San Francisco Village has hosted many wonderful programs where members share their work, such as the Author’s Talks, poetry readings, and writers readings at the Art Salon. We recently asked our members, volunteers, instructors, and board of directors, to share with us any writing they have published. Below you will find a selection of chapter books, poetry, children’s books, audiobooks, articles, and other types of written work. You may click on the book title to learn more about it.
If you are a member of the SFV community and would like your published work to be added to this list, please contact Jessica Da Silva, at jessica@sfvillage.org
Salento by 5: Friendship, Food, Music and Travel Within the Heel of Italy’s Boot, 2016 by Audrey Fielding
Author’s note: “Our book is a travel memoir that grew out of a friendship with three Salentini Italians, each of them high school English teachers. We wrote together and shared our work until we finally had a manuscript and a publisher. Our goal was to have our Italian friends write about the culture of the place they grew up in. The book is a collection of local history, family stories and recipes, all of which take you to the Salento region of southern Puglia.”
Rita Semel: Fixing a Broken World, 2023 by Basya Petnick
Author’s note: “I am an oral historian, editor, and writer. This book was a gift from the community to Rita Semel, founder of the Interfaith Council and principal of many good deeds, in honor of her 100th birthday!”
Sarah’s Secret: A Western Tale of Betrayal and Forgiveness, 2017 by Beverly Scott
Author’s note: “This book grew out of a genealogy search for information about my grandfather who died in 1911. Unable to find much information about him after he abandoned his first family, I decided to create a fictionalized version of the story of not only my grandfather but my grandmother’s struggle to raise her 5 children after he died.”
Available on: Amazon (print and e-book); Ingram Books (print book); Draft to Digital (e-book)
My Idea, 2021 by Daniel Raskin and Irit Lipl
Author’s note: Every idea is worth an adventure. There are so many opportunities for learning along the way. The adventure itself is the treasure – sometimes more valuable than reaching your destination.
Out of Left Field, 2018 by Ellen Klages
Author’s note: Story about the fight for equal rights in America’s favorite arena: the baseball field!
They Make Us Dangerous (Bolivia 1964 – 1980), 2012 by Frances Payne
Other titles: The Life and Art of John Payne, 2014
Available on: Contact author or Amazon or XLibri
Torn Lilacs: A True WWII Story of Love, Defiance and Hope, 2020 by Henry Michalski
Author’s note: “Torn Lilacs is the true love story which my parents endured during the time of the Second World War….we settled in San Francisco in 1950. The book has exceeded all my wildest expectations, winning numerous literary prizes, and required reading universities, and I’ve been invited to speak throughout the United States. I am very proud of this love story, which is more contemporary today than ever before, with the rise of antisemitism…an important book for today’s readers.”
Available on: Amazon print and audio, local bookstores, most libraries
My Own Silence, 2006 by Jeanne Powell
Other titles: Word Dancing, 2008, Two Seasons, 2014, Carousel, 2014, and Deeply Notched Leaves, 2021.
Author’s note: “My free verse poems are popular with many. My essays in CAROUSEL are also popular.”
Available: Online or any bookstore
Jeffrey Zable
Author’s note: “I have published five chapbooks and my selected poetry will come out from a local press within six months. I have published hundreds of poems, flash-fiction, and non-fiction pieces, more recently in the following journals: The Hooghly Review, Alba, Uppagus, Cacti Fur, The Gorko Gazette, Chewers & Masticadores, Juste Literary, and many others. I have been writing and publishing my work for many years. Writing has always been a form of therapy for me.”
The New Chinese Medicine Handbook:An Innovative Guide to Integrating Eastern Wisdom with Western Practice for Modern Healing., 2015 by Misha Cohen
Other titles: The Chinese Medicine Companion: A Modern Guide to Ancient Healing, 2020,
Available on: Amazon
Author’s note: Misha Ruth Cohen, OMD, L.Acm is the clinical director of Chicken Soup Chinese Medicine. Dr. Cohen has authored eight books, for both professionals and for consumers along with numerous professional journal and consumer magazine articles. Her most recent title is The New Chinese Medicine Handbook: An Innovative Guide to Integrating Eastern Wisdom with Western Practice for Modern Healing.
