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15 Mar Want to write books? Learn how these journalists did it!

Our continuing ed series is back in 2015, kicking off with a session for storytellers looking to become authors from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 24 at The Seattle Times:

The event is free for SPJ members and $10 for non-members. Buy your tickets here!

Four local women share how they used their journalism skills to write books, lessons learned along the way and what it takes to make the transition from journalist to author. They’ll also answer questions and chat one-on-one with attendees while they sell and sign their books.
Food and beverages will be provided. Street parking is available, as is a lot across the street from the Times entry on Boren.

About the authors:

Sonora Jha, Ph.D., is an associate professor of journalism at Seattle University and is the author of the novel “Foreign,” about the epidemic of farmers’ suicides in India. She was formerly a special correspondent for The Times of India and then a journalist in Singapore before moving to the U.S. to do her Ph.D. in Political Communication at Lousiana State University. Her academic research on the intersections of press, politics and the Internet has been published in top tier national and international scholarly journals and her Guest Op-Eds have been published in The New York Times, The Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly and The Seattle Globalist. She is an alumna of the Hedgebrook Writing Retreat and is the vice president of its board of directors.

Karen Gaudette Brewer is an award-winning food, culture and lifestyles writer based in Seattle. Her first book, “Seafood Lover’s Pacific Northwest,” debuted in November 2014, and already is in its second printing thanks to this seafood-obsessed region. She began her writing career as a journalist with The Associated Press in San Francisco covering (covering the California energy crisis and transportation) and The Seattle Times (city government and food/features). Later, she shared the stories of Northwest farmers, purveyors, and artisans as a food writer for PCC Natural Markets. As a member of the editorial team at Allrecipes.com, she now helps millions of cooks answer that all-important question: What’s for dinner? Follow her on Twitter for PNW food news and recipes: @nwfoodette

Laura T. Coffey is a longtime writer, editor and producer for the TODAY Show’s website, TODAY.com. Her first book, “MY OLD DOG: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts,” due to be published in September 2015 by New World Library. The book is an outgrowth of a story she wrote for TODAY.com in 2013. A journalist with more than two decades of experience, she has written and edited for msnbc.com (now NBCNews.com), the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Prague Post in the Czech Republic, the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, the Peninsula Clarion in Alaska and the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times) in Florida. She wrote a column called “10 Tips for Keeping Your Money in Your Wallet” for msnbc.com, TODAY.com and the St. Petersburg Times for many years. Laura lives in Seattle with her husband, Michael, their son, Tyler, their two dogs, Frida and Manny, and their giant cat, Diego. She can be reached at laura@tentips.org.

Athima Chansanchai‘s first book, “100 Things to Do in Seattle” (Reedy Press) has recently been released and featured on “Evening magazine.” Currently a reporter writing blog posts and feature stories for the Microsoft News Center, Athima was before that a technical writer at Microsoft and a daily contributor to msnbc.com’s Tech-Sci blogs, writing about consumer tech and editing posts on all the section’s blogs and wire content. She did so as founder/President of Tima Media, after almost 10 years as a reporter and editor at the Seattle P-I and The Baltimore Sun. She’s also been a columnist for msnbc.com (“DigiGirl”) and worked at The Village Voice. Follow her and the book on Twitter: @TimaMedia @100ThingsSEA