Thrity and Cinda hold their own with a talented crowd of authors

Thrity with Lisa Ko (left), Celesta Ng

Former BJ reporter Thrity Umbrigar and former BJ ads-taker Cinda Williams Chima took part in the Tucson Festival of Books.

Thrity participated under the headings of “Crossing the Line” and “Extraordinary Bonds.”

All three “Crossing the Line” authors dealt with adoption novels, the bond between parent and children, the intersection of race, class, privilege and power.

New Yorker Lisa Ko (“The Leavers”) and Pittsburgh/Shaker Heights’ Celesta Ng (“Little Fires Everywhere”) were the other authors.  All are talented women of color, with Thrity (“Everybody’s Son”) being a native of India and Bombay.

The other “Extraordinary Bonds” author with Thrity was Lisa Wingate, who has published 30 novels, the latest being “Before We Were Yours.”


Cinda (“Flamecaster”), sister of BJ Art Advertising retiree Mike Williams,  was in the Young Adult division.

She was in the Shadows and Quests Into the Unknown Worlds discussion with Daniel Jose Yoder (“Shadowshaper Cypher”).

Cinda worked in the classified phone room as an ad taker/proofer in the '70s.

 

Nearly 200 authors took part in the two-day event.

Thrity also teaches creative writing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Thrity left India at the age of 21 to attend Ohio State University.

 

Thrity began her reporting career with The Lorain Journal. Two years later, in 1987, she came to the BJ.

 

She left the Beacon to attend Harvard on a Nieman Fellowship, wrote “Bombay Time” and her author career took off.