Silverstein, Clara 1960–

PERSONAL:

Born 1960; married; children: two. Education: Wesleyan University, B.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—MA. E-mail—clara@clarasilverstein.com.

CAREER:

Author, poet, and journalist. Boston Herald, Boston, MA, editor and food correspondent for thirteen years; go2 Media (mobile media company), food correspondent. Chautauqua Writers' Center, Chautauqua, NY, program director, 2000—.

MEMBER:

Authors Guild.

WRITINGS:

White Girl: A Story of School Desegregation (memoir), University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 2004.

(With Marjorie Druker) The New England Soup Factory Cookbook, Thomas Nelson Publishers (Nashville, TN), 2007.

The Boston Chef's Table, Three Forks/Globe Pequot Press (Guilford, CT), 2007.

Contributor to Oxford Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2004. Contributor of articles to periodicals, including Health, Runner's World, American Heritage, Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Chicago Parent. Contributor of poems to literary journals, including Paterson Literary Review, Hiram Poetry Review, Comstock Review, and Blackbird.

SIDELIGHTS:

Poet and journalist Clara Silverstein is the author of the 2004 memoir White Girl: A Story of School Desegregation. In the work, Silverstein recounts her experiences as one of the few white students at a predominantly black junior high school in Richmond, Virginia, during the early 1970s. Though the author encountered the destructive effects of reverse discrimination and often dealt with feelings of isolation, she also formed a strong bond with a teacher who taught her about African American history and culture. "It's easy to feel Silverstein's anguish, but her message is that positive social change is possible," noted Terry Christner in Library Journal. According to Journal of Southern History reviewer Claudine L. Ferrell, Silverstein's memoir, "skillfully written but clearly reflecting painful efforts at remembering, reminds historians that the civil rights movement involved more than political activists, attorneys, legislators, judges, and organizers and more than parents devoted to the future of their children: it involved the children—black and white."

A veteran food correspondent, Silverstein collaborated with Marjorie Druker, owner of Boston's New England Soup Factory restaurant, on The New England Soup Factory Cookbook, a collection of more than one hundred recipes. The duo "weave personal stories of the region with mouthwatering recipes in this instant classic, a must-have for soup lovers," commented a reviewer in Publishers Weekly.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Journal of Southern History, February, 2006, Claudine L. Ferrell, review of White Girl: A Story of School Desegregation, p. 232.

Kansas City Star (Kansas City, MO), September 12, 2007, Lauren Chapin, "With Cooler Weather, Warm Up to Soup," review of The New England Soup Factory Cookbook.

Library Journal, September 1, 2004, Terry Christner, review of White Girl, p. 166.

Omaha World-Herald (Omaha, NE), September 19, 2007, Jan Deknock, "Use Soup to Savor Bountiful Squash," review of The New England Soup Factory Cookbook.

Publishers Weekly, July 19, 2004, review of White Girl, p. 154; December 31, 2007, review of The New England Soup Factory Cookbook, p. 49.

ONLINE

Clara Silverstein Home Page,http://clarasilverstein.com (May 10, 2008).