Deborah Santana is an author, philanthropist, advocate for peace and social justice, and mother of three extremely loved children. Her first memoir, Space Between The Stars: My Journey to an Open Heart, was published in March 2005.
Ms. Santana founded Do A Little, a donor-advised fund at the San Francisco Foundation in 2008 that supports women and girls in the areas of health, education and happiness. She has received many awards, supports varied organizations, and has traveled widely, appreciative of her encounters with everyone from Nelson Mandela to young school girls in Kenya.
Ms. Santana believes life is to be lived with integrity, compassion and love. She tells her personal stories to share her strength and encourage others on the journey.
America Ferrera is an award-winning actress and producer who is perhaps best known for her breakthrough role as “Betty Suarez” on ABC’s hit comedy, Ugly Betty, for which she won a Golden Globe®, Emmy® and Screen Actors Guild Award®, as well as ALMA and Imagen Awards. Ferrera currently produces and stars in the NBC workplace comedy, Superstore, which was recently picked up for a third season.
She recently Executive Produced Refinery 29’s Behind the Headlines and Only Girl.
In July 2016, America spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on behalf of women’s rights and immigration in support of Hillary Clinton.
Behind the scenes, America has started her own television and film production company, Take Fountain.
Natalie Baszile, whose best-selling novel Queen Sugar was adapted for Oprah’s TV channel by award-winning director, Ava Duvernay, has a M.A. in Afro-American Studies from UCLA, and is a graduate of Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers where she was a Holden Minority Scholar. Queen Sugar was named one of the San Francisco Chronicles’ Best Books of 2014, was long-listed for the Crooks Corner Southern Book Prize, and nominated for an NAACP Image Award. She has had residencies at the Ragdale Foundation where she was awarded the Sylvia Clare Brown fellowship, Virginia Center for the Arts, and Hedgebrook
Lalita Tademy is The New York Times bestselling author of three historical novels. Her debut novel, Cane River, was Oprah’s Summer Book Pick in 2001 and was translated into 11 languages, and was San Francisco’s “One City, One Book” in 2007. She has been featured in People Magazine, O Magazine, More Magazine, Good Housekeeping, The Today Show, The Early Show, CNN, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. She has appeared as a speaker for the Library of Congress and National Book Festival, the California Governor’s Conference for Women, and African American Librarians. She is a San Francisco Library Laureate.
Porochista Khakpour is an Iranian American novelist, essayist and writer. She is a contributor of personal essays to The New York Times about her experiences as Iranian-American and Islamic popular culture, and also writes about popular culture and music in the United States. Her first novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects (Grove/Atlantic) was published in September 2007. The lyrical dark comedy, centered on the aftermath of 9/11 and Iranian fathers and sons in Los Angeles and New York, was a New York Times Editor's Choice and was included on the Chicago Tribune's 2007 "Fall's Best" list. It won the 77th annual California Book Award prize in First Fiction. She has been longlisted for the 2008 Dylan Thomas Prize and shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize.
Khakpour's second novel, The Last Illusion (Bloomsbury USA), was released on May 13, 2014.
Khakpour currently teaches at Columbia University in New York as an Adjunct Faculty Member in the MFA program, the written arts department at Bard College, and at Fordham University as an Adjunct Faculty member.
- Sons and Other Flammable Objects, Grove Press 2008, ISBN 978-0802143860
- The Last Illusion, Bloomsbury USA 2014, ISBN 978-1620403044
Porochista Khakpour is a Writer in Residence at Bard College.
