Events & Appearances:
2008
January 18th 7:00 pm
Read Between the Lynes
129 Van Buren St.
Woodstock, IL
www.readbetweenthelynes.com
Love Is Murder Conference
February 1st - 3rd
Wyndham O'Hare
Rosemont, IL
April 27th 8:30 am
WGN Radio720 AM
Sunday Papers with Rick Kogan
May 24th & 25th
Pilcrow Lit Festival
Chicago, IL
June 7th & 8th
Printers Row Book Fair
Details coming!
July 21-23
AmeriFace Annual Convention
Las Vegas, NV
Check back for details.
____________________________________________________________________________
2007
May 31st – June 1st
2007 Backspace Writer’s Conference
The Algonquin Hotel,New York
July 13th
Guest of Honor at Tasha Alexander's
Online Cocktail Party
stop by!
Virtual Cocktails
July 17th 1:00 pm
Arts Club Of Chicago
201 E Ontario St
Chicago, IL
July 21st
The Debutante Ball
I'll be guest blogging so stop on by!
The Debutante Ball
July 25th 7:00 pm
"Meet The Author"
Reza's Restaurant & Piano Bar
432 W. Ontario Street
Chicago, IL 60610
Open Bar* & Complimentary Appetizers
Hosted by Barbara Sapstein, Joe & Reza Toulabi
*7:00-8:00 pm
August 19th 10:30 am
Beth El Sisterhood Brunch
464 South Hawkins
Akron, OH 44320
August 23rd 6:30 pm
Northwest Akron Branch Library
1720 Shatto Ave
Akron, OH 44313
(330) 836-1081
August 25th 11:00 am
Barnes & Noble
4015 Medina Rd.
Akron, OH 44333
September 28th - 30th
GLBA 2007 Trade Show
Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center
Schaumburg, Illinois
October 5th, 6th & 7th
The 5th Annual Midwest Literary Festival
Aurora, Illinois
(check back for details)
October 17th 7:00 pm
The Book Cellar
4736-38 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
773.293.2665
October 20th 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Illinois Woman's Press Association Annual Book Fair
The Chicago Cultural Center
77 East Randolph Street
November 15th 7:30 pm
The Fixx Reading Series
3053 N. Sheffield
Chicago, IL
(check back for more listings & updates)
Reviews & Interviews:
Akron Beacon Journal, December 30, 2007
By Barbara McIntyre
Special to the Beacon Journal
Rosen, other area authors excel in '07
Authors with area connections came through with fine work this year. Here's a look at some of the best.
Former Akronite Renee Rosen succeeds brilliantly in re-creating a 1960s family with her novel Every Crooked Pot. Her narrator, Nina, has a troublesome facial birthmark and a father with a desperate need for attention. This marvelous book is designated by its publisher as teen fiction, but adult readers will be captivated by Rosen's flair for observation and character.
School Library Journal (Starred Review)
*ROSEN, Renée. Every Crooked Pot. 227p. St. Martin’s/Griffin. 2007. pap. $8.95. ISBN 978-0-312-36543-1. LC number unavailable.
Gr 9 Up–Nina Goldman was born with a disfiguring birthmark above her left eye. Along with an older sister and brother, she is raised by loving and prosperous Jewish parents. Beginning when Nina is seven years old, the story chronicles her life for the next 13 years. As readers would expect, she feels ugly and unlovable. Fortunately, her parents do everything in their power to get her to the best doctors. Eventually there’s not much left of the birthmark, though a few more years pass before the internal scars are healed. The story follows Nina through childhood insecurities, including teasing by her classmates, to her first sexual experience, through first love and self-acceptance. The lives of the entire family revolve around Nina’s good-hearted and loving but often exasperating, narcissistic father. In addition to making peace with her birthmark, Nina must forgive him for his failures–real and imagined–and forgive herself for sometimes hating him more than loving him. In the end, she comes to terms with those feelings as well. Beautifully written, and with larger-than-life characters, this book will remain in readers’ hearts for a long time to come.–Catherine Ensley, Latah County Free Library District, Moscow, ID
Akron West Side Leader Interview August 30, 2007
Author inspired by Akron upbringing
By Kathleen Folkerth
WEST AKRON — Author Renee Rosen spent about half her life in Akron, and her first published work, “Every Crooked Pot,” shows that. “It does have a nostalgic feel,” Rosen said. “It’s like a love letter to Akron.”
Rosen set the book in Akron and refers to local landmarks throughout the story. The author, now a Chicago resident, was in town last week to visit family and appeared at the Beth El Sisterhood brunch, Barnes & Noble Booksellers and the Northwest Branch Library to promote her book, which came out in July.
