Photo Credit: Jennifer BruseEvents
Author Alka Joshi speaks at 19th Annual Signature Author Series
On Friday, December 1, 2023, The John Cooper School’s 19th Annual Signatures Author Series event was held at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center with featured author Alka Joshi.
View photos from the event on the Hello Woodlands Facebook page:
Alka Joshi is the internationally bestselling author of the Jaipur Trilogy: The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, and The Perfumist of Paris. Her debut novel, The Henna Artist, immediately became a New York Times bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Pick. It has been translated into 29 languages and is currently in development at Netflix as a tv series.
In a press conference held minutes before the luncheon, Alka Joshi shared her author journey with local media and John Cooper students. Joshi was born in India and came to the U.S. with her family at the age of nine, but did not start writing until her 50s. The inspiration to write her book The Henna Artist, that takes place in the 1950s in the newly independent India in Jaipur, stems from her childhood in India. In writing her first novel, Joshi interviewed family, friends, and people that lived in that era – along with reading books and watching movies – including Bollywood favorites and features of the time. She does not write about the immigrant experience (Joshi claimed other authors do a wonderful job with that focus) but instead writes about families and people – how they interacted and how they lived. Joshi shared that in The Henna Artist she wrote about and imagined the life her mother could have had, but couldn’t, due to the role, responsibilities, limitations, and expectations of a wife of an arranged marriage, a mother, and as a woman at that time in India. The Henna Artist in the Jaipur Trilogy was followed by The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Perfumist of Paris, which Joshi stated she knew nothing about creating perfumes before writing. In India, she shared fragrances have been around for a millennia and perfume is made so differently – an organic process in large kilns and caldrons, with sweaty hard labor and all natural ingredients. Joshi learned more about how her character Radha would design new fragrances by meeting master perfumers in labs in Grasse, France, seeing how perfumers in India have been bottling fragrances for millennia, and visiting museums to discover more about the history and details of perfume making. Joshi experienced as much as she could before writing the final novel of the Jaipur Trilogy, published earlier this year in March 2023.
With The John Cooper School students in the press room, we asked, what was her advice for writers and aspiring authors? Joshi shared that aspiring writers and authors should read – a lot. Write stories – short stories, and even in your head. It takes time to write a novel (sharing in her luncheon speech about her 20+ rewrites and years to create a “best-selling” quality novel even before approaching publishers, to the advice of her agent who loved the story from the beginning), and that’s ok. And, as Joshi shared from her research and travels, to experience things and life. Persistence and patience will pay off, she reassured the aspiring novelists and writers of all ages in the press room.
The decorations of the Signatures Author Series event were inspired by Alka Joshi’s series and the colorful and bright pink city of Jaipur, bringing the stories to life throughout the venue. The John Cooper School Signatures Author Series luncheon also featured local visiting authors, book signings, and a Signatures-themed prizes and drawing, which included the chance to win a trip to create your own custom fragrance.
The Visiting Authors segment of the Signatures Author Series offered the unique opportunity for attendees to visit with a variety of authors who were available before and after the luncheon to sign, sell, and discuss their books. Visiting Authors included Stacey Abella, Marcus Bridgewater, Joel Cook, Catherine Devore Johnson, Tonya Duncan Ellis, Sydney Dunlap, Randall Ekstrom, Dede Fox, Paula Herman Smith, Joanne Hillman, Ulysses Hsu, Bonnie Hubert, Kathryn Lane, Curt Locklear, Sharon McDougle, Sharlene Novak, Emily Oberton, Genna Pfister, Marvin Pipher & Annabelle Boyd, Clayton Trier, and Oscar Whiting.
Once the luncheon began, 2023 Signatures Co-Chairs Melissa Dunlop and Ashley Oliphant welcomed guests and gave opening remarks. Then, Dr. Stephen Pop, The John Cooper School’s Head of School, introduced Alka Joshi, who shared her inspiring author journey before taking and answering questions from the audience.
As a tradition, a portion of the proceeds from each Signatures event is given to a local non-profit and in the past 17 years, more than $68,000 has been donated to local organizations to promote literacy in the community. The beneficiary of the 19th Annual Signatures Author Series is Children’s Books of Wheels. Children’s Books of Wheels has a goal to provide educational and community resources to a diverse population in Montgomery County at no cost.
The John Cooper School is an independent, non-sectarian, co-educational, college preparatory day school. The School’s mission is to provide a challenging education in a caring environment to a diverse group of select students, enabling them to become critical and creative thinkers, effective communicators, responsible citizens and leaders, and lifetime learners. To learn more about The John Cooper School by visiting www.johncooper.org.
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