Alta Asks Live: Julia Flynn Siler
Wednesday, January 13, 2021, 12:30 p.m. Pacific time
“The place felt like the Bates Motel in Psycho.”
Founded in 1874, Cameron House was supposed to be a refuge for the children of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Then a predator arrived—and stayed for decades. In her first feature for Alta, The White Devil’s Daughters author Julia Flynn Siler examines the painful history of Cameron House and follows the lives of some of the victims of “Grandpa Dick” who still carry the burden of their abuse. Siler is joined in conversation by author and journalist Grace Hwang Lynch.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Julia Flynn Siler is a New York Times bestselling author and journalist. Her most recent book, The White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a finalist for the California Book Award. Among her other books is Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America’s First Imperial Adventure. Her first book, The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty, was a finalist for a James Beard Award and a Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished reporting. A veteran journalist, Siler is a longtime contributor to and former staff writer for the Wall Street Journal and has been a guest commentator on PBS, the BBC, CNBC, and CNN. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their two sons.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Grace Hwang Lynch is a San Francisco Bay Area journalist and essayist with an eye for Asian American culture and food. She has contributed to PRI, NPR, Tin House, and Catapult and is always up for a conversation about sourdough baking or Taiwanese movies. Follow her on Twitter @GraceHwangLynch.
