We had such a great experience last year with our debut author panel (and learned so much!) that we had to do it again! This time, we welcome authors Karissa Chen, Tara Dorabji, Laurie L. Dove, and Jakob Kerr to our virtual stage. We'll be talking all about getting into publishing, the pitfalls, challenges, and roadblocks as well as the excitement, fulfillment, and reader enthusiasm that makes it all worthwhile. Bring your questions as this will be in a Q&A format.  All four of our authors have books coming out in January 2025 - how awesome is that!?!

RECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program.

Click here to register.

Our authors:

Karissa Chen is a Fulbright fellow, Kundiman Fiction fellow, and a VONA/Voices fellow whose fiction and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Eater, The Cut, NBC News Think!, Longreads, PEN America, Catapult, Gulf Coast, and Guernica, among others. She was awarded an artist fellowship from the NJ Council on the Arts as well as residences at Millay Colony where she was a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Ragdale Foundation, and Willapa Bay AiR. She was formerly the Senior Fiction Editor at The Rumpus and currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief at Hyphen magazine. She received an MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and splits her time between New Jersey and Taipei, Taiwan.

Karissa's debut novel, "Homeseeking" (January 7, 2025) is an epic and intimate tale of one couple across sixty years as world events pull them together and apart, illuminating the Chinese diaspora and exploring what it means to find home far from your homeland.

Tara Dorabji is the daughter of Parsi-Indian and German-Italian migrants. Her debut novel, Call Her Freedom, is the Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us grand prize winner. Her documentary film series on human rights defenders in Kashmir won awards at more than a dozen film festivals throughout Asia and the USA. Her work has appeared in publications such as Al Jazeera, The Chicago Quarterly Review, Huizache, and acclaimed anthologies Good Girls Marry Doctors and All the Women in My Family Sing. She lives in Northern California with her family and pet rabbit.

Tara's debut novel, "Call Her Freedom" (January 21, 2025) is a sweeping family saga following one woman’s struggle to protect her culture and her family amidst the backdrop of a military occupation.

Laurie L. Dove is a reporter and editor whose work has appeared in numerous publications and garnered several honors for outstanding journalism. She graduated with a master’s degree in Creative Writing and Literature from Harvard University. She is an adjunct professor who currently lives and writes in Kansas. Find her at lauriedove.com.

Laurie's debut novel, "Mask of the Deer Woman" shines an important spotlight on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis while folding a compelling mystery into a heartfelt journey of grief, identity, and reconnection.” —Vanessa Lillie, USA Today bestselling author of Blood Sisters

Jakob Kerr is a lawyer and communications executive working in the tech industry. He was one of the first employees at Airbnb and spent over a decade shepherding the company from tiny startup to global phenomenon. He has also been a bartender, sportswriter, and—for one disastrous afternoon—the driver of an ice cream truck. After fifteen years in San Francisco, he recently returned to his native Pacific Northwest, where he now lives with his wife and children. Dead Money is his first novel.

Jakob's novel, "Dead Money" (January 28, 2025) is the story of a Silicon Valley fixer who investigates a billionaire founder’s death while pursuing her own agenda in this twisty, sharply observed debut mystery from a tech world insider.

Photo credits: Karissa Chen by Ernie Chang, Tara Dorabji by Sheila Menezes, and Jakob Kerr by Ashley Courter

Presented in collaboration with the Ashland Public Library and other area libraries.