Join us to hear from local authors about each of their books! We are excited to welcome Jennifer Briggs, author of Watching Sarah Rise, Nancy Kilgore, author of Pennsylvania Love Song, and Seyed Nourashrafeddin, author of In Search of Rain, From Motel Qu to Pittsburgh. Following the presentations, there will be time for Q&A with the audience and book signing. We hope to see you there!
About Jennifer Briggs:
Jennifer Celeste Briggs has a BA in English Literature from Swarthmore college. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband and two daughters. Her daughter Sarah has a genetic anomaly and autism. When Sarah was four, Jenny decided to run a Son-Rise Program for her, calling it Sarah-Rise, and training at the Autism Treatment Center of America. The Son-Rise Program is a loving child-centered approach to helping those with autism and other challenges connect socially, verbally, and through increased eye contact. Organizing hundreds of hours of therapeutic play time for Sarah, Jenny trained and coordinated multiple volunteers who contributed their love and creativity to the venture. Jenny started a blog to share the experience of Sarah-Rise and has heard multiple times that her words were helpful to others dealing with life struggles. Jenny wants to help parents feel understood and to spread the word about The Son-Rise Program. She hopes that her words bring comfort, joy, and inspiration to readers whatever their challenges and journeys may be.
About Nancy Kilgore:
Nancy Hayes Kilgore’s new novel, Pennsylvania Love Song is based on the young lives of the author’s mother in the 1940s and her grandmother in the 1910s.
Two young women, a mother and daughter who never knew one another, both struggle with independence and courtship at pivotal times in the 20th century.
"A gorgeous example of family history as story, Pennsylvania Love Song is a perfect tribute to the subtle yet undeniable connections between mothers and daughters and the quiet influence of family legacy." -Sarah Angleton, author of Paradise on the Pike
Nancy Kilgore’s other novels include the bestselling BITTER MAGIC (Milford House Press, 2021,) inspired by the life of famous “witch” Isobel Gowdie in 1600s Scotland, WILD MOUNTAIN (Bown Posey Press, 2017,) and SEA LEVEL (RCWMS, 2011.) Awards include the Vermont Writers Prize and a ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year. A pastoral psychotherapist and former parish pastor, Nancy leads workshops on creative writing and spirituality. She is a native of Pennsylvania and lives in Vermont.
About Seyed Nourashrafeddin:
Seyed Nourashrafeddin was born in 1974 in a large family in the northern region of Iran. His childhood unfolded during the turbulent years of the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. Raised by a resilient and illiterate mother and a father who battled heroin addiction and incarceration. He started working to help the family economy when he was a child. He completed his primary and secondary school at his home city, Motel Qu, and worked most of his childhood. He was not a good student in school and had no interest in studying. So, he failed most classes and was rejected in the first grade of middle school. One day, as a poor student, he received a small New Year’s gift from the school, and this was a trigger for him to study and follow the advice of his grandfather who used to say that he should become a scientist! Despite all hardships and struggling with vitiligo, he finished his schooling and earned degrees from prestigious Iranian universities. In 2012, he immigrated to the United States as a health sciences scholar. He obtained a PhD in Molecular Medicine and introduced cutting-edge genomic techniques like whole exome sequencing to Iran. Today, he is a well-known scientist with numerous articles on cancer and reproductive health. His memoir, In Search of Rain from Motel Qu to Pittsburgh, reflects his unwavering determination, his family’s sacrifices, and his pursuit of a brighter future.