Noa Silver joins the blog today to chat about her novel, California Dreaming

Author Name: Noa Silver

Book Title: California Dreaming

Book Genre: Literary fiction

Release Date: 5/21/24

Publisher: She Writes Press

Welcome, Noa! How would you describe California Dreaming?

This millennial bildungsroman follows Elena’s journey in the SF Bay Area from an idealistic Teach for America teacher to a disillusioned project manager at a tech company. Amid the Occupy and #MeToo movements, the 2016 election, and California’s ever-worsening fire season, Elena must ultimately reconcile the person she envisioned herself to be and the person she actually is.

What sparked the idea for this book?

I was working in downtown San Francisco on a project and I remember how uncomfortable it felt to be walking on Market Street along with so many others looking at our phones, on our way to jobs that purported to be “doing good” in the world, and yet we hardly saw the many homeless, suffering individuals sitting on the sidewalks around us. It felt like there were two worlds occurring simultaneously, and I wanted to explore that discrepancy, that space between the worlds, the crack in the veneer. 

How long did it take for you to write the book? Did you do any research?

It took me about three years to finish the first draft and yes! I did a fair bit of research into the Teach for America experience and the startup/tech world. 

What drew you to literary fiction?

I love books that make me think and feel deeply, and all the better when I get to talk about them with others! Some of my favorite moments—and deepest relationships—have emerged in the midst of a conversation about a book. I hope my book offers others the chance for meaningful connection—both with themselves and with others.

What’s your favorite part about writing/being an author? What do you find challenging?

I love that my job is to plumb the depths of human experience and feeling and then find the words to describe it. But it can also be long, lonely work, and I regularly have doubts about my own capacity. 

If you were speaking to someone who hasn’t read your writing before, why should they want to read California Dreaming?

I would ask: do you remember what it’s like to be young, and on the cusp of adulthood? This is a book that in many ways is a love letter to the twenties, that asks us all to remember the dreams we held and to figure out how we can hold onto the threads of those dreams even as we get older. 

Fill in the blank: Readers who liked _____(Book Title)____will also like California Dreaming.

Writers and Lovers by Lily King.

What do you hope readers will take away from this story?

I hope readers will sit deeply in the question of how to maintain hope in the face of all that is. How do we experience disillusionment and come up against reality without succumbing to despair or giving up on our own yearnings? 

What about the writing/editing/publishing process has been the most surprising to you so far?

It has been remarkable for me to experience the shift from private, solitary endeavor to public commodity. That my creative process has been turned into a thing I can touch and hold in my hands surprises me over and over again!

Any words of wisdom you give your pre-published writer self (or to a new writer)?

I might remind myself to hold onto the questions and motivations that propel me to write, the feeling of flow and connection that happens in the best writing moments. In the frenzy of publication, sometimes those things get lost, but that’s what will bring me back to the page—and myself—once everything else has passed.

What are your interests outside of writing and reading?

I love music and being in nature, and there’s nothing I love more than long hikes in the redwoods or along the California coast, and singing and making music with friends.

Are you working on a new project? Please tell us about it.

I’m just beginning to make notes for a new project. I am drawn to the inner lives of women in the midst of transition, and this new project will explore early motherhood. I’m excited for it to unfold.

I also offer developmental editing to both fiction and non-fiction writers in the early stages of their work (generally at the first draft). I love getting to help guide a manuscript toward its fullest potential. 

What was the last book you read? What did you think of it?

The last book I read was Solito by Javier Zamora and I thought it was astounding, a gorgeous, intimate memoir that brought me so close to his experience as a 9-year-old migrating from El Salvador to the United States. I highly recommend it!

Where can readers find you?

Readers can find me here: noasilverauthor.com

Thank you, Noa! California Dreaming is out now.

California Dreaming

Having grown up on stories of her mother’s wild youth in California, Elena Berg relocates from New England to the Bay Area in 2011 for a placement as an English teacher with Teach for America. Once there, she is eager to inspire a love of poetry and literature in her diverse but underprivileged students. Her own grandfather–a Holocaust survivor–was a storyteller and teacher who touched the lives of his students for years to come. Elena’s mother followed in his footsteps, leaving behind the hippie lifestyle of her twenties to become a university professor.

But Elena quickly finds herself feeling disconnected from teaching, unable to inspire her students, and before long, she grows disillusioned with her career. She transitions to a role in an education technology startup–though she questions her decision, her motivations, and her values.

Coming of age between the Occupy and #MeToo movements and against the backdrop of the 2016 election and California’s ever-worsening fire season, Elena reckons with California as she imagined it and California as it really is. As she does so, she must also ultimately reconcile the person she envisioned herself to be with the person she actually is.

Author bio:

Noa Silver was born in Jerusalem and raised between Scotland and Maine. After receiving her BA in English and American literature and language from Harvard University, Noa lived and taught English as a Second Language on Namdrik–part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the smallest inhabited atoll in the world. She later completed her MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and then worked as an editor on various oral history projects, ranging from an archive documenting the Partition of India and Pakistan to a cancer researcher telling the stories of trauma experienced by cancer survivors. Noa lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband, Jack, and their two daughters, Alma and Leila.