How do we capture the emotional power of food experience in our writing? Crafting narratives with food memories opens up rich fields of exploration and connections, rendering complex, vibrant narratives that resonate with emotion. Focusing on food memories and experiences, five panelists draw upon multi-genre work from fiction to creative nonfiction to discuss craft techniques, revision strategies, and how they use food in their work to explore and interrogate relationships and social issues.
Amy Barnes authored “Clean-up on Aisle Five,” a food essay collection. Her words are published at a wide range of sites including XRAY Lit, Forbes, Fodor’s Travel, Chowhound, McSweeney’s, Allrecipes, Parade Relish, Southern Living & The Spruce Eats. She edits for Ruby Literary & Taco Bell Quarterly. Look for her forthcoming collection Child Craft from Bell Pointe Press.
April Bradley is a Durham, North Carolina-based writer and editor. Her writing appears in CRAFT, Gone Lawn, Heavy Feather Review, jmww, Narratively, and SmokeLong Quarterly among many fine others. She is the editor and publisher of RUBY and serves as a submissions editor at SmokeLong Quarterly. April is a Best American Essays, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and Pushcart Prize nominee and a graduate of Yale Divinity School. She is a Clinical Counseling grad student at William & Mary and the editor of the forthcoming Flare: An Anthology of Chronic Illness Told in Flash Narratives. Find her online at aprilbradley.com.
Elaine Chiew is the author of THE LIGHT BETWEEN US (forthcoming May 2024), THE HEARTSICK DIASPORA and editor/compiler of COOKED UP: FOOD FICTION FROM AROUND THE WORLD. Before turning to fiction, she practiced corporate law as a New York qualified attorney in New York, London and Hong Kong. Her stories, frequently including food, have appeared in anthologies globally. She’s a twice winner of the Bridport Prize.
Jolene McIlwain has taught literary theory/analysis at Duquesne and Chatham universities. Her short story collection, Sidle Creek, set in the Appalachian plateau of western PA—where she was born, raised, and currently lives—recently debuted from Melville House. It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was selected as one of NPR’s and Library Journal’s Best Books of 2023.
Annie Bloom's Books is excited to be the independent, long-distance neighborhood bookstore partnering with Brown Bag Lit for this event. Annie Bloom's has been a proud indie since 1978 and can ship anywhere in the United States from their store in Portland, Oregon. You can follow this link to their website and order a book to support these fabulous writers.