Author Reading and Book Signing for CALIFORNIA DREAMING by Noa Silver

Name: Author Reading and Book Signing for CALIFORNIA DREAMING by Noa Silver
Start: 2024-07-25T18:00:00-04:00
Location: BookSpace

Schedule

Thu Jul 25 2024 at 06:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

BookSpace | Bangor, ME

Join us for an Author Reading and Book Signing featuring CALIFORNIA DREAMING by Noa Silver. Noa will be in conversation with local writer and professor Crystal Sands. Noa’s debut novel was called “a meditative novel composed with psychological subtlety,” by Kirkus Reviews.

ABOUT CALIFORNIA DREAMING
Having grown up on stories of her mother's wild youth in California, Elena Berg relocates from New England to the Bay Area in 2011 for a placement as an English teacher with Teach for America. Once there, she is eager to inspire a love of poetry and literature in her diverse but underprivileged students. Her own grandfather—a Holocaust survivor—was a storyteller and teacher who touched the lives of his students for years to come. Elena’s mother followed in his footsteps, leaving behind the hippie lifestyle of her twenties to become a university professor.��But Elena quickly finds herself feeling disconnected from teaching, unable to inspire her students, and before long, she grows disillusioned with her career. She transitions to a role in an education technology startup—though she questions her decision, her motivations, and her values.��Coming of age between the Occupy and #MeToo movements and against the backdrop of the 2016 election and California's ever-worsening fire season, Elena reckons with California as she imagined it and California as it really is. As she does so, she must also ultimately reconcile the person she envisioned herself to be with the person she actually is.
ABOUT NOA SILVER
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.
ABOUT CRYSTAL SANDS
Crystal Sands holds a PhD in Rhetoric and is a writing professor and freelance writer. She has published several academic texts and earned both national and international awards for writing instruction and course design. She has also published in HuffPost, The Independent, Modern Farmer, and Bangor Metro and edited collections of essays and poetry. She currently teaches writing in the graduate program at Walden University. Crystal lives on a small farmstead in Maine with her husband and son where she keeps chickens and writes about her experiences on the farm.
ABOUT THE BRIAR PATCH
For more than 35 years, The Briar Patch has inspired and delighted generations of readers of all ages in Bangor, Maine. Specializing in children's books and creative playthings from birth through high school, the shop also carries grownup books including fiction, cookbooks, titles on parenting, resources for teachers and more. Games, crafts, puzzles, and more fill the store with something for everyone. We also host regular book signings, storytimes and other events.
ABOUT BOOKSPACE BY THE BRIAR PATCH
BookSpace is an event venue focused on the literary arts that serves as an extension of downtown Bangor's beloved bookstore, The Briar Patch. It hosts programs will include author readings & signings, book clubs, writing workshops, illustrator exhibits and more.