Author: Julia Flynn Siler

  • Towers of Gold Lands on the NYT’s Essential California Reading List!

    Frances Dinkelspiel’s Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California, was picked by the New York Times for its California Reading List, alongside such classic titles as Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club and John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat. Frances spent nearly a decade researching and writing about the life of her great-great-grandfather,…

  • Light on Fire is a California Book Award Award Winner!

    Light on Fire is a California Book Award Award Winner!

    Gabrielle Selz’s Light on Fire: The Art and Life of Sam Francis has been awarded a silver medal in nonfiction  in this year’s California Book Awards! Founded in 1931 during the depths of America’s Great Depression, the Commonwealth Club’s California Book Awards will celebrated its 91st anniversary this year. The purpose of the awards is…

  • Our Afternoon with Dirty Santa

    A beloved holiday tradition of North 24th Writers is game that some people call a “Yankee Swap”, and others call “Dirty Santa.” Here’s how it’s played: Everyone draws a number from a hat – which establishes the order for picking from the wrapped books we’ve all brought. The person who drew number one goes first,…

  • A Pioneering Feminist Artist

    North 24thers took a field trip this weekend to see a retrospective exhibit of Judy Chicago’s work at the De Young Museum. In a surprising and welcome decision, the curators started with recent pieces by this feminist pioneer and moved back in time to her earliest creations. The show begins with ceramic, glass, and needle…

  • History Written by the Victors…

    History Written by the Victors…

    By Julia Flynn Siler For a sobering instance of history being written by the victors, consider the death of Jane Lathrop Stanford. As co-founder and primary benefactor of Stanford University, Jane died of strychnine poisoning in 1905 in Waikiki. For nearly a century, the fact of her murder was successfully covered up. The key figure…