Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
At midnight on 12/31/1914, President Woodrow Wilson pressed a Western Union telegraph key in Washington, D.C. which turned on the lights and touched off a display of fireworks to open the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Crowds surged across Cabrillo Bridge to see the exhibits and the park’s Spanish Colonial architecture. Discover more San Diego history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
In the early 20th century, the Chicago meat-packing industry used immigrant labor, especially from Eastern Europe. Working conditions and sanitary practices were scandalously bad, as revealed in the Upton Sinclair political novel, The Jungle, published on February 26, 1906. Later that year, Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act on the same day, June 30, 1906. Read more Chicago and labor history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
My Amazon and Goodreads review of The House of Broken Angels (Rating 4): A Multicolor Portrait of a Multi-generational Mexican-American Family – In his vivid multi-generational tale of a Mexican-American family, Luis Alberto Urrea offers up fallen angels (husbands, fathers, sons, brothers) and caregiving saints (wives, mothers, daughters, sisters). At times, I had trouble remembering the identities of third or even second generation characters, a confusion exacerbated by their multiple nicknames. And, even in context, the meaning of some Spanish expressions eluded me. Despite these gaps, I was drawn into the wild ride of life events and complicated relationships among the de la Cruz kin. Some are common to all extended families, others unique to a culture proud of itself yet shamed by a society that regards them as “less than” their white counterparts. Overall, the book has the zest, orneriness, kindness, rage, and spirit of a wild and crowded fiesta.
In the spring of 1903, flooding on the Kansas River inundated North Topeka, an industrial section with flour mills and lumber yards that lies in a valley. Hundreds were marooned in their homes and 29 drowned. There was high water again in 1908, 1923, and 1935 but the dikes constructed after 1903 flood held. Read more Topeka and Kansas history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
San Diego Zoo, conceived by Dr. Harry Wegeforth, grew from the abandoned exotic animal exhibits after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. A permanent tract of land in Balboa Park was set aside and the zoo opened in 1922. In addition to animals from the Exposition, the zoo acquired a menagerie from the defunct Wonderland Amusement Park. Publication of ZooNooz began in 1925. Belle Benchley, director from 1925-1953, was the only woman in the world to serve in this role. San Diego also was the first “cageless” zoo with moats surrounding the exhibits. Its outdoor avian house boasted the world’s largest bird cage. Discover more San Diego history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
I’m getting ready to launch my new novel Tazia and Gemma (Vine Leaves Press, 2018). The launch is Sunday, June 3rd from 2:00 to 4:00 PM at Bookbound Bookstore in Ann Arbor and I’ll also be reading from the book on Tuesday, July 31st from 7:00-9:00 PM at Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor. Copies will be available for purchase and signing at both events. You can also order the book at http://www.vineleavespress.com/tazia-and-gemma-by-ann-s-epstein.html. To read more about this sweeping historical novel, beginning with the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in 1911 and ending fifty years later, see NOVELS. For more details about these and other upcoming events, see NEWS. Please join me to celebrate the book’s publication. I’m looking forward to lively Q & A sessions.
The site of the Triangle Waist Company fire (March 25, 1911) is a national historic landmark in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Originally named the Asch Building, now the Brown Building, the ten-story terra cotta structure lies just east of Washington Square Park on the campus of New York University. The fire, on the 8th to 10th floor where the factory was located, killed 146 people, mostly women, Jewish and Italian immigrants. Read about one survivor of the Triangle Waist Company fire in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
My Amazon and Goodreads review of Asymmetry (Rating 3): A Self-Referential Title for an Uneven Book — I’m baffled by the advanced buzz for Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry, a three-part novel with uneven writing. The first section, about a young woman’s relationship with a famous older writer, said to be based on Philip Roth, no doubt explains the reviewers’ swooning. But while the Roth-like character is thankfully not portrayed as a creep (I’m an avid Roth fan), the woman is a cipher — inert and uninteresting. The power asymmetry in the unconnected second part, which confronts America’s war in Iraq, is more complex and promising, but undeveloped. It needs a book of its own. Part three, a fictitious interview with the writer, has extended riffs on the literary life that are worth perusing. However, the time is better spent reading real interviews with, and books written by, the authors one admires.
The cinematic book trailer for my new novel Tazia and Gemma (Vine Leaves Press, May 2018), made by the talented team at Gash Productions, is now available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lijLhwR2Yb0. Read more about the book at the publisher’s webpage http://www.vineleavespress.com/tazia-and-gemma-by-ann-s-epstein.html. Print and e-book formats available for pre-order soon.
(SPOILER ALERT) The solution to the New York Times acrostic puzzle on April 05, 2018 is: Stella Adler, The Art of Acting, “The reality you create on the stage by opening a jar or threading a needle isn’t so that the audience will believe in you. It’s so that you believe in yourself. Acting is truthful when you yourself are convinced.” Adler’s analysis applies equally well to writing. That is, the reality you create on the page with character, setting, and plot isn’t so that the reader will believe in your narrative but rather that you, the writer, convince yourself. For more thoughts on the art and craft of writing, see REFLECTIONS.
