Saturday, November 12, 7-9pm
The Salon Reading Series features monthly readings with our esteemed teachers and some of our most promising and dedicated students. The events are free to the public. Snacks and beverages are provided.
Is the expression “man of many hats” too timeworn for Jay Ridler, this writer/author/comedian/historian who is most himself when he’s most unlabelable? Prepare to be spellbound by this natural entertainer and wordsmith during the evening’s first reading. Accompanying Jay is Elaine Beale, our school’s celebrated fiction instructor and co-leader of The Writing Salon’s ongoing novel writing class. About Elaine and her novel, Another Life Altogether, Sandra Cisneros has this much to say: “Elaine Beale is an extraordinary writer, and Another Life Altogether is heartbreaking and hilarious all at once, as only life can be.” For this final event in the 2016 Salon Reading Series, Jay and Elaine will be reading with their two students, Christine No and Salima Hamirani.
Jason S. Ridler is a writer, improv actor, and historian. He is the author of A TRIUMPH FOR SAKURA, BLOOD AND SAWDUST, the Spar Battersea thrillers and the upcoming BRIMSTONE FILES series for Nightshade Press. He’s also published over sixty stories in such magazines and anthologies as The Big Click, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Out of the Gutter, and more. He also writes the column FXXK WRITING! for Flash Fiction Online. A former punk rock musician and cemetery groundskeeper, Mr. Ridler holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada. He lives in Berkeley, CA.
Elaine Beale’s second novel, Another Life Altogether, was published by Random House in 2010. It has received praise from the Boston Globe, Lambda Literary, Curve Magazine, the Bay Area Reporter, and Publishers Weekly, among others, and it was featured in Oprah Magazine. Elaine was the winner of the 2007 Poets and Writers California Writers Exchange Award and has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She has taught creative writing for more than a decade.
Christine No is a writer and filmmaker. She was born and bred in Los Angeles but includes Santa Fe, Brooklyn, and now Oakland to her growing definition of “Home”. She holds her BA in creative writing from the College of Santa Fe and her MFA in Producing from the American Film Institute. Her work has appeared at the Sundance Film Festival, sPARKLE+bLINK, Tayo, Columbia Journal, and Story. She is a Pushcart nominee and lives in Oakland with her dog, Brandeh.
Salima Hamirani began writing in earnest after she sat down with a friend and put together a list of books by women of color. They made a sparse list. Salima realized that if she wanted to read the stories and desires of her own community, she’d have to write them herself. She began taking classes at The Writing Salon a year and a half ago and this year was accepted into the Voices of Our Nation’s Arts (VONA) summer workshop in Miami. She focuses on fiction but has a secret love affair with the essay and narrative non-fiction. She is currently a radio journalist for UpFront, on KPFA, and a personal trainer.