A veritable Jane-of-all-trades, Rayya Elias has been a musician, hair stylist, inmate, addict, and now, author. Harley Loco begins in 1967, when seven-year-old Elias and her family flee their home country, Syria, for Detroit. As she struggles with bullying by her peers, Elias gains the respect of her classmates by taking her first hit of mescaline at school. Drugs quickly become a source of power and help to soothe the internal rift created ... Read More

Since 1993, artist Nina Katchadourian has been reworking books and their titles in her own ongoing visual and literary art project entitled Sorted Books.  Katchadourian combs through books, pulling particular titles and grouping books together to form short sequences of titles that can be read together.  She collects books from different places, ranging from private homes to public collections.  As Katchadourian states on her ... Read More

Tehran-born Dina Nayeri knows all about being split between two worlds—her family immigrated to Oklahoma when she was ten. In A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea, Nayeri returns to 1980s Iran to tell the story of twins Saba and Mahtab, who are obsessed with American culture. After Mahtab and her mother mysteriously disappear, 11-year-old Saba is convinced that they have moved to America without her. As she grows up, Saba imagines ... Read More

  Domenica Ruta grew up outside Boston as the brainy misfit daughter of a loud, buxom, peroxide-blonde Italian mother. A vain and mercurial “narcotic omnivore,” her mom loved and hated her only daughter with equal ferocity. Their home was full of contradictions. As a kid, Ruta was given OxyContin for headaches. Her mom worked extra jobs to pay for Ruta’s dance lessons, but refused to acknowledge that her daughter was being ... Read More

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg wants to start a women’s workplace revolution. Sandberg unveiled her plan for high-achieving ladies during her 2010 TED talk, during which she lamented the small percent of women who have reached the upper echelons of their chosen professions. Next up, Sandberg will be promoting Lean In, her manifesto/memoir/self-help book slated for release on March 11th. According to the Lean In plan, ... Read More