We welcome authors Karissa Chen, Tara Dorabji, Laurie L. Dove, and Jakob Kerr to our virtual stage. We'll be talking all about getting into publishing, the pitfalls, challenges, and roadblocks as well as the excitement, fulfillment, and reader enthusiasm that makes it all worthwhile. Bring your questions as this will be in a Q&A format.  All four of our authors have books coming out in January 2025 - how awesome is that!?!

Register directly on Zoom HERE.

RECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program.

Our authors:

Karissa Chen is a Fulbright fellow, Kundiman Fiction fellow, and a VONA/Voices fellow whose fiction and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Eater, The Cut, NBC News Think!, Longreads, PEN America, Catapult, Gulf Coast, and Guernica, among others. She was awarded an artist fellowship from the NJ Council on the Arts as well as residences at Millay Colony where she was a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Ragdale Foundation, and Willapa Bay AiR. She was formerly the Senior Fiction Editor at The Rumpus and currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief at Hyphen magazine. She received an MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and splits her time between New Jersey and Taipei, Taiwan.

Tara Dorabji is the daughter of Parsi-Indian and German-Italian migrants. Her debut novel, Call Her Freedom, is the Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us grand prize winner. Her documentary film series on human rights defenders in Kashmir won awards at more than a dozen film festivals throughout Asia and the USA. Her work has appeared in publications such as Al Jazeera, The Chicago Quarterly Review, Huizache, and acclaimed anthologies Good Girls Marry Doctors and All the Women in My Family Sing. She lives in Northern California with her family and pet rabbit.

Laurie L. Dove is a reporter and editor whose work has appeared in numerous publications and garnered several honors for outstanding journalism. She graduated with a master’s degree in Creative Writing and Literature from Harvard University. She is an adjunct professor who currently lives and writes in Kansas. Find her at lauriedove.com.

Jakob Kerr is a lawyer and communications executive working in the tech industry. He was one of the first employees at Airbnb and spent over a decade shepherding the company from tiny startup to global phenomenon. He has also been a bartender, sportswriter, and—for one disastrous afternoon—the driver of an ice cream truck. After fifteen years in San Francisco, he recently returned to his native Pacific Northwest, where he now lives with his wife and children. Dead Money is his first novel.

Photo credits: Karissa Chen by Ernie Chang, Tara Dorabji by Sheila Menezes, and Jakob Kerr by Ashley Courter

Thanks to the Ashland Public Library for sharing this program!