Hello WNBA-NYC Members! Have you ever written a book? Has your book been published? If you answered yes to both of these questions, we’d love to hear from you!
The Blog is currently compiling answers about debut author experiences. If you’re an active member, please email blog@wnba-nyc.org with your answers to the following questions by Sunday, October 13th! Select entries will be published on the WNBA-NYC blog.
- When did you publish your first book? What was its name?
- Briefly describe your experiences debuting as an author. What parts of the process surprised you, what parts of the process did you enjoy, etc. (Please limit responses to 100 words).
- If different than Question 1, what is the name and pub date of your most recent novel?
Want to hear from other authors who have debuted, check out this month’s Debut Fiction Panel! Participants details below:
Rabeah Ghaffari
Rabeah Ghaffari was born in Iran and lives in New York City. She is a filmmaker and writer whose work has appeared in the Tribeca Film Festival. Her collaborative fiction with artist Shirin Neshat was featured in Reflections on Islamic Art (Bloomsbury/Qatar) and her documentary, The Troupe, featured Tony Kushner and received funding from the Ford Foundation and Lincoln Center. Her most recent feature-length screenplay, The Inheritors, was commissioned by producer/costume designer Patricia Field. To Keep the Sun Alive is her first novel.
To Keep the Sun Alive: A cinematic debut about an Iranian family and their fruit orchard, caught up in the Revolution of 1979.
Stephanie Jimenez
Stephanie Jimenez is a former Fulbright recipient. She is based in Queens, New York. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in the Guardian, O! the Oprah Magazine, Joyland Magazine, The New York Times, and more. Her debut novel, They Could Have Named Her Anything, was published on August 1, 2019 (Little A).
They Could Have Named Her Anything: Racism, class, and betrayal collide in this poignant debut novel about restoring the broken bonds of family and friendship.
Melissa Rivero
Melissa Rivero was born in Lima, Peru and raised in Brooklyn. A former Emerging Writers Fellow at the Center for Fiction, she is a graduate of NYU and Brooklyn Law School. She currently works as in-house legal counsel at a startup. Melissa still lives in Brooklyn with her family. The Affairs of the Falcóns is her first novel.
The Affairs of the Falcóns: A stunning debut novel about a young undocumented Peruvian woman fighting to keep her family afloat in New York City.
Julia Kardon
Julia Kardon was born and raised in New York City. Her first job in publishing, while in high school, was shelving fiction at the fabled Strand Bookstore. After receiving degrees in Comparative Literature, as well as in Slavic Languages and Literature at the University of Chicago, she moved to Prague to teach English for a year. Julia then returned to New York to restart her career in publishing. She joined HSG in 2018 after building a list at Mary Evans Inc and handling foreign rights. She is interested primarily in literary and upmarket fiction and memoir, especially with a focus on identity or with an international lens, narrative nonfiction, journalism, and history.
Her clients include
- New York Times Best Sellers Brit Bennett and Etaf Rum
- Barnes & Noble Discover picks John Freeman Gill and Leah Franqui
- Center For Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow Melissa Rivero
- Moriel Rothman-Zecher, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, and others.