“Every Crooked Pot” explores the life of Nina Goldman, the youngest of three children in an Akron family. Nina goes through a range of emotions as she enters her teenage years, dealing with her eccentric father and the hemangioma, a disfiguring birthmark, which covers her right eye.
Rosen said the book is not a memoir, but there are aspects of her life in the story. For instance, she set the story in the 1970s, when she was coming of age in West Akron. Rosen graduated from Firestone High School in 1979. And like the main character, Rosen also dealt with a hemangioma while growing up.“My condition was not as serious as Nina’s,” Rosen said. “But I did go through some of the same medical procedures.”She also got her share of teasing from other children, she said, as does Nina.
Rosen grew up wanting to be writer. She spent a year at Kent State University, then transferred to American University in Washington, D.C., where she studied communications with a concentration in film. After graduation, she entered the field of advertising, working first in Cleveland and then in Chicago. Along the way she spent a year in New York City working for a book publisher.
In 1990, Rosen took a weeklong writing workshop with Michael Cunningham, who would go on to earn the Pulitzer Prize for “The Hours.”“I was in awe of his writing,” Rosen said. Cunningham gave the participants an assignment to write about a childhood memory, and Rosen wrote about her birthmark. The experience made her realize that it was something that she could explore with a character in a book.
“I thought maybe I had something I’d gone through that would be valuable to write about,” Rosen said.
The book took many years for Rosen to complete. She estimates she revised the work about 50 times.
“I am a chronic rewriter,” she said. “I was teaching myself how to write a novel and find my character’s voice. That took time.”The editing paid off, she said.“Every time I would get through a draft, I’d know my characters more,” she said.
She relied on an online book critique group to get feedback on her work. About three years ago, Rosen started working with an agent, who worked to find a publisher. The book was bought by St. Martin’s Griffin.The book has been categorized as young adult, but Rosen said she has heard from people of all ages who have read it.
“It’s really getting a crossover between adults and young adults,” she said. “It’s kind of nice.”
Rosen said today she continues to work as a freelance advertising writer, but she spends the bulk of her writing time working in fiction. She has started to work on another book.
“I want each book to be better,” she said. “I want to grow as a writer.”
And she said she may revisit the Goldmans in the future in a sequel to “Every Crooked Pot.”
“There might be more of a journey for Nina and the Goldmans to make,” she said.
For details on Rosen, go to www.reneerosen.com.
*Booklist Starred Review, August 2007
In a debut novel that could easily have been published as an adult memoir, Rosen looks back at the life of Nina Goldman, whose growing up is tied to two pillars: a port-wine stain around her eye and her inimitable father, Artie. The birthmark, she hates; her father, she loves. Both shape her in ways that merit Rosen’s minute investigation, which begins with an incident both funny and shocking. Stopped for speeding, her father tells the officer he is rushing young Nina to the hospital and shows him her eye, which looks as though it’s hemorrhaging. When the cop leaves, father and daughter take off for the beach. The story highlights how Nina’s eye is both liability and excuse, and it reveals the high-wire act that is her father—an emotional man who shapes reality and the people around him. As Nina grows older, readers feel the pain she endures by being physically marked (boys bark at “the dog”). Difficult in different ways is having a father whose love feels like sunshine; withheld, all is dark. There’s real power in the writing as well as a subtle message when a grown Nina finds a cache of notes, showing how she clung to her disability, even after treatment. Rosen writes honestly about sex, and there are some raw words, but this story offers hope for teenagers who, as ever, are trying to separate from their perceived flaws, and from their parents.
— Ilene Cooper
Today's Chicago Woman, August 2007
TCW Book Club
Cherish The Last Days Of Summer With A Good Book
Every Crooked Pot
Growing up is hard and lord knows none of us would want to do it all over again. But for Nina Goldman, the youngest of three siblings with an eccentric father and a disfiguring birthmark covering her right eye, the path to adulthood has proved to be even more of a challenge. Nina's spirit never falters in this endearing story about a captivating misfit, her peculiar family, and the lengths to which a girl will go to feel loved by her family, friends and ultimately herself. In this autobiographical novel, Chicago writer Renee Rosen conveys a message of hope and belonging to all people who feel 'different' in a world where everyone else belongs.
