist; and Ayiti, a multi-genre collection. She is working on a memoir, Hunger, and a comic book in Marvel’s Black Panther series. Her writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2012, The New York Times, the Guardian, and many others. She is a recipient of the PEN Center USA Freedom to Write Award, among other honors.

Elizabeth George

Elizabeth George lives in Huntington Beach, and is a former high school English teacher. A Great Deliverance, published by Bantam Books, is her debut novel. She has completed her forthcoming, Payment in Blood, and is currently working on the third book in the series, Well Schooled in Murder. Her love affair with England and her precise crafting of psychological suspense combine to make her “whodunits” riveting reading.

Kaye Gibbons

Kaye Gibbons’ heart-wrenching first novel, Ellen Foster, received the Sue Kaufman Prize of the American Academy and Institute of the Arts and Letters. Her second, A Virtuous Woman, confirms the promise of this young North Carolina writer’s talent and power. Her unforgettable characters are strong and unflinching in facing lives of “quiet desperation”, in her beautifully crafted stories that have received rave notices from reviewer and readers all over the United States, as well as in England and France.

Sandra M. Gilbert

Sandra M. Gilbert crafts fiercely intelligent and beautifully rhythmic poetry. Her critically acclaimed Kissing the Bread: New and Selected Poems 1969-1999 is Gilbert’s sixth book of verse. Also author of a dozen books of literary criticism and a poignant prose memoir, Wrongful Death, Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-editor of the pioneering Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, now in its second edition.

Gillian Gill

Gillian Gill’s biographical subjects are quirky, controversial women (Agatha Christie, Mary Baker Eddy, Florence Nightingale, Queen Victoria, Colette) who blaze their own paths to achievement. She writes about real women faced with tough choices, not icons frozen in time. Gill brings erudition and narrative momentum to history, with documentary zeal and stylistic sparkle.

Maria Gillan

Maria Gillan is an award-winning, Italian-American poet, Director of the Poetry Center in Paterson, New Jersey, creative writing teacher, and editor of the poetry magazine, Footwork. She has twice read on national Public Radio. Gillan’s first two books are Flowers from the Tree of Night and Winter Light. A third book, The Weather of Old Seasons, is forthcoming. “She created for us a life, her life, to measure our own by.”

Julia Glass

JULIA GLASS proved herself a gifted writer with her first novel, the best-seller Three Junes, winner of the 2002 National Book Award. Her second, The Whole World Over, is a generous, tentacled, ensemble novel deploying many characters. Her short stories have been honored with three Nelson Algren Awards and the Tobias Wolff Award.

Lisa Glatt

LISA GLATT’s A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That explores the complex and all-too-human world of Rachel Spark, a thirty-something college instructor, and her wildly life-affirming mother, who has been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. “Far more celebration than wake,” raves Elle magazine, this novel has been widely praised in many publications, including The New York Times Book Review. Lisa Glatt is a Long Beach writer.

Xochitl Gonzalez

This intelligent and vibrant debut novel was one of the most anticipated releases of 2022. Xochitl Gonzalez seamlessly weaves together a story of complex family dynamics, the history and culture of Puerto Rico, gentrification, and how the American dream of wealth and fame doesn’t necessarily lead to personal happiness. Olga Dies Dreaming is a thought-provoking story that leads the reader to ask, “What exactly is the American dream?”

Linda Gordon

Among her many accomplishments, historian LINDA GORDON received the 2010 Bancroft Prize in American history and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for her book, Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits. The Los Angeles Times calls it a “superbly written biographical documentary.” Linda Gordon is the Florence Kelley professor of history at NYU. She has won many prestigious awards, including Guggenheim, National Endowment for Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, and the Radcliffe Institute fellowships.

Shilpi Somaya Gowda

A summer spent as a volunteer in an Indian orphanage led Shilpi Somaya Gowda to write her first novel, Secret Daughter. Born and raised in Toronto to parents who emigrated from Mumbai, Shilpi weaves together both American and Indian cultures in a gripping exploration of family and motherhood. She currently lives in California with her husband and children.

Sue Grafton

Sue Grafton’s private eye Kinsey Milhone, strong, brave, independent, caring, and funny, stars in her own alphabet: A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, C is for Corpse, D is for Deadbeat, E is for Evidence, F is for Fugitive and, due next May G is for Gumshoe. When the alphabet has been used up, fans hope Sue will number her books to infinity.

Suzanne Greenberg

SUZANNE GREENBERG’s short story collection Speed-Walk and Other Stories has been praised as “the work of a confident, strong, and utterly unique writer.” With gracefully simple prose, Greenberg creates characters that are at once eccentric and familiar. This debut volume was the 2003 winner of the prestigious Drue Heinz Literature Prize.

Linda Gregerson

LINDA GREGERSON’s luminous third book of poetry, Waterborne, recently won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and her 1996 volume, The Woman Who Died in Her Sleep, was a finalist for both the Poets Prize and the Lenore Marshall Award. A former actress with the experimental theater company Karken and staff editor at The Atlantic Monthly. Gregerson is also a specialist in English Renaissance literature.

Emily Habeck

The unforgettable, even wild story, Shark Heart: A Love Story, is set in an alternative world where human-to-animal mutations are a medical reality. In this oddly heartwarming tale of a newly married couple, Lewis and Wren are faced with a tragic diagnosis: Lewis is mutating into the largest predator on earth – the great white shark. Emily Habeck’s daring debut novel marks the arrival of a talented new writer of “originality, humor, and heart.”

Jennifer Haigh

JENNIFER HAIGH is the author of both The New York Times bestseller and award-winning Baker Towers, and Mrs. Kimble, which won the Pen/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. Haigh creates rich character sketches, drawing the reader into the interwoven lives of families and making her books difficult to put down. She has published numerous short stories, and her latest novel is The Condition.

Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey

Becoming a Writer

Our luncheon speaker is Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, author of the enormously popular A Woman of Independent Means (the basis for a major motion picture starring Jill Clayburgh) and Life Sentences, discussing her personal writing evolution.
Los Angeles Times: “At an age when far too many people are writing far too much about far too little and usually doing it badly, a novel comes along to restore our faith in language and good conscience.”