Greetings from my Beachside Office

Hello! My name is Jennifer Caloyeras and I am thrilled to be the current writer in residence at the Annenberg Community Beach House.

 My second young adult novel, Strays, was released in May, 2015. My short stories have been published in Booth, Storm Cellar and other literary magazines. I hold a M.A. in English from Cal State Los Angeles and a M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. I am a Los Angeles native and I’ve always had a close connection with Santa Monica; it’s where I went to high school and where my children currently go to elementary school. I will be spending my time at the beach house working on my first adult novel, currently titled, Time May Change Me, about a mother grappling with raising her transgender daughter. I am so excited to be here!
 

The anticipation of spending each day at the beach got me thinking about novels set at the beach. The ones that immediately come to mind are: the fisherman’s struggle off the coast of Florida in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, the great white shark in Peter Benchley’s Jaws, Scotland’s Isle of Skye in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, one of my childhood favorites, Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins and more recently, representations of Cape Cod in E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars. I set my own novel, Strays, along the California coastline in Santa Cruz.

Recalling an image of the beach doesn’t conjure the same image for everyone. Beaches can be as vast and varying as people - with or without berms, rocks, sand, dunes, grass, inhabitants. The beach always seems to signify some sort of border - between human and nature, continent and abyss. The beach is simultaneously a beginning and an end. 

Whatever your imagined beach looks likes, I look forward to sharing this beach in Santa Monica with you for the duration of my tenure. Please come visit me at office hours starting on January 25th from 11-2. (and Mondays thereafter, with the exception of February 15th, which will be moved to a different day.)
 
Here are some other places to find me on social media:

My author website
Twitter: Jencaloyeras
My Facebook author page
Goodreads
Instagram

What book beaches have had the greatest impact on you?


p.s. Saturday, January 16th 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Santa Clarita Public Library

I will be participating in the third annual Celebration of Local Authors at the Santa Clarita Public Library on January 16th from 10 - 3. There will be panels, readings and activities for children and adults. Stop by and say hello! I will be speaking on the young adult panel from 10:15-10:45 in the community room.