By Rosaleen Bertolino
For our first event of 2022, Thursday, February 3, Prose Café is thrilled to present three remarkable and highly accomplished writers reading original work that celebrates our complex relationship with food.
Diana Abu-Jaber often writes about the intersection of family and cultural identity.
Her award-winning novels include “Silverworld,” “Birds of Paradise,” “Origin; Crescent,” and “Arabian Jazz.” Her memoirs have been translated into over 20 languages and taught around the world. They include “Life Without a Recipe” and “The Language of Baklava.” Her latest work, “Fencing with the King,” a novel of Middle Eastern intrigue and suspense, will be published in March 2022 by W.W. Norton. Abu-Jaber teaches at Portland State University and lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Elissa Altman is the critically acclaimed, James Beard Award-winning author of the memoirs “Motherland,” “Treyf,” and “Poor Man’s Feast.” A 2020 finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, Connecticut Book Award, and Maine Literary Award for memoir, Altman’s work has appeared in “O: The Oprah Magazine,” “LitHub,” “On Being,” “The Wall Street Journal,” “Dame,” “Lion’s Roar,” “The Guardian,” “The New York Times,” “The Rumpus,” and “The Washington Post,” where her column, “Feeding My Mother,” ran for a year. Altman writes and speaks widely on the intersection of sustenance and the spirit and has appeared live on the TEDx stage, at the Public Theater in New York, on NPR, and on podcasts ranging from Debbie Millman’s “Design Matters” to Nora McInerny’s “Terrible, Thanks for Asking.” She teaches the craft of memoir at the Fine Arts Work Center, Maine Writers & Publishers, and beyond. She lives in Connecticut with her family.
Amy Cotler worked as a culinary professional before turning to creative writing. Her short pieces have appeared in numerous publications, including: “Hinterlands Magazine,” “Prometheus Rising,” “Guesthouse Literary Journal,” “The Hamilton Stone Review,” “Drunk Monkeys,” “Women Who Roar,” “Potato Soup Journal,” “Still Point Arts Quarterly,” “Bright Flash Literary Review,” and “The Rambling Epicure.” She was a leader in the farm-to-table movement. Cotler also taught at Culinary Institute of America and the Institute for Culinary Education, hosted food forums for “The New York Times,” authored five cookbooks, and created more than 1000 recipes for “Joy of Cooking” and other publications. She lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with her husband, an artist, and their dog, Remy.
Advance registration is required (www.sanmiguelliterarysala.org). Tickets are free but if you make a donation when signing up, you will be supporting the San Miguel Literary Sala and San Miguel Prose Café, an all-volunteer organization which presents local and visiting writers, both established and emerging. We hope to see you February 3!
