In celebration of the launch of Mixed Roots: Writers on Multiracial Identity & Both/And Belonging, you're invited to join us for an interactive reading and collaborative afternoon exploring multiracial and interwoven identities.
Co-hosted by Anne Liu Keller (editor) and Interwoven, we'll gather with four of the book's contributors - Leslie Nguyen-Okwu, Savala Nolan, Faith Adiele, and Joemy Ito-Gates - to read excerpts from the anthology and offer discussion prompts for attendees to explore together in small groups.
Mixed Roots collects 29 personal narratives that explore themes of race, identity, privilege, language, ancestry, nonbinary belonging, intergenerational trauma, and collective healing. This anthology was born out of a community of writers who took part in editor Anne Liu Kellor's Both/And workshop, and has been called "a gift to anyone who lives within the both/and" and "an existential homecoming for the soul."
This free, interactive event centers the voices of mixed race/ethnicity/roots people and our extended communities. All are welcome! We'll have books for sale, and you can get your copy signed by the editor and four contributing writers all at once.
REGISTER HERE: https://events.humanitix.com/mixed-roots-sf
Space is limited, so knowing the anticipated headcount is so very helpful for the organizers.
Based in San Francisco, Interwoven brings people together to celebrate and navigate the nuances of living mixed and multicultural lives. Through events and gatherings for our members, we build community amongst humans who are mixed race and/or culturally mixed (diaspora, third culture kids, people raised in multiple cultures).
Anne Liu Kellor is a mixed-race Chinese American writer, mother, and teacher based in Seattle. She is the editor of Mixed Roots: Writers on Multiracial Identity & Both/And Belonging (Beacon, 10.13.26), and her memoir, Heart Radical, was a Washington State Book Award Finalist. www.anneliukellor.com
Savala Nolan is the author of Don't Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body (Simon & Schuster). Her writing has appeared in Vogue, The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, Time, and more. She directs the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law. Her second essay collection, Good Woman: A Reckoning, was published by HarperCollins in 2026, and has been called "stunning," "electrifying," and "revelatory."
Faith Adiele is a memoirist, essayist, and travel writer. She is the author of four mixed-genre chapbooks exploring her Nigerian/Nordic/American identity, and Meeting Faith, a memoir about becoming Thailand's first Black Buddhist nun that won a PEN award. Her media credits include My Journey Home, a PBS documentary about finding her Nigerian father and siblings, stories for HBO and the Calm app, and articles in OkayAfrica, Smithsonian, Oprah Magazine, and Essence. Named one of Marie Claire magazine’s “Five Women to Learn From,” Faith speaks and teaches writing around the world.
Joemy Ito-Gates she/her, is a mother and Ethnic Studies educator based in the Bay Area on unceded Ohlone land. She has been a public educator for over twenty years and helped to co-found a summer program in 2004 called Fusion Camp, for Multiracial and transracially raised children of color.
Leslie Nguyen-Okwu is a Vietnamese Nigerian American writer and journalist with bylines in The New York Times, BBC, National Geographic, The Economist, and Harper's Bazaar. She has received fellowships from the Aspen Institute’s Summer Words, Hedgebrook, Tin House, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Disquiet International Literary Program, Mesa Refuge, and VONA. She holds a BA in International Relations from Stanford University and is pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Saint Mary's College of California. Leslie is at work on a memoir called American Hyphen about belonging between Asian America and Black America.