Ordinary Women: Extraordinary Heroines

Authors Teri Coyne (“The Last Bridge”), Masha Hamilton (“31 Hours”), Stacy Parker Aab ("Government Girl") and Louisa Ermelino ("The Sisters Mallone") read from their latest work and explore Ordinary Women: Extraordinary Heroines - a new paradigm for the modern heroine.

The authors have written characters or known women who are in remarkable circumstance: women on death row; Afghan women fighting to have their voices heard; alcoholics struggling to regain their life; journalists seeking understanding. These are ordinary women leading extraordinary lives; they defy convention and show courage under fire even if it looks like they are fumbling to the finish line. They are the new heroines.

The authors will be joined by a surprise roster of guest authors who will share journal entries from The Afghan Women’s Writing Project, begun in 2009 by Masha Hamilton to foster creative and intellectual exchange between Afghan women writers and American authors and teachers. Discover why the most radical thing you might do in 2010 is speak honestly about your life.

Teri Coyne’s novel, The Last Bridge, debuted in July 2009, and was called, “…a compelling debut…” (Publishers Weekly) and a “…psychological tour de force…” (Booklist). Writing since she received her first typewriter on her 10th birthday, she studied poetry with Philip Shultz, novel writing at Iowa Summer Writers Workshop, memoir with Frank McCourt and fiction with Masha Hamilton. A former stand-up comedienne, she also explored filmmaking, playwriting, acting, producing and directing. Teri lives in New York. (www.tericoyne.com)

Masha Hamilton is a former Associated Press and Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent and the author of four acclaimed novels, most recently 31 Hours (2009), named by The Washington Post as one of the best thrillers/mysteries of 2009. Hamilton is also the founder of two world literacy programs: the Camel Book Drive and the Afghan Women’s Writing Project.Her previous novels include Staircase of a Thousand Steps (2001); The Distance Between Us (2004) and The Camel Bookmobile (2007). www.mashahamilton.com

Stacy Parker Aab is the author of Government Girl: Young and Female in the White House(Ecco/HarperCollins). She has written political and social commentary for The Huffington Post and Salon.com, and served as the primary contributor to Voices from the Storm: The People of New Orleans on Hurrican Katrina and its Aftermath (McSweeney’s). She continues to work on Katrina-related research projects, including The Katrina Experience: an Oral History Project.

Louisa Ermelino’s novels celebrate the power of women, her Italian american ancestry and her New York City neighborhood. The author of Joey Dee Gets Wise, The Black Madonna, and The Sisters Mallone is the Reviews Director at Publishers Weekly Magazine and has worked at People, Time and Instyle magazines.