News & Events

 

News

Without My Mother
is a Canadian Bestseller
Globe & Mail
The Toronto Star 

HarperCollins Canada
launches
Without My Mother
A Daughter’s Search for the Mother
who Abandoned Her
May 7th 2019

Pieces of My Mother is selected as the “Best Nonfiction Book of 2015” by the NCIBA-Northern California Booksellers Association

A stunning review in
The Chicago Review of Books
“Brutally Beautiful”

PBS To the Contrary
Guest with Bonnie Erbe
Mothers Who Leave 

Melissa on the Huffington Post
On Horses, Mothers, Bookstores and How She Got Her First Book Deal

Pieces of My Mother selected as a May
Indie Next Pick
Interview with ABA’s Liz Button

Kirkus Reviews
Featured Author Interview for
Pieces of My Mother
with Alex Layman

Guest Post on
The Debutante Ball 
On Writing Memoir and Pushing Past Distraction

Interview with Katie O’Reilly at
Michigan Quarterly Review

Talking about Mothers, Memoir and Letters Never Sent with the incredible
Caroline Leavitt 

Interview: On Writing the Story Within and Finding Forgiveness
with Leslie Lindsay 

Patrik Henry Bass of Essence Magazine &
The Book Reader reviews “Cistaro as a writer to watch”

Publisher’s Weekly
BEA 2015 feature

Marin Independent  Journal
Mother’s Day Feature by Vicki Larson

Judith Collins reviews Pieces of My Mother at
JC Must Read Books

Ginger Beck’s review
The Red Savina Review

Brilliant Writer Radio
Listen to the interview Herewith Albert Flynn DeSilver

Order signed copies from Book Passage or order from: IndieBound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Events & Appearances

2020-2021

San Miguel Writers’ Conference  
A Literary Season Online
2020 & 2021
Workshop Leader & Consultation Info
HERE

San Miguel Writers’ Conference & Literary Festival
Faculty and Presenter
February 12th -16th 2020
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

2019

 CTV The Social 
Guest appearance on
Without My Mother
A Daughter’s Search for the Mother
who Abandoned Her
May 15th 2019

San Miguel Writers’ Conference & Literary Festival 
Faculty and Presenter
February 13th -17th 2019
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

2018

San Francisco Writers Conference
Presenter & Panelist
February 15th -18th  2018

Mapping Your Memoir
January 27th, 2018
Book Passage

Memorable Memoir
a 5 week Workshop
At Writing Pad
San Francisco

May 18th, 7pm
The Octopus Literary Salon
The Mother Lode Reading

The Story You Need To Tell
An all day Memoir Workshop
At Book Passage
June 3rd

 Events 2016-17

STORY IS THE THING
Kepler’s Quarterly Reading Series
November 17th 7pm
Kepler’s Books
Menlo Park

WordWave
A Festival of Story at Lake Tahoe
October 21st – 23rd
Memoir Workshop

Memorable Memoir
a 5 week Fall workshop
At Writing Pad
San Francisco

 July 27th, 7:30
InsideStorytime
Reading at
The Octopus Literary Salon
Oakland, CA

Writing the Healing Story
a half-day workshop
at Book Passage
June 19th

April 16th, 7pm
Copperfield’s – Novato
with Sere Prince Halverson

March 25th, 1 pm
Friday Author Series
College of Marin Library
835 College Avenue
Kentfield, CA

March 19th, 2pm
Face In A Book
4359 Town Center Blvd
El Dorado Hills, CA

March 8th, 7pm
Rakestraw Books
In Conversation with Sere Prince Halverson
author of All The Winters After
Danville, CA

March 3rd, 7pm
Book Passage
Paperback Release
Pieces of My Mother

February 25th, 7pm
A Great Good Place for Books
In conversation with Sere Prince Halverson
6120 LaSalle Avenue
Oakland, CA

January 24th, 2106
reading at
Stranger Than Fiction
Edinburgh Castle Pub
950 Geary Street – SF

November 6th, 1pm
Truth & Transformation
in Memoir Telesummit
with Linda Joy Meyers

October 12th, 7pm
LITQUAKE -“Anti-Memoir”
Check out the panel here:
SF Center for the Book
375 Rhode Island Street

October 15th, 6pm
Mending Lives:
A Conversation with Bay Area Memoirists to benefit Project Second Chance
Walnut Creek Library

  September 26th, 6pm
Reading & Margaritas
at Las Guitarras Restaurant
1017 Reichert Ave, Novato

Reading at
Why There Are Words
August 13, 7pm
Studio 333 in Sausalito

    July 8th, 6:30 pm
Politics & Prose
Busboys & Poets
235 Carroll Street NW
Washington, DC

July 16th 7pm
Bookshop Santa Cruz
1520 Pacific Avenue
Santa Cruz, CA
Book Group Mixer

July 21st, 6pm
Book Passage
1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA

July 22nd, 7pm
Copperfield’s Sebastopol
138 North Main Street
Sebastopol, CA

July 29th, 7pm
Books Inc.
301 Castro St
Mountain View, CA

May 5, 7pm
Book Launch at
Book Passage

May 6th, 7pm 
Tattered Cover
7301 S. Santa Fe Drive
Littleton, CO 80120

May 7th, 6:30 pm
Parnassus Books
3900 Hillsboro Pike
Nashville, TN

May 8th, 7pm
BookBar
4280 Tennyson Street
Denver, CO

May 16th, 5pm
RJ Julia Booksellers
768 Boston Post Road
Madison, CT

May 18th, 7pm
Queen Anne Book Co.
1811 Queen Anne Avenue North
Seattle, WA

May 19th, 7pm
Third Place Books
17171 Bothell Way NE
Lake Forest Park, WA

May 20th, 7pm
Parkplace Books
348 Parkplace Center
Kirkland, WA

May 21st, 7pm
Lafayette Library
3491 Mt Diablo Blvd
Lafayette, CA

May 22nd, 12pm
Belmont Library
1110 Alameda De Las Pulgas
Belmont, CA

May 23rd, 4pm
Vroman’s Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA

May 26th, 6:30 pm
with Sarah Tomlinson
WORD Bookstore
Brooklyn, NY

May 27th, 7pm
McNally Jackson
Writing About Motherhood
with Abigail Thomas
& Alice Eve Cohen
New York, NY

May 29th, 7pm
Porter Square Books
25 White St
Cambridge, MA

June 4th, 7pm
BookPeople
603 N Lamar Blvd
Austin, TX

June 7th, 11am
Bay Area Book Festival
Berkeley, CA