August 11 – Author Buzzy Jackson to Host the Boulder Writers’ Workshop August Literary Salon

Buzzy Jackson will host the Boulder Writers’ Workshop Literary Salon on Saturday, August 11.  She will open the salon with a brief reading of her work and then will guide our discussion. Attendees are free to ask her questions, as well as throw out discussion topics to the group. The Literary Salon is fashioned after the great salons of Paris in the Eighteenth Century, and is free and open to the public. The salon runs from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Villas at the Atrium. Pre-registration is required.

Buzzy earned a Ph.D. in U.S. History from UC Berkeley, where she wrote her first book, A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them (W.W. Norton: 2005). She has received numerous writing and teaching awards, including those from UC Berkeley, PEN-West and the American Library Association.

Her book, Effie Perine: A Novel, was just published on Amazon. The main character, Effie, comes to San Francisco on the hunt for work and her long-lost father, so when she’s offered a job at a detective agency she figures it’s a two-birds-one-stone situation. But when her strange new boss invites her into a world of hardboiled mystery, the line between real life and film noir fantasy becomes as foggy as a San Francisco summer — and Effie’s future happiness is at stake.

Buzzy has also written a memoir. In Shaking the Family Tree: Blue Bloods, Black Sheep, and Other Obsessions of an Accidental Genealogist, Buzzy dives headfirst into her family gene pool: flying cross-country to locate an ancient family graveyard, embarking on a weeklong genealogy Caribbean cruise, and even submitting her DNA for testing to try to find her Jacksons. Through Buzzy’s research she connects with distant relatives, traces her roots back more than 250 years and in the process comes to discover—genetically, historically, and emotionally—the true meaning of “family” for herself.

Buzzy is currently a Research Affiliate at The Center of the American West at CU-Boulder. Buzzy writes for many online publications, as well as for radio and film. For more information, visit www.buzzyjackson.com.