You’ve written your first manuscript. Read it. Read it a hundred more times. Probably reread it until your eyes ache and the words blur on the page. You know every page by heart. Now what? Join authors Ivelisse Rodriguez, Vanessa Hua, and Andrea Avery as they talk about what to do with your first book, what to expect in looking for a publisher, and how to get started on your second manuscript.
Andrea Avery
Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference Faculty 2018, 2020
Piper Writers Studio Instructor 2017, 2018
About Andrea Avery
Andrea Avery is the author of Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano, which describes her experiences growing up as an aspiring pianist even after a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis at age 12. Her writing has been published in Ploughshares, Real Simple, The Oxford American, and The Politics of Women’s Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior. She was the winner of Real Simple’s 2010 essay contest and a finalist in Glamour magazine’s essay contest. She holds a BA in music, an MFA in Creative Writing, and a doctorate in education from Arizona State University. She teaches English at Phoenix Country Day School and is an active volunteer with the Arthritis Foundation.
View Conference Sessions with this Faculty
So, You Wrote Your First Book. Now What?
Ivelisse Rodriguez, Vanessa Hua, Andrea Avery, Cathy Linh Che, Justin Petropoulos
Saturday, February 22, 2020, 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Location: Carson Ballroom, Old Main
Type: Panel
Genre: Business of Writing, Publishing
Type: Panel
Genre: Business of Writing, Publishing
So You Want to Write Nonfiction About Your Family
Andrea Avery
Friday, February 21, 2020, 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Location: Heritage, University Club
Type: Generative Workshop, Presentation
Genre: Creative Nonfiction, Memoir
Type: Generative Workshop, Presentation
Genre: Creative Nonfiction, Memoir
Join memoirist, educator, and writer, Andrea Avery in an exploration on the processes in which we write about our own family. As a participant, you will use writing exercises focused on empathy, point of view, and personal truth to tell your family stories from your own perspectives. What happens 'after' a creative nonfiction book about your family comes to life in a public realm?
More About Andrea Avery
"Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano." Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2017.
But as much as this is the story of Avery’s mind and psychology, it is even more so the story of her adjustments to her traitorous body, to how people perceive her, that composes the capacious heart of this narrative. Through it all—her body’s betrayals, the numerous and various surgeries—we see a bright, determined person trying to come to peace with herself and with a world that is not always kind.
Avery, Andrea. "Beauty in Motion." Life Lessons Essay Contest, Real Simple, 2010.
I’m 33, and I have my very own walker. I keep it in the garage with my old schoolwork and the Christmas decorations. It’s a nice model―a collapsible platform style, with gray vinyl arm rests and joystick-style hand grips. I got the walker in 2004, when both my knees were replaced in a single operation. Having been diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis at age 12, I knew better than to think I could get rid of the walker once I had healed.
---. "I was going to be a concert pianist. And then rheumatoid arthritis appeared." Andrea Avery, The Washington Post (June 20, 2017).
In this “before,” I was going to be a pianist. I was not crazy to think so. By some magic of genetics and environment, the keys rose to meet my fingers and music came. And then, too soon, by some inverted miracle of genetics and environment, rheumatoid arthritis appeared. The keys still rose to meet my fingers, but my curling fingers recoiled. For too long, I tried to be arthritic and a pianist. For too long, I refused to believe that I could not be both.
Voss, Chris. "Pain and Piano: The Story of Andrea Avery." WCRB, June 30, 2017. Includes audio.
Where most kids have to be prodded and bribed to practice their instruments, Avery couldn't walk past a piano without plopping down on the bench and playing it. It was a need, and she practiced ferociously, devouring everything she could get her hands on, from Mozart to Barry Manilow. Piano was her everything.
Then her body took her in another direction. Rheumatoid arthritis (R.A.), like multiple sclerosis or lupus, is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes the body to misread its own instructions and to attack itself. It has no cure, and cruelly, especially for a budding pianist determined to be the best, it takes aim at the joints.