Creative Writing Bootcamp

Joie Davidow's latest book is historical novel set in 1749. Anything but Yes is based on the diary of an 18 year-old girl who was seized at gunpoint from her home in the Rome Ghetto and carried off to a convent where she was relentlessly pressured to convert.. Her short novel, I Wouldn't Leave Rome to Go to Heaven, was published in Spring 2008. She is the author of Marked for Life, a memoir published by Harmony in June 2003, and Infusions of Healing, A Treasury of Mexican-American Herbal Remedies, published by Fireside/Simon & Schuster in October 1999. With Esmeralda Santiago, she is the editor of two anthologies, Las Christmas: Favorite Latino Authors Remember the Holidays, published by Alfred A. Knopf in November 1998, and Las Mamis: Favorite Latino Authors Remember Their Mothers, published by Knopf in April 2000. She was a co-founder of the L.A. Weekly, a newspaper which has been an integral part of life in Los Angeles. She served as Vice-President and Director of L.A. Weekly, Inc., and was also an editor of the paper, developing its entertainment section and writing a popular "Style" column. Subsequently, she fouded L.A. Style, the ground-breaking magazine that chronicled the Los Angeles lifestyle, becoming the fastest growing regional magazine in the United States and winning numerous awards. After seling the magazine to American Express Publishing,she launched the award-winning Sí magazine, a national lifestyle publication, in English, targeting the Latino market. Her frequent television appearances as a lifestyle commentator include such programs as the "Oprah Winfrey Show," "CBS This Morning,” CNN’s “Sonya Live” and many others. She has served as a consultant for such organizations as Weider Publications, Los Angeles magazine and others. Her feature articles have appeared in Metropolitan Home, Town & Country, Travel Holiday, Westways, Spafinder and other publications. She has lectured on current trends and conducted seminars at UCLA and for companies such as Benetton, Nordstrom and the Men’s Fashion Association. In 1989 she received the Liberty Hill Foundation’s Upton Sinclair award, for her role in the founding of L.A. Weekly. She was named one of Publishing’s Most Dynamic Leaders by Folio:The Magazine for Magazine Management.