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YES,
I am indeed
available
for book clubs, parties and Bar Mitvahs! Though you can't predict what
color my hair will be ("Continuity, please!"
my PBS producer
kept shouting), I promise to enlighten and entertain with a
high-energy blend of humor and honesty. Despite some disasters
(never try to read at a strip mall bookstore
while they're announcing a sale on lattes on the
loudspeaker), I love the road!
I hold MFAs in
both fiction and nonfiction from
the University of
Iowa, where I studied with James Alan McPherson, Patricia A Foster,
Stuart Dybek, Lan Samantha Chang, and Marilynne Robinson. I teach
graduate and undergraduate courses on
memoir, travel writing, socially-engaged writing, international
literature, hybrid & lyric essay, and documentary
narrative (in literature and film). I have also taught
highly-acclaimed, short-term workshops in Bali (Ubud Writers & Readers
Festival), South Africa
(at Wits and in townships), Ghana
(Pan
African Literary
Forum), Switzerland (the
Geneva Writers Conference),
San Francisco (Voices
of Our
Nations Workshops
for Writers of Color),
Upstate New York (Chautauqua
Writers Festival), and Iowa (Iowa
Summer
Writing Festival).
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Adopt Meeting
Faith or Coming of Age Around
the World for your
high school or college classroom! Both fit nicely with classes in
creative
writing, journaling, memoir, sociology, Africana studies, women's
studies,
anthropology/ethnography, travel literature, coming of age,
international education, or religious studies. The paperback edition of
Meeting Faith includes
an Author's
Statement and reading guide. Detailed introductions to each story in Coming
of Age Around the World provide
historical and cultural context, particularly for Africa and the Muslim
world.
Rationale
& Overview of Coming of Age
Meeting
Faith Brochure & Teaching Tips
See BOOKS for a list of publications and
downloads of my other works available for teaching.
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My publications and
documentary film cover a wide
range of timely
issues suitable
for students and
community groups. A basic presentation involves a 5-minute clip of
the PBS film, followed by a candid, lively discussion of my journey from
Northwest farm girl, to Ivy League scholarship student drop-out, to
ordination as Thailand's first black Buddhist nun, as well as the
journey from American community activist, to writer dodging
the Nigerian military to find my father and siblings. I also offer specialized lectures,
classroom visits, film screenings/ discussions and writing
workshops. Often my visits provide the opportunity for diverse groups to build
alliances.
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Though I'm not a
Buddhist nun (I just play one
on the tour
circuit!), I love/am terrified by invitations to speak at temples and
sanghas and have written about this for
O and Buddhadharma Magazines.
A lifelong UU, I enjoy speaking to Unitarian
churches.
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A great excuse
to gather your friends
together, with guaranteed
free entertainment! As I've toured the country, my fab
friends have generously opened their homes and fired up their
fondue pots! After an hour of mingling, I explain what led me on my
journey, answer questions, and describe writing
the book. A reading ends with The Rat Story (a crowd pleaser), and
folks return to merriment and book buying (books usually provided by a
local indie bookstore). When possible, those who buy Meeting
Faith are given complimentary copies of my trashy novel, The
Student Body ('cuz what could be better than the Sacred & the
Profane?).
Another option is to invite me to visit your book club (in person or
cyberlandia).
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