Young Adult Book Central, August 2007 (a five star review)
A Heartfelt Debut
Every Crooked Pot by Renee Rosen is a astonishingly deep and thought-provoking debut novel. While Every Crooked Pot is partly autobiographical, Rosen is adamant that many aspects of Nina’s life are purely fictional. While the characters are partially based on her own friends and family members, Rosen’s imagination creates a story that is all her own. Every Crooked Pot is not just a story about Nina, but about her entire family, their complex relationships, and all the ways that love is shown.
Nina is a girl from Akron, Ohio, born with a birthmark over her eye. For many years, Nina is sure that her birthmark hinders her in every dimension of her life. It’s because of her birthmark that she is not pretty and that boys are not interested in her. All her life, she uses her birthmark as a shield, hiding behind it and using it as an excuse for anything she doesn’t want to do. Every day before school, Nina applies heavy makeup to her eye and combs her hair down over half of her face, all to conceal her birthmark. She undergoes many treatments at a doctor’s office all the way in Chicago, and even considers having surgery done, all in the hopes of correcting her eye. While some people complain about being too ordinary, Nina would give anything in the world for her eye to look normal. It is her greatest hope that she can hide her bad eye from the world. Maybe if somebody doesn’t notice her eye, they will be able to see her as a person, and not just “Big Eye, Little Eye” as the boys at school used to call her.
Rosen’s story begins when Nina is just a little girl, and follows her life past her high school graduation. Each important event in her life is so well documented, everything written from Nina’s unique perspective, and all of her feelings pouring out in a jumble that makes perfect sense. Because Rosen has hemangioma herself, I just get the sense that Nina’s feelings, thoughts, and fears are so real, she almost jumps off the page. In the end, Nina realizes that just like a bad yearbook photograph, nobody noticed her eye as much as she did, and she can be beautiful and lovable regardless. Every Crooked Pot is just a fantastic tale of discovering oneself and growing up to be the most you can be.
review by Amber, Demi-Goddess
Chicago Sun-Times, July 15, 2007
Preserving memories
CHICAGO LIT | After 10 years and many false starts,
Renee Rosen's debut novel finally hits the shelves
July 15, 2007
BY DANA KAYE
The summer after her high school graduation, while most teenagers were off partying and enjoying the summer, Renee Rosen was writing her first novel. Seventeen years old in Akron, Ohio, she wasn't sure if college was the right move for her. So her plan, naive as it may have been, was to write a book, which would immediately get published, hit bestseller lists, and she would be a successful author without having to attend school.
But Rosen soon learned things were not that easy, and after a few unsuccessful submissions to agents, she attended American University in Washington, D.C.
Now, decades later, her dream has finally fallen into place as her debut novel, Every Crooked Pot, has hit the bookstore shelves. It tells the story of Nina Goldman, who suffers from a hemangioma, a large vascular birthmark over her eye, and wants nothing more than to look normal and fit in. A heartfelt coming-of-age story, told with the perfect combination of humor and drama, her novel spans the gap between teen fiction and adult literature.
With all the similarities between Nina and Renee, it's easy to assume the story is autobiographical, but that's not entirely true. Like Nina, Renee was born with a hemangioma, and she underwent the same medical procedures, but her hemangioma was never as severe. She admits she drew a lot from her own life, but as the story evolved, the characters and their experiences became much more fictional.
The only person she really based a character on was her father, drawing upon his characteristics to create Artie Goldman, Nina's father. Although Rosen began Every Crooked Pot back in 1990, she put it aside to work on other projects. It wasn't until her father died five years ago that she felt completely committed to finishing this novel.
"When he passed away, writing about him was a way to keep him close to me," Rosen explains. "When I heard Artie, I heard my father, and yet, my father was nothing like Artie. I wanted to, in a way, write a tribute to him. He's really outrageous and colorful and bigger than life. He's a character, no doubt about it."
"Like the yo-yo trick," she continues, referring to a scene from the novel where Artie tries to entertain a group of Nina's friends. "My father absolutely had the 'bite the tuchas' yo-yo trick. And he did make turkey runs, and we did have one of the first microwaves in the country."
Before her father died, Artie's character was much different. But by incorporating these "nuggets," these small kernels of truth into the book, Rosen was able to preserve these memories and keep her father close.
Now a full-time writer, Rosen works out of her River North loft. Its fireplace, exposed brick and comfy furniture make it the ideal place to work, even though her actual writing space tends to be just as quirky as the Goldmans.
"I have the most fkaktah [messed up] writing setup ever," she says with a laugh, gesturing to the small desk and chair, shoved into the corner of her bedroom. She says that the chair back starts out in the upright position but gradually slants backward over the course of her writing day.
