Seismic Salon: Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist
Thurs. March 4th, 5-6:30 pm PST
Zoom

Litquake’s second season of Seismic Salons begins with the always fascinating Alka Joshi, whose debut novel The Henna Artist was chosen for Reese Witherspoon’s book club, and appears in paperback this April 6. Born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, she has lived in the U.S. since the age of nine. Alka has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of the Arts, and ran her own advertising and PR agency for 30 years. Currently, she is working on a screen adaption of The Henna Artist. Join us as Alka entertains and informs about the rigors of writing a historical novel for many years (how much research did she have to do?) and finally seeing the labor pay off handsomely. $100 (audience limited to ten people)

From The Guardian’s Georgina Lawton comes the new memoir Raceless, a moving examination of how racial identity is constructed, through the author’s own journey grappling with secrets and stereotypes, having been raised by white parents with no explanation as to why she looked black. In conversation with model and journalist Jess Cole.

About Litquake
Litquake’s diverse live programs are created with the aim of inspiring critical engagement with the key issues of the day, bringing people together around the common humanity encapsulated in literature, and perpetuating a sense of literary community, as well as a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing. We believe in literature as a public good, so we work to produce events that are accessible to all. www.litquake.org

Litquake is grateful for the support of the following funders who help make our programming possible. Institutional Giving: Adobe Employee Community Fund, Bill Graham Memorial Foundation, California Arts Council, California Humanities, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Fleishhacker Family Foundation, Grants for the Arts, Margaret and William R. Hearst III Foundation, Mary A. Crocker Trust, Miner Anderson Family Foundation, Mystery Writers of America, Northern California Chapter, National Endowment for the Arts, The Bernard Osher Foundation, Zellerbach Foundation. Individual Giving: Frances Dinkelspiel and Gary Wayne, Margaret and Will Hearst, Scott James and Gerald Cain, Craig Newmark, and Nicole Miner and Robert Mailer Anderson. Media Sponsors: San Francisco Chronicle, 7 X 7, KQED, Bay Area Reporter, Johnny Funcheap, and KALW 91.7