Shobha Rao moved to the U.S. from India at the age of seven. She is the winner of the 2014 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, awarded by Nimrod International Journal. She has been a resident at Hedgebrook and is the recipient of the Elizabeth George Foundation fellowship. Her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in the Best American Short Stories 2015. She lives in San Francisco.
Mariana Seda will read “An Unrestored Woman” by Shobha Rao. Hailing from the Midwest, she has a BA in literature with a minor in performing arts from Iowa State University. After moving to the Davis/Sacramento area six years ago, she has been involved with numerous theater companies and productions. Most recently she played Julia in Two Gentlemen Of Verona (Big Idea Theatre Company) and Nina in In The Heights (Green Valley Theatre Company). Other previous roles include Wendla in Spring Awakening (GVTC), Rachel Jackson in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (GVTC), Queen Anne/Catesby in Richard III (BIT), Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Iowa State University), Mama Rose in Gypsy (ISU), Cristina Kahlo in Frida (Teatro Espejo/Teatro Nagual), and Magenta in the Rocky Horror Picture Show (GVTC). In addition to performing, she also recently directed The Light in the Piazza (GVTC) and [title of show] (GVTC). Thanks to all involved in this great project!
Carmiel Banasky is the author of the novel The Suicide of Claire Bishop (Dzanc, 2015), which Publishers Weekly calls “an intellectual tour de force.” Her work has appeared in Glimmer Train, The Guardian, American Short Fiction, Slice, Guernica, PEN America, The Rumpus, and on NPR, among other places. She earned her MFA from Hunter College, where she also taught creative writing. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from Bread Loaf, Ucross, Ragdale, Artist Trust, I-Park, and other foundations. After four years on the road at writing residencies, she now teaches in Los Angeles. She is from Portland, Oregon.
Evan White will read “The Late Music of Morton Howell” by Carmiel Banasky. White is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English. Since 2011 he has read many original stories on programs on KDVS 90.3 FM, the UC Davis campus and community radio station. He has appeared as a reader at both the Poetry Night Reading Series and the Sacramento Poetry Center’s “Foam at the Mouth” reading series. As an undergraduate he co-founded Absurd Publications and published an anthology of poetry and short fiction, All the Vegetarians in Texas Have Been Shot, in addition to the creative journal The Oddity, of which there were seven issues. Currently he works as a graphic designer at UC Davis, and for the Sacramento-based literary magazine Under the Gum Tree.