By Karen Laws The East Bay Literary scene is heating up. Never before in the 31-year history of the Northern California Book Awards have the Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement, plus ten nominations for book awards, all been given to East Bay writers. The authors who have been nominated represent a wide range of disciplines, expertise, and artistic talent. They include: Barry Eichengreen, Adam Hochschild, Andrea Lingenfelter, Mary Mackey, Edie Meidav, Sandra Gilbert, David Meltzer, Michael Pollan (Fred Cody Award Winner), Amy Reed, and Katherine Silver. Each week, from now until the June 10 Awards Ceremony, Berkeleyside will spotlight one of these writers. When we asked Edie Meidav to talk about how living in Berkeley has impacted her work, she mentioned that one of the main characters in her novel Lola, California began to take shape during an event at Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue. (Founded by Fred and Pat Cody, the iconic book store operated on Telegraph from 1960 to 2006.) “Norman O. Brown was reading,” said Meidav. “Naked women sat up-front and center in the audience on metal folding chairs, just waiting to hear him. This image from 1991 stayed with me for years, and became the first glimmers of the character Vic Mahler.” Meidav’s family moved to Berkeley when […]
By Karen Laws The East Bay Literary scene is heating up. Never before in the 31-year history of the Northern California Book Awards have the Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement, plus ten nominations for book awards, all been given to East Bay writers. The authors who have been nominated represent a wide range of disciplines, expertise, and artistic talent. They include: Barry Eichengreen, Adam Hochschild, Andrea Lingenfelter, Mary Mackey, Edie Meidav, Sandra Gilbert, David Meltzer, Michael Pollan (Fred Cody Award Winner), Amy Reed, and Katherine Silver. Each week, from now until the June 10 Awards Ceremony, Berkeleyside will spotlight one of these writers. When we asked Edie Meidav to talk about how living in Berkeley has impacted her work, she mentioned that one of the main characters in her novel Lola, California began to take shape during an event at Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue. (Founded by Fred and Pat Cody, the iconic book store operated on Telegraph from 1960 to 2006.) “Norman O. Brown was reading,” said Meidav. “Naked women sat up-front and center in the audience on metal folding chairs, just waiting to hear him. This image from 1991 stayed with me for years, and became the first glimmers of the character Vic Mahler.” Meidav’s family moved to Berkeley when […]