Not Me, 2005 by Michael Lavigne
Other titles: The Wanting, 2014, and The Heart of Henry Quantum, 2017
Available on: Online
Baby you can drive my car…, 2015 by Michele Praeger
Other titles: Talk Turkey, 2020, Disturbances, 2022, and The Imaginary Caribbean and Caribbean Imaginary, 2003
Author’s note: “In my professional life I wrote about other writers; now I’m able to indulge in my writerly fantasies.”
The Sun’s Not Broken, A Cloud’s Just in the Way: On Child-Centered Teaching, 2022 Second Edition by Sydney Clemens
Other titles: Seeing Young Children with New Eyes, 2012 and Pay Attention to Young Children, 1996.
Author’s note: “I wrote about what I learned from the many 4-year-olds I taught in the 1960s and 1970s. The book has sold 37,000 copies to parents, teachers, and childcare workers since I wrote it, and I updated it in 2022, during the Pandemic. It has been warmly reviewed, including by Jonathan Kozol, who said ‘very good, moving, and useful.’ ”
Author’s note: “My work stems from my feminism but as a reader it is about my response to books & articles I have read. The work is called ‘A Reading’ therefore. That title also refers to my reading some of these pages in public. My essays have been published in numerous periodicals. See above as well.”
The Wounded Attorney: How Psychological Disorders Impact Attorneys, 2022 by Wendy Packman
Author’s note: “As an attorney and psychologist, it is rewarding to be able to work at the interface of both fields.”
In Defense of Troublemakers: The Power of Dissent in Life and Business, 2018 by Charlan Nemeth
Available on: Amazon and Hachette Book Group.
Author’s note: “It’s based on 4 decades of research on consensus and dissent and the quality of group decisions. Though I have many academic publications this is the first book I’ve done for the broader audience –a “trade” book. It received great reviews including a full column on the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal and led to numerous invited talks to esteemed companies and nonprofits alike.”
Sold for Endless Rue, 2013 by Madeleine E. Robins
Other titles: The Stone War, 1999; Point of Honour, 2002; Petty Treason, 2004; The Sleeping Partner, 2011; Whitehall (“serial” about Charles II and his court, co-written with Delia Sherman, Liz Duffy Adams, Mary Robinette Kowal, Sarah Smith, and Barbara Samuels)
Available on: Amazon
Author’s note: “I write historical fiction and fantasy and may have pioneered the “alternate Regency noir” with Point of Honour, Petty Treason, and The Sleeping Partner. I love cities and history, and writing has given me the opportunity, not only to write about them, but to delve deep. Research is more than half the fun.”
Dancing with Cancer: Maladies and Miracles in Stem Cell Transplantland, 2017 by Barry S. and Bonnie Willdorf
Available on: Purchase directly from the author (willdorf@gmail.com) or on Amazon
Author’s note: “ Dancing with Cancer is the real-time journals of my husband Barry, and myself, his wife of 47 years, in which we share our harrowing journeys through not one but two stem cell transplants. Not knowing the outcome, Barry hoped to leave a record of his state of mind as he navigated the stem cell transplant process. I wanted to minutely document my unexpected and daunting role as a caregiver. The book chronicles our lives during that time, presenting our sometimes wildly different views of apparently the same events.”
Photo credit: The New York Times (not a photo of a SFV community member)
Sara joined the team in 2018. She brings with her 20 years of experience in community development, philanthropy, and organizational management. She completed her bachelors at George Washington University and her masters at UC Berkeley. Her career focus has been on evaluating how community groups run from year-to-year and strengthening daily processes to increase institutional success. Sara loves travel and global development issues, particularly a non-profit she founded 10 years ago focusing on students’ access to school in Cambodia. Sara is raising her family here in San Francisco.
Maya is a public relations and communications professional with more than a decade of experience; her expertise includes consumer products and technology PR, as well as event management and content development. She has been a pro-bono consultant with the Taproot Foundation since 2012, and has participated in three service grants to date. Maya attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and graduated with a BA in mass communications and a minor in political science.