For Immediate Release
Contact: Jack Baur
Supervising Librarian
Berkeley Public Library, North Branch
510-981-6050
jbaur@ci.berkeley.cs.us
The Berkeley Public Library North Branch Commemorates the 25th Anniversary of the
East Bay Hills Fire with Risa Nye, author of the memoir There Was A Fire Here
East Bay Hills Fire with Risa Nye, author of the memoir There Was A Fire Here
Berkeley, September 20th, 2016 – The Berkeley Public Library will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the East Bay Hills Fire by welcoming author Risa Nye to the North Branch on Thursday October 20th, 2016. Nye will be reading from her memoir There Was a Fire Here, published by She Writes Press. The free event will begin at 6:30pm.
Author Risa Nye was less than a month away from her 40th birthday when the East Bay Hills Fire destroyed her home and neighborhood in Oakland. Already mourning the perceived loss of her youth, Nye now found herself facing the loss of all tangible reminders of who she was before. There Was a Fire Here is the story of how Nye adjusted to the turning point that will forever mark the “before and after” in her life, and is a chronicle of her attempts to honor the lost symbols of her past even as she struggles to create a new home for her family. Zack Unger, an Oakland firefighter and the author of Working Fire has praised the book, saying “Risa Nye’s searing memoir of loss is ostensibly about objects―the pictures, the shoes, the beloved baby blanket―but it’s really about the love that holds a family together in its darkest moments. Told with humor and grace, Nye’s story demands that we each take a moral inventory, then hold on tight to what truly matters most.”
Risa Nye is a lifelong resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, and earned master’s degrees at both California State University East Bay and Saint Mary’s College of California (MFA). Her articles and essays have appeared in a number of local and national publications, as well as in several anthologies. A coeditor of the anthology Writin’ on Empty: Parents Reveal the Upside, Downside, and Everything In Between When Children Leave the Nest, she also recently published an eBook based on her blog, called Zero to Sixty in One Year: An Easy Month-by-Month Guide to Writing Your Life Story. She lives in Oakland, CA with her husband. Risa’s writing can be found at www.risanye.com.
This free event is made possible by a generous gift from the Pace Trust, in support of the Berkeley Public Library North Branch.
The North Branch Library is located at 1170 The Alameda, Berkeley CA 94707, and is open: Monday, 10:00am - 6:00pm, Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00am - 8:00pm, Thursday 12noon - 8:00pm, and Friday and Saturday, 10:00am - 6:00pm. For more information about this program, please call 510-981-6250.
The Central Library is located at 2090 Kittredge Street and is open Monday, noon - 8:00pm, Tuesday, 10:00am - 8:00pm, Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00am - 6:00pm, and Sunday from 1:00pm - 5:00pm. Wheelchair accessible. For questions, to request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least five working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. Visit the library’s website: www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.
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