Sun October 14, 2018
Of Demons and Dreams: A Night of Memoir @ Swedish American Hall
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Show is at 7PMAssimilation, racism, escape, family dysfunction: the best memoirs confront both demons and dreams head-on. Tonight's reading touches on topics including losing a family fortune (host Frances Stroh), finding one’s voice in a new country (Reyna Grande), being seduced by Scientology (Sands Hall), going from broke poet to TV personality (Kari Byron), growing up as a mixed-race child in America (Julie Lythcott-Haims), triumphing over abuse and neglect (Regina Louise), and finding one's true home (Natalie Singer). $12 adv / $15 doorKari Byron (pictured) has been the most recognizable, honored, and beloved woman in science-based reality TV for over a decade. She is best known as a host on Discovery Channel's MythBusters but has gone on to host and produce shows spanning several networks: Head Rush; Punkin Chunkin; Large, Dangerous Rocket Ships; Thrill Factor; Strange Trips; America Declassified; White Rabbit Project; and Positive Energy. Her new memoir is Crash Test Girl: An Unlikely Experiment in Using the Scientific Method to Answer Life's Toughest Questions. She lives in San Francisco with her husband Paul and daughter Stella.Reyna Grande is author of the bestselling memoir The Distance Between Us (Atria, 2012), where she writes about her life before and after illegally immigrating from Mexico to the United States. The much-anticipated sequel A Dream Called Home (Atria) will be released on October 2, 2018. Her other works include the novels Across a Hundred Mountains (Atria, 2006), and Dancing with Butterflies (Washington Square Press, 2009), which were published to critical acclaim. The Distance Between Us is also available as a young readers edition from Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Division-Aladdin. Her books have been adopted as the common read selection by schools, colleges, and cities across the country.Sands Hall is author of the memoir Flunk. Start, the novel Catching Heaven, a Willa Award Finalist for Best Contemporary Fiction, and a Random House Reader’s Circle selection; and a book of writing essays and exercises, Tools of the Writer’s Craft. She teaches at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, the Community of Writers, Squaw Valley, and is a Teaching Professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Hall lives in Nevada City.Regina Louise is the author of Somebody’s Someone, which chronicles her journey through foster care. The one-woman stage adaptation of the book debuted at the Sacramento Theatre Company and was nominated for two NAACP Theatre Awards. Now in film production, her story has been featured on All Things Considered, the BBC, and The Early Show, among others. Louise is a leadership coach in human services, a Hoffman Process teaching candidate, and the winner of an Adoption Excellence Award from the Administration for Children and Families. She is also a trauma-informed trainer who advocates on behalf of foster youth and their emotional permanency. Her new memoir is Someone Has Led This Child to Believe. She lives in Northern California.Julie Lythcott-Haims is author of the New York Times bestselling book How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success, and the recent memoir Real American, which details her personal battle with the low self-esteem that American racism routinely inflicts on people of color. She holds a BA from Stanford, a JD from Harvard Law School, and an MFA in writing from California College of the Arts. She is a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, and resides in the Bay Area with her husband, their two teenagers, and her mother.Natalie Singer is author of the new memoir California Calling: An Interrogation. She has been published in Literary Mama, Washington Post, Seattle Times, ParentMap, Alligator Juniper, and Full Grown People, among other outlets. Her work is included in the anthology Love & Profanity: A Collection of True, Tortured, Wild, Hilarious, Concise, and Intense Tales of Teenage Life. She was the winner of the 2013 Pacific Northwest Writers Association nonfiction award, and a finalist for the 2016 Red Hen Press and Autumn House Press nonfiction awards. Natalie earned her MFA in creative writing and poetics from the University of Washington. She was born in Montreal, lives in Seattle, and dreams of California.Frances Stroh (host) is the award-winning author of Beer Money: A Memoir of Privilege and Loss. She has published in The Common, Literary Hub, and the Detroit Metro Times, among others. Frances is a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto and curator of the Stranger Than Fiction reading series.
