2024 Pasadena Festival of Women Authors | Author Photos and Author Talks

Helen Elaine Lee

2024 PFWA

Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

Pomegranate tells the story of Ranita, who, after four long years, is released from prison. But she’ll never be completely free until she can answer these questions: Can she stay clean and sober? When will she see her children? What were the demons that caused her to derail her life at a young age despite growing up in a nice middle-class family? Lee earned her BA at Harvard and her law degree from Harvard Law school. The author of two previous novels, The Serpent’s Gift and Water Marked, Lee is Professor of Comparative Media Studies/Writing at MIT. She was on the board of PEN New England for 10 years, serving on its Freedom to Write Committee, and helping to start its Prison Creative Writing Program.

“Lee’s handling of trauma is deft, and her portrayal of the carceral system’s cruelty is unflinching and empathetic…a cache of jewels.” – Kirkus Reviews. 

Pomegranate has been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in fiction.

Fiona McFarlane

2024 PFWA

Won the Dylan Thomas Prize for The High Places

In brilliant, symphonic prose, The Sun Walks Down transports the reader to a town in colonial Australia turned upside down by the search for a missing boy. From bride to widow, artist to shopkeeper, indigenous tracker to policeman, readers learn the intimate thoughts and concerns of townsfolk as they confront each other and the harsh land they occupy. A native of Australia, McFarlane attended the University of Sydney, Cambridge University, and the University of Texas at Austin. She’s the author of the novel, The Night Guest, and a short story collection, The High Places, which won the Dylan Thomas Prize. McFarlane teaches at UC Berkeley and lives in the Bay Area.

“A thrilling success . . . McFarlane spins a novel full of mystery and wonder.” – The Wall Street Journal. “Masterful storytelling . . . We read on captivated by the novel’s beautiful prose and polyphonic voices, and marveling at both its epic scope and rare intimacy.” – The Washington Post

Cathleen Schine

2024 PFWA

Internationally Best-Selling Author of 12 Novels

In Künstlers in Paradise, 93-year-old Mamie spends the seemingly endless pandemic telling her visiting grandson, Julian, stories of her escapades with artists who fled the Nazis and came to Hollywood. Mamie’s story spans from Berlin in the 1930s to Venice Beach in 2020.  Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood, Thomas Mann, and Greta Garbo come to brilliant life in Schine’s witty and erudite style. Schine earned her BA at Sarah Lawrence. The author of The Grammarians, The Three Weissmanns of Westport, and The Love Letter, among other novels, she lives in Venice, California.

“A paean to the regenerative power of storytelling and to Los Angeles itself.” – New York Times Book Review.  “A moving and entertaining novel about how we revisit memories to make meaning for ourselves and others.” – The Wall Street Journal

Tania James

2024 PFWA

Loot is Longlisted for the National Book Award

Set in 18th Century India, England, and France, Tania James’ novel, Loot, is the story of a young woodcarver, Abbas, who dreams of leaving his mark on the world. Centering on Tipu’s Sultan Tiger, an actual wooden automaton, Loot follows the fate of the wooden tiger mirroring the history of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe. A love story, a hero’s quest, a heist, and a coming-of-age story, Loot takes its readers on a thrilling journey. Raised in Kentucky, James earned a B.A. in filmmaking at Harvard and an MFA from Columbia.  She lives in Washington, D.C., and is an associate professor in the MFA program at George Mason University.  She has been a finalist for the Dylan Thomas prize and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Fulbright Program.  Loot was long-listed for the National Book Award for fiction.

“Captivating . . . James is a master miniaturist who can create the illusion of a saga in a chapter.  Her pages feel as full as a 19th-century bildungsroman, with collapsing kingdoms, sailing ships and elaborate schemes . . . And her prose is lush with the sights, sounds and smells of India, France and England, and always laced with Dickensian wit.” —The Washington Post