Julia Flynn Siler
Julia Flynn Siler is a New York Times best-selling nonfiction 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 nonfiction finalist for the California Book Award. Her other books are The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty, a finalist for a James Beard Award and a
Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished reporting, and Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America’s First Imperial Adventure. She is a regular contributor to National Geographic and The Wall Street Journal, is a member of the National Book Critics Circle, and spent the spring of 2025 as an academic visitor at Oxford University. She is the nonfiction director of California’s Community of Writers, as well as the director of The Jeniam Conversations, a new literary series at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, which will take place in the spring of 2026.
The Jeniam Conversations: Spring 2026
The Jeniam Conversations will be a literary series hosted by Oxford's Centre for Life-Writing in the spring of 2026. Over three evenings, it will bring celebrated writers together to discuss their creative processes and the art of storytelling. These intimate conversations will explore the moments where craft meets inspiration.
The Story Behind It
Andrew M. Clarkson graduated from St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, in 1960, then attended Harvard Business School before building a distinguished career in finance. After retiring, he founded Jeniam—named for his two children, Jennifer and William—and helped save a cherished independent bookstore in his hometown. Andrew and his family are passionate readers devoted to the power of words.
This series honors Andrew's legacy by bridging his Oxford roots with his family's lifelong love of literature. Events will take place at Wolfson College at the University of Oxford during Trinity term (April 26–June 20, 2026).
The Programme
We envision three evening conversations open to the university community as well as the public with distinguished writers. The conversations will be followed by a wine reception and book signings. The series is supported by the Jeniam Foundation and directed by Julia Flynn Siler, an author and journalist who was an Academic Visitor at Oxford in 2025.
