Patricia Hemingway
Patricia Hemingway lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 35 years, She is co-editor of, and contributor to, All Our Words Needed Saying: An Anthology of Women's Writing. Her goal for the Conference is to find an agent or publisher for this stunning anthology, showcasing the stories and poetry of 8 highly skilled women writers. Patricia recently completed a book of her own stories, an amalgam of fiction and creative nonfiction, entitled The One Who Got Away, which includes her “San Antonio Stories” and "The 21st Century." Patricia has said, “When I pull from the inner reservoir, I am dipping into a world that has been preserved as a lyrical jelly.“ Patricia’s favorite writer has for years been Michael Ondaatje (In the Skin of a Lion, The English Patient, Divisadero). Also Gail Godwin (Father Melancholy’s Daughter, Evensong). Recently she has come to deeply admire Kate Walbert (The Gardens of Kyoto) and Abraham Verghese (Cutting for Stone, The Tennis Partner, My Own Country). She remembers: “My first great love was Just Above my Head (1979) by James Baldwin. I thought it one of the finest novelsI had ever read.” In a recent interview, Toni Morrison noted that the novel "has always functioned for the class or the group that wrote it," and that the black novel was important because it could suggest what the conflicts are, what the problems are, "not necessarily as a means of solving them but as a way of recording and reflecting them." Patricia adds: "I feel the same way about All Our Words Needed Saying. In this Anthology of Women’s Writing, we are able to reflect upon and record for others the conflicts in women’s lives, and testify through our writing that we have survived and are alive and well.”