Oakland, CA - Mills College will present a lecture by Samina Ali entitled “From Possession to Self-Possession: An American Muslim Woman’s Journey to Freedom” on Tuesday, October 18, 2005. Sponsored by the Student Activities Office and the English Center for International Women, the event is free and open to the public. It will be held in the campus Student Union from 12 pm – 1 pm.

Born in Hyderabad, India, Samina Ali is the author of Madras on Rainy Days (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2004), her debut, semi-autobiographical novel.  She emigrated with her parents to America when she was six months old and spent half the year in India throughout her youth.  She is the recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation fiction award, and has written for publications such as Self and Child magazines, and The New York Times.

Renowned author Bharati Mukherjee called Ali a “compelling storyteller.  In language at once lyrical and unsentimental, she explores the upside and downside of being a first generation Muslim Indo-American woman, trapped between the demands of competing cultural heritages.”

Ali earned a BA in English from the University of Minnesota, and an MFA from the University of Oregon.

Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering innovative degree programs for undergraduate women, and graduate degree and certificate programs for women and men. Consistently ranked among the top 75 liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Mills is also recognized as one of the country’s 20 most diverse colleges. The Princeton Review selected Mills as one of 11 colleges for first-time inclusion in its Best 361 Colleges - 2005. Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California on 135 lush acres, Mills provides a dynamic liberal arts education fostering women’s leadership, social responsibility, and creativity.

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