About this Event
Media portrayals of the foster care system are often stereotypical and inaccurate, painting pictures of doom and gloom that don't do justice to the care and complexities that exist within it. Challenges exist, but the only way to fix a broken system is to understand it and see it clearly from all sides, in order to look at possibilities and solutions.
Rachel León's debut novel, How We See the Gray, brings readers into the complexities and possibilities of the foster care system with compassion and nuance. The book is a social novel narrated by a Greek chorus of social workers that offers a bird's-eye view of the foster care system through the lens of caseworkers, foster parents, birth parents, and a queer teen. Ultimately, the novel is about trying to do better in a system that seems doomed to fail. León drew from a nearly two decade career in child welfare to write a vibrant and specific story.
León will be in conversation with Annelies Zijderveld, an Oakland-based writer and foster parent who has done advocacy work to help improve the foster care system in California. The two will discuss the current challenges facing the foster care system, particularly locally in Oakland, as well as solutions and possibilities for a more equitable and just system.
Rachel León (she/they) is a writer, editor, and social worker, who has worked in child welfare for nearly two decades. She serves as Managing Director for Chicago Review of Books, and their work has appeared in The Rumpus, Lit Hub, LA Review of Books, among others. Rachel is the author of the novel, How We See the Gray.
Annelies Zijderveld is the interviews editor at The Rumpus. She writes about food, music, culture, and the arts, with work appearing in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Chicago Review of Books, Texas Observer, among others. She authored Steeped: Recipes Infused with Tea with food writing appearing in epicurious, The Kitchn and others. She lives in Oakland.
Event venue & nearby stays
Clio's Books, 353 Grand Ave., Oakland, United States
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