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Show is at 7PMAssimilation, racism, escape, family dysfunction: the best memoirs confront both demons and dreams head-on. Tonight's reading touches on topics including losing a family fortune (host Frances Stroh), finding one’s voice in a new country (Reyna Grande), being seduced by Scientology (Sands Hall), going from broke poet to TV personality (Kari Byron), growing up as a mixed-race child in America (Julie Lythcott-Haims), triumphing over abuse and neglect (Regina Louise), and finding one's true home (Natalie Singer). $12 adv / $15 doorKari Byron (pictured) has been the most recognizable, honored, and beloved woman in science-based reality TV for over a decade. She is best known as a host on Discovery Channel's MythBusters but has gone on to host and produce shows spanning several networks: Head Rush; Punkin Chunkin; Large, Dangerous Rocket Ships; Thrill Factor; Strange Trips; America Declassified; White Rabbit Project; and Positive Energy. Her new memoir is Crash Test Girl: An Unlikely Experiment in Using the Scientific Method to Answer Life's Toughest Questions. She lives in San Francisco with her husband Paul and daughter Stella.Reyna Grande is author of the bestselling memoir The Distance Between Us (Atria, 2012), where she writes about her life before and after illegally immigrating from Mexico to the United States. The much-anticipated sequel A Dream Called Home (Atria) will be released on October 2, 2018. Her other works include the novels Across a Hundred Mountains (Atria, 2006), and Dancing with Butterflies (Washington Square Press, 2009), which were published to critical acclaim. The Distance Between Us is also available as a young readers edition from Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Division-Aladdin. Her books have been adopted as the common read selection by schools, colleges, and cities across the country.Sands Hall is author of the memoir Flunk. Start, the novel Catching Heaven, a Willa Award Finalist for Best Contemporary Fiction, and a Random House Reader’s Circle selection; and a book of writing essays and exercises, Tools of the Writer’s Craft. She teaches at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, the Community of Writers, Squaw Valley, and is a Teaching Professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Hall lives in Nevada City.Regina Louise is the author of Somebody’s Someone, which chronicles her journey through foster care. The one-woman stage adaptation of the book debuted at the Sacramento Theatre Company and was nominated for two NAACP Theatre Awards. Now in film production, her story has been featured on All Things Considered, the BBC, and The Early Show, among others. Louise is a leadership coach in human services, a Hoffman Process teaching candidate, and the winner of an Adoption Excellence Award from the Administration for Children and Families. She is also a trauma-informed trainer who advocates on behalf of foster youth and their emotional permanency. Her new memoir is Someone Has Led This Child to Believe. She lives in Northern California.Julie Lythcott-Haims is author of the New York Times bestselling book How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success, and the recent memoir Real American, which details her personal battle with the low self-esteem that American racism routinely inflicts on people of color. She holds a BA from Stanford, a JD from Harvard Law School, and an MFA in writing from California College of the Arts. She is a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, and resides in the Bay Area with her husband, their two teenagers, and her mother.Natalie Singer is author of the new memoir California Calling: An Interrogation. She has been published in Literary Mama, Washington Post, Seattle Times, ParentMap, Alligator Juniper, and Full Grown People, among other outlets. Her work is included in the anthology Love & Profanity: A Collection of True, Tortured, Wild, Hilarious, Concise, and Intense Tales of Teenage Life. She was the winner of the 2013 Pacific Northwest Writers Association nonfiction award, and a finalist for the 2016 Red Hen Press and Autumn House Press nonfiction awards. Natalie earned her MFA in creative writing and poetics from the University of Washington. She was born in Montreal, lives in Seattle, and dreams of California.Frances Stroh (host) is the award-winning author of Beer Money: A Memoir of Privilege and Loss. She has published in The Common, Literary Hub, and the Detroit Metro Times, among others. Frances is a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto and curator of the Stranger Than Fiction reading series.
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2174 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94114
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