Posts From Author: Month: February 2021

Writers and Storytelling: Renée Watson

Renée Watson is the New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor Book, and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author of Piecing Me Together, This Side of Home, What Momma Left Me, and Betty Before X, co-written with Ilyasah Shabazz, as well as two acclaimed picture books: A Place Where Hurricanes Happen and Harlem’s Little Blackbird, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. She is the founder of I, Too, Arts Collective, a nonprofit committed to nurturing underrepresented voices in the creative arts, and currently lives in New York City. Her new book Love is a Revolution is available in our Bookshop storefront.  On February 23rd, Renée will join Marisa Acocella, Matthew Gavin Frank, and Walter Mosley in our next edition of “Seriously Entertaining” where they will each muse on the theme “I Have Dreamed.” Register here for the show! What are you reading right now for solace or escape or entertainment?How to Carry Water by Lucille Clifton If you could live inside a fictional world, which one would you choose?“Jingle Jangle” I’d love to be Journey’s friend. Are there any quotes you use to inspire you?“You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.” –Oprah Winfrey  
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Writers and Storytelling: Marisa Acocella

Marisa Acocella is the New York Times best-selling author of the graphic novels The Big She-Bang (which you can buy in our Bookshop storefront) and Ann Tenna, the graphic memoir Cancer Vixen, and Just Who the Hell is She, Anyway? She is also a cartoonist for The New Yorker and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Glamour, and O, The Oprah Magazine. A breast cancer survivor, she is the founder of the Marisa Acocella Foundation, which, through a grant from Bloomingdale’s, funds the free Marisa Acocella Empowerment Program that includes holistic therapies and journaling classes and more for women with breast cancer and breast cancer survivors at the Mount Sinai Best Israel Comprehensive Cancer Center.  On February 23rd, Marisa will join Matthew Gavin Frank, Walter Mosley, and Renee Watson in our next edition of “Seriously Entertaining” where they will each muse on the theme “I Have Dreamed.” Register here for the show! What are you reading right now for solace or escape or entertainment?The Gospels of Mary, Editor Marvin Meyer If you could live inside a fictional world, which one would you choose?The Pleroma, Heaven in the Nag Hammadi codices. I would love to witness the creation of the Universe. Are there any quotes you use to inspire […]
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Writers and Storytelling: Matthew Gavin Frank

Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of The Mad Feast and Preparing the Ghost, which was reviewed on the front-page of The New York Times Book Review. He teaches creative writing and lives in Marquette, Michigan. His new book is Flight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa, which is available in our Bookshop storefront. He will be joining Marisa Acocella, Walter Mosley, and Renee Watson, on February 23rd to tell stories tied to the theme “I Have Dreamed.” Register here for the show! What are you reading right now for solace or escape or entertainment?Things That Are by Amy Leach, and The Book of Delights by Ross Gay If you could live inside a fictional world, which one would you choose?The world in which the passenger pigeon still exists, overtaking the sky on their great migrations. Are there any quotes you use to inspire you?“To be sensual is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.” –James Baldwin What writer would you like to share with the world […]
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