Refusing Silence: Writing Women's Lives at Womb House Books

Please join us at Womb House Books as local authors Faith Adiele, Susan Ito and Grace Loh Prasad will discuss the importance of women telling their unique stories–of particular relevance under a new government that’s focused on oppressing women.

Purchase your copy:

by Grace Loh Prasad

by Faith Adiele

by Susan Ito

From growing up biracial in a family of Nordic and Nigerian ancestry, to seeking the truth about an ambivalent birth mother, to reconnecting with Taiwanese heritage across distance, loss, and a language gap, these three authors have overcome numerous barriers to speak their truths and find belonging.

Their lively, far-ranging discussion will include writing and craft tips, what to consider when publishing with indie and university presses versus Big 5 houses, and how to handle telling family secrets. This event will appeal to readers interested in women’s and BIPOC lives, as well as writers working on their own personal and family stories.

Following the conversation, the authors will answer questions from the audience followed by book signing.

Faith Adiele is the author of four chapbooks about her Nigerian-Nordic-American heritage, most recently Her Voice: Hänen Äänensä: A Hybrid Memoir and Voice/Over: A Memoir Breakout in 7 Movies. Meeting Faith, her account of becoming Thailand’s first Black Buddhist Nun, won the PEN Open Book Award. Co-editor of Coming of Age Around the World: A Multicultural Anthology, she has published in O: The Oprah Magazine, The Offing, Miami Herald, and elsewhere. Faith’s media credits include a PBS documentary about finding her Nigerian family, A World of Calm (HBO-Max), and Calm Sleep Stories. Named one of Marie Claire’s “Five Women to Learn From,” she founded the USA’s first writing workshop for travelers of color, chairs Writing & Literature at CCA, and teaches around the world.

Susan Ito is the author of the memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, published by the Ohio State University Press, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. She co-edited the literary anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption. Her work has appeared in The Writer, Literary Mama, Catapult, Hyphen, The Bellevue Literary Review, Agni, Guernica, and elsewhere. She has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, The Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook and Blue Mountain Center. Her theatrical adaptation of Untold, stories of reproductive stigma, was produced at Brava Theater. She is a member of the Writers Grotto and teaches at the Mills College campus of Northeastern University.

Grace Loh Prasad was born in Taiwan and raised in New Jersey and Hong Kong before settling in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her debut memoir The Translator’s Daughter—a finalist for the Feminist Press Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and one of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Best Books of 2024—was published by The Ohio State University Press. Grace writes frequently about belonging and diaspora for publications including The New York Times, Literary Hub, Longreads, Guernica, Brevity, The Offing, Oldster Magazine, and KHÔRA. Her writing has received support from Hedgebrook, Ragdale and Writing Between the Vines, and she has taught memoir and essay writing for Tin House, Rooted & Written and The Writers Grotto.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Womb House Books, Temescal Alley, Oakland, United States