Dear friends, You are invited to the Portland, Oregon, book launch of my new novel, “Bye-Bye Bakersfield.”

MY READING: June 16, from 7-8 PM at the Rose City Pub on 1329 Northeast Fremont Street, Portland, OR. Jan Baross and Joanna Rose are reading from their new novels.

“BYE-BYE BAKERSFIELD” A NEW NOVEL FROM AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR JAN BAROSS Award: First Place-International San Miguel Writers Competition, 2023. “Don’t tell anyone we’re Democrats,” warned Mother when we moved to Bakersfield. “And for God’s sake, don’t tell them you’re Jewish.”

Dredged from the cultural abyss of the 1950s in Bakersfield, CA, “Bye-Bye Bakersfield” is the story of a resilient little Jewish girl growing up in the hostile landscape of redneck central.

Joan Gratz, Academy Award-winning director/author, says: “So funny! I couldn’t put this book down. The young Jewish narrator reminds me of Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” only with a lot more humor.”

Mark Saunders, award-winning playwright/author, says: “Bye-Bye Bakersfield is one of the best novels I’ve read this year. A Jewish family struggling to survive as strangers in a strange land. A passionate story, from wildly funny to a deeply touching.

Jan Baross is a novelist, poet, documentary filmmaker, screenwriter, librettist, playwright, film critic, journalist, and painter. She has an MA in Communication and has taught filmmaking at Oregon State University.

Follow Jan at her website.