Thursday, September 10th- Conversation with Ashley Blooms (11AM-12PM)

Screen record on phone to listen to later 

Genre of book that I love reading 
Read in free time
 Book has sexual abuse, focuses on EFFECT of it and recovery road, rather than actual
scenes- came from her frustrations in seeing media use it as headlines 
 Author is a survivor herself, uses her own experience in writing and to show what she
wished the media did
 Has some perspectives from the abuser’s point of view (in book, abuser is child)
 Book came from her short story
 Used her home state for setting and its history and folklore
 Writing the book was a 5 year process, she put it down several times, wondered if anyone
would care about what she was writing
 Learned how to write book as she wrote her book
 Writing process- has labels and sticky notes on her wall 
 For this book, she just went for it

Sunday, September 13th- Conversation with Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (5PM)

Make notes during Zoom
Touches on family relationships and friendships 
Read in freetime 
I can relate to certain aspects/ideas in the book
 Child trying to find her mother
 Girl “flying out of her body”- allowed for interpretation- is she really “flying”?
 Incorporates folktales and myths
 Deals with feminism
 Idea of women having another self that is rebellious, ignores the restraints
 When people rebel- they look at it as freedom, not breaking rules or conforming
 Traditional indigenous feminism- takes you back to moment first woman was suppressed,
when did women join in own oppression, why are we perpetuating it
 Classism- children are aware of it, and that main character can use her wealth as an
advantage
 Women have been taught to use their beauty as “currency”
 In Uganda- when women get jobs, hire nannies and abandon “domestic” duties, act like
men would
 When writing, write as if you’re speaking to an audience that you can be yourself around