A native of Chile, Isabel Allende fled her country after the 1973 military coup which ousted her uncle, President Salvador Allende. Her widely acclaimed first novel, The House of the Spirits, derives much of its inspiration from her childhood memories and family’s experience. Heir to the Latin American tradition of magic realism, Allende is adept at blending fantasy and legend with political fact and well-plotted narratives. Her other novels include Portrait in Sepia, Daughter of Fortune, Maya’s Notebook, and Island Beneath the Sea. Her forthcoming novel, The Japanese Lover, is an exquisitely crafted love story and multigenerational epic that sweeps from San Francisco in the present-day to Poland and the United States during the Second World War.
Rose Aguilar has been the host of KALW’s Your Call since 2006. Before joining KALW, she published a newsletter about women’s issues and was a reporter and weekend host for CNET Radio, where she covered technology’s impact on society. Her writing has appeared in Al Jazeera English, Truthout, The Nation and AlterNet. She is a member of the Native American Journalists Association and mentor-editor for The OpEd Project, an organization that works to increase the range of voices we hear in the media.