Clifford Henderson

Clifford Henderson, author of The Middle of Somewhere and Spanking New, lives and plays in Santa Cruz, California. She runs The Fun Institute, a school of improv and solo performance, with her partner of eighteen years. In their classes and workshops, people learn to access and express the myriad of characters itching to get out. Her other passions include gardening and twisting herself into weird yoga poses. She’s pleased to have recently completed recording an audiobook of The Middle of Somewhere with Dog Ear Audio. Her third novel, Maye’s Request, is coming out in 2011.

The Middle of Somewhere

Eadie T. Pratt sets out on a road trip in search of a new life and ends up in the middle of somewhere she never expected.

Start with one independent, urban lesbian who cashes out her life in San Francisco for a second-hand travel trailer and sets off to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival in search of a new life. Add to this a broken-down ‘66 T-bird, a bunch of small-town Texas Baptists, a ton of fried food, and a church scandal. Pepper this with a hot love interest and a dash of greed, and what you get is Eadie T. Pratt’s road trip gone awry.

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Leslie McMurtry

Leslie McMurtry is from Albuquerque and received her BA from the University of New Mexico. She also holds an MA in creative writing from Swansea University. Leslie has published in several poetry collections as well as having performed in the first Poetry on Tap. She aspires to write for radio and has had excerpts of her plays performed in the UK and France. She received the Elizabeth George Foundation grant in 2009 to research the life of John Milton, and is an editor of The Terrible Zodin.

Dwarves Without Giants

Leslie loves to write historical fiction, and “Dwarves without Giants” is based on the life of Anna Swan of New Annan, Nova Scotia. The author is grateful to Jeff Harrop, Ashley Cunningham, and Shawn Wilson, authors of “Anna Swan: Nova Scotia’s Remarkable Giantess,” and The American Social History Project/Center for History and New Media, authors of The Lost Museum.

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Lily Poritz Miller

Lily Poritz Miller was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and came to the United States with her family when she was fifteen. She began her editorial career in book publishing in New York at The Macmillan Company and later McGraw-Hill, then moved to Toronto, where she was senior editor and McClelland and Stewart for eighteen years.

She has written three plays, which were performed in New York and Toronto, and received a Samuel French national award for her play The Proud One. Her short stories were published in the anthology American Scene: New Voices. She has also written for film. She presently divides her time between Toronto and New York. Visit her online at www.lilyporitzmiller.com.

In a Pale Blue Light

A story of loss, defiance and change emerges from the magnificent setting of Cape Town in the late 1930s through the outbreak of World War II. Young Libka Hoffman is struggling with the loss of her father and the social conventions that frown upon her relationships with her most trusted friends. Libka’s exploration of socially forbidden territory eventually brings her to expulsion from her school and ostracism by her peers. Powerfully told in a unique voice, “In a Pale Blue Light” achieves an authentic and rarely achieved insight into Jewish life in South Africa during the tumultuous times around World War II.

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Sharanya Manivannan

One World Cafe Virtual Reading Series – Diana Ferrus

Diana Ferrus is a writer and performance poet. Her poem, “I have come to take you home – a tribute to Sarah Baartman” was instrumental in the return of the 19th century figure’s remains to her home in South Africa. Ferrus was born in 1953 in Worcester, 100 km from Cape Town, a town known for its vineyards and wine. She completed her secondary education at Esselen Park High School in Worcester and her tertiary education at the University of the Western Cape, where she currently works as an administrator in the Department of Industrial Psychology.Ferrus has attended several literature festivals internationally, including the International Poetry Festival in North and South Korea in 2005. She received two awards for her work, including one from the Department of Arts and Culture for her work with grassroots women writers. In addition, she established her own little publishing house and hopes to publish writers who would not normally be published by mainstream publishers. Ferrus published her first Afrikaans poetry collection, “Ons Komvandaan,” and co-edited “Slaan vir my ‘n masker, Vader,” a book on fathers. She released a CD of storytelling with musical accompaniment. Her next publication will be an English collection of poetry entitled,”I have come to take you home.

Daddy 

Roots 

Journeys 

Tribute to Sarah Bartman 

One World Cafe Virtual Reading Series: Women Writing in the New Ireland

Join us Sunday, March 9th for a reading with the ladies from across the pond.

WWInI is a new initiative aimed at facilitating a dialogue between women writers in the New Ireland. The intention is to promote the creative work of women writers living in Ireland who are from migrant and new communities and to encourage contact between these writers and other women writers who were born in Ireland or who have lived here for a long time.

One World Cafe Virtual Reading Series: Women Writing for (a) Change

Join us Saturday, March 8th for this very special reading from Women Writing for (a) Change.

Women Writing for (a) Change is a feminist writing community located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1991 by Mary Pierce Brosmer, teacher, speaker and published poet, Women Writing for (a) Change has grown in scope and in depth from its first small, rented home for fifteen writers to a movement in which women and girls “practice their voices” and go into the larger world to add women’s stories and women’s views to the critical conversations of our times. Women Writing for (a) Change offers weekly writing classes for women who are open to the change that a writing practice can bring into their lives. Daytime and evening classes meet for 15 weeks and form close-knit communities; over 80% of participants return from semester to semester. Since its beginnings, more than 800 adult women and 300 girls have been writers at Women Writing for (a) Change.

Restoring balance by amplifying and strengthening the “voice of the conscious feminine” is the heart of the mission of Women Writing for (a) Change. In 2001, it’s sister organization, Women Writing for (a) Change Foundation, was established to support the program of Young Women Writing for (a) Change—creative writing programs for girls and young women in grades 4 through first-year of college— as well as to offer scholarships for girls and women to attend its creative writing courses. In addition, the Foundation supported the development of our weekly radio show broadcast on WVXU, 91.7 from 1999-2005 (now available through our website) as well as School Partnerships, which offer after-school Young Women Writing for (a) Change programs at local schools. With the recent purchase of a permanent home in Cincinnati, 6906 Plainfield Road in Silverton, the Women Writing for (a) Change movement can now plant roots and continue its growth and deepening work of bringing the conscious feminine to the world.

Women Writing for (a) Change continues to grow out into the world, inspiring the founding of seven sister WWf(a)C schools in Bloomington, IN; Birmingham, AL; Burlington, VT; Grand Junction, CO; Indianapolis, IN; Portland, OR; and opening soon in Traverse City, MI. The movement has influenced organizations – nonprofits, schools, and businesses – throughout Greater Cincinnati, as both women and men attend its programs, and as consultants trained in WWf(a)C practices serve directly in social service, academic and other settings.

For more information, please visit our website: www.womenwriting.org.

One World Cafe Virtual Reading Series: Alison Aston

At 23 years old Rebecca Johnson is the epitome of success: she’s got a jealous-making job working for British society mag Reine, a fab flat in London and a continuous stream of attractive men passing through her sheets. This all sounds rather impressive, but in reality Becks sells the ads, shops in H&M and would rather go home with a girl in Manolos than Prince William in Armani.

Join us Friday, March 7th for author Alison Aston’s reading of her novel, Closet. Think the gay Bridget Jones meets The Devil Wears Prada.

Originally from the South West of England, Aston has lived in London, San Francisco, and Marseille. Her credits include work in women’s style magazines like ELLE and Harper’s Bazaar. Currently she works for BBC magazines, in addition to freelance work for Time Out. Aston lives with her civil partner in Bristol.