Ki, Isabelle, Vim and Urmilla met today.
We began to develop a marketing plan according to iUniverse guidelines. We came up with some benefit statements:
“If you enjoy travel and cultural diversity this is a book for you!”
“Stories to touch your heart and make you chuckle …” “Stories in which the reader will find herself”
“Citizens of the world – This book will take you on a fascinating journey!”
“The taste of a dozen cultures wrapped in this book of stories!”
“Stories for the global nomad”
“Short stories for the lazy reader”
“This book makes an excellent present”
Stories and writers we want to be associated with: ‘Water’, ‘Fire’, ‘Earth’ : Films by Deepa Meeta.
The Constant Gardener : A Novel by John le Carre, Film by Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Hubert Koundé, and Danny Huston.
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri - Pen Hemingway Award Winner and New Yorker Debut of the Year.
Runaway Stories (2004) and Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (featured on the Diane Rehm Show) by Alice Munro Winner of the 2004 Giller Prize.
A fine balance by Rohinton Mistry, chosen for Oprah’s Book Club.
Ki

Our launch party for the Patchwork stories on May 11 was a very enjoyable event. The Dining Table Writers are very grateful to the World Bank Family Nework for this opportunity.

PATCHWORK: Stories from the Dining Table By Isabelle Actis-Malumeja, Marlene Athie, Urmilla Khanna, Vim Maguire, Rosalie O’Donnell, Ki Harley Roberts, Denise Young. A group of women meet regularly around a dining room table to write. They share the product of their individual muses in this charming new collection of personal stories sure to resonate with many in Washington's international community. These colorful recollections fall somewhere between fiction, memoir and confessional writing. Each recalls a vivid moment in the writer's life, a turning point, or a cultural/matrimonial "epiphany," that clarified a past moment and made it easier to make peace with a new country or to move on in a relationship with greater understanding. The book is dedicated to Australian author and inspirational creative writing teacher, Trish MacIntosh, who started the group in 2003 and has written the Foreword. "Trish has gone to live in London," said collection contributor Ki, "but the group continues to flourish and support each other's work with new members replacing original ones." The story titles tweak readers' curiosity and pull them in. Take for example, Bananas are yellow in Zimbabwe too, where Isabelle contrasts her challenging experience of getting married in Zimbabwe with life in France. In Malcolm she gives a riveting description of one man’s fight for life and dignity with a twist at the end. Coming of Age is Vim’s story about the last ever game of cricket for a Sri Lankan girl on the cusp of biological womanhood. In Dharma, a young gypsy girl comes to the rescue of Urmilla, then a mother-to-be in rural India and in Grandma’s Dilemma the same author contemplates geographical and generational shifts. El Ropero by Marlene is a poignant story about family dynamics and the difficulty of being accepted in a new culture. In A new beginning Ki writes about how a woman comes to understand her man in a series of flashbacks during the birth of their third child. She emerges with a growing understanding and a more complicated picture of the psyche of the man she has chosen as her partner. White Orchids provides close study of the idiosyncrasies of two very different characters and their struggle to see eye to eye. Something in the Air is a mystery in New Zealand seen through the eyes of Rose and in Teheran Diary Denise describes the adventures and struggles of a young girl who becomes the involuntary guest of an Iranian family. The seven authors are an eclectic bunch, hailing as they do from France, Sweden, Hong Kong, California, India, Scotland and Sri Lanka. They all married into and/or worked in cultures other than their own. The collection shares the energy and vitality of these women. In some cases, the pieces describe or narrate too much, rather than SHOW the evolution of the characters, in the fictional sense. In others, the pace is a bit slow. But, by and large, this is a collection in which women like us take a risk and create. And in which we will find ourselves. By Joan McQueeney Mitric

PATCHWORK: Stories from the Dining Table, By the World Bank Family Network Writers Group Published by iUniverse, ISBN 0-595-38921-X, Price: $10.95 WELCOME TO THE BOOK LAUNCH PARTY AT WBFN OFFICE (H2-200, 5.30 – 7.30 pm, May 11, 2006 BOOK SALE IN THE WB MC-ATRIUM, May 15 - 17, 2006 INTERNET SALES: www.iUniverse.com Profits to the Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund

The proceeds from the sales of Patchwork will be donated to the Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund (MMMF), a non-profit 501 (c) 3 charity affiliated with the World Bank Family Network. The Fund awards educational grants to women from developing countries engaged in graduate studies in the United States or Canada. The recipients must demonstrate a commitment to work for the benefit of women and children in the developing world. Since 1983, the Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund has awarded more than one hundred grants totaling over $800,000 to women from fifty-one countries. This achievement rests on the shoulders of dedicated volunteers, numbering in the hundreds. MMMF was founded in 1981 to honor the late Margaret Craig McNamara, wife of Robert S. McNamara, president of the World Bank from 1968 to1981. For more information, visit MMMF on the World Bank Family Network’s web site www.wbfn.org