Family History and the Writing of HOW IT HAPPENS

Award-winning author and 2017 Kresge Artist Fellow Jean Alicia Elster will share details of how she used extensive research, travel, and oral histories to create compelling narratives and plot development in How It Happens, which is the final volume of her Ford family historical fiction trilogy.A former attorney, Jean Alicia Elster is the award-winning author of numerous books for children, young adults and adults including How It Happens, The Colored Car, Who's Jim Hines? and the "Joe Joe in the City" series. Her essays have appeared in Ms., World Vision, Christian Science Sentinel and Black Child. She was awarded a 2017 Kresge Artist Fellowship in Literary Arts from the Kresge Foundation and three residencies at the internationally acclaimed Ragdale Foundation.