"After about an hour, I have to stop and bang it back into place." She demonstrates, flipping the chair onto its front and hitting it back into its slot. She admits she can go out and get a new chair and desk, but when she's into the writing, she doesn't want to stop. It's her system and it works for her.
Unfortunately, she did have to stop in the middle of writing the second book to get a new computer.
"I had worn almost all the letters off my keyboard, there was no 'E,' no 'N.' And then Microsoft Word started whacking out on me. It was just freezing up all the time, I'd have to write a word, save, write a word, save." But one morning, after the computer started making a horrible noise, Rosen made a frantic trip to the Apple store and was told she needed to get a new computer.
"I was just on such a roll that I didn't want to stop."
Despite the computer crashes and conked-out chair, she is currently in "spitting distance" of finishing her second book (which takes place in Chicago), finally getting a chance to write about the city she calls home.
Dana Kaye is a Chicago free-lance writer, book critic and novelist.
Publisher's Weekly July 23, 2007
Written in the form of a memoir, this absorbing first novel traces the struggles of a disfigured girl growing up in Akron, Ohio, mostly during the ‘70s. A blood vessel abnormality makes Nina Goldman look like she’s recently been punched in the eye. Bullies at school call her “Big Eye-Little Eye,” and although her aggressively optimistic salesman father assures her that “every crooked pot has a crooked cover,” Nina fears she will never be loved. As much as she hates her appearance, Nina also learns early on, “I could use my eye to get out of things, to, and make people do things for me.” Particularly memorable is Nina’s father, a frustrated musician who sells carpet for a living even though he’s color-blind. His efforts to find a cure for his daughter result in endless trips to medical experts and in treatments that turn out to be less than miraculous. As Rosen evokes her setting with a wealth of details…[readers] will empathize with the narrator’s unique situation as a concentrated form of universal worries about finding acceptance, dealing with loss and leaving home.
--Publishers Weekly
Akron Beacon Journal, July 1, 2007
Girl in '60s Akron family tells tale in `Every Crooked Pot'
...True, it's a coming-of-age story, but Every Crooked Pot is every bit satisfying enough for adults, demonstrating Akron native Rosen's skilled observation, wit and character development.
The narrator is Nina Goldman, the youngest of three children in a middle-class 1960s Akron family. The story is told as Nina's adult reminiscences about her relationships with her parents, particularly with her father, Artie, a glad-handing carpet salesman whose desperate, consuming need for attention and approval has his family cowed into yielding to his every whim, lest he throw one of his Sarah Bernhardt-worthy scenes.
Nina has another important relationship: with the hemangioma, the ``strawberry'' birthmark that covers her eye. It's been there since her birth, and as a child she learned to use it to get extra attention and sympathy. Later, when her appearance becomes of greater importance, she takes monthly trips to Chicago for painful injections designed to reduce the birthmark, and learns to apply special makeup to conceal it.
But youth is cruel, and Nina's efforts to fit in continue to escalate. Her best friend, Patty, finds a new crowd, and the boys she has crushes on are brutal. Trying to console her, her father reminds her that ``every crooked pot has a crooked lid.'' Now Nina is being compared with defective cookware.
How she ever makes it out alive is a tribute to her inner strength and ability to rise above her painful family, while still loving them. It takes a lot to explain a pipe-smoking mother, and some readers might be qualified to diagnose Artie (bipolar disorder?). Nina is a survivor, and it's more than a birthmark that she has to survive.
Chicago Tribune, May 19, 2007
YOUNG AND IMPRESSIONABLE
Nina Goldman's father is an effusive force, both free-spirited and desperate to control his children, to contain their lives into comfortable patches of existence. This would be hard enough, but Nina was born with a birthmark over one eye that draws negative attention to her physical appearance long before she's of an age to handle it.Her parents try to erase this issue from her life in every conceivable way: by sending her for experimental treatments with a series of doctors, buying special cosmetics and telling her to tough it out. Instead of teaching Nina to accept the imperfection, they demonstrate how to hide it, so Nina spends her childhood compensating in convoluted and destructive ways for what she perceives to be a massive deformity.
She becomes the class clown, someone whose vulnerability is never treated respectfully, until she realizes, as an adult, that the only way to heal her debilitating self-image is to take it head-on.
"I had cheated myself out of so much," Nina realizes, "all because of an imperfection that now had been shrunk down to the size of a dime."
Quirky and heartfelt, Renee Rosen's "Every Crooked Pot," due out at the end of June, tells a familiar story of self-acceptance and familial love.
Jillian Dunham is a New York writer and co-founder of the literary blog The Bibliophilistines |
