CV Author Katherine Vaz’s New Book Gets National Spotlight
photo credit Beowulf Sheehan
Author Katherin Vaz grew up in Castro Valley. Her new book “Above the Salt” comes out this month.
Castro Valley native Katherine Vaz has authored a new book, “Above the Salt,” which was chosen Book of the Week by People Magazine. It is prominently featured in People’s November 13 issue, with Matthew Perry on the cover.
“I’ve been working on this book for over 16 years,” says Vaz, who now lives in New York. “The most gratifying thing is that reviewers say the language is very poetic, but the story is gripping and well-paced with unexpected twists and turns.”
“Above the Salt” follows Protestant immigrants from the Portuguese island of Madeira to Illinois in the late 1800s. Described as an equal parts love story and immigrant experience, it follows a couple through America’s Civil War period and beyond. Readers will discover the meaning of “Above the Salt” during a scene in the book with Abraham Lincoln.
Katherine Vaz has written extensively about the experiences of Portuguese people in America. Her father August Vaz came from the Azores and spoke Portuguese as his first language. He and his wife raised six children on Somerset Avenue in Castro Valley.
Vaz attended Our Lady of Grace School and Bishop O’Dowd High School. She graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara and got her master’s at UC Irvine. Over the years, she has worked at UC Davis and Harvard and did some teaching and writing in New York.
After giving a talk at the Library of Congress many years ago, Vaz saw an interesting display about the Portuguese Protestants of Illinois. Intrigued, she started intermittent research about these folks. During one of her moves, the box holding the materials about them broke. Vaz’s interest was rekindled by the materials inside. She based her novel on the real-life stories of these immigrants.
Vaz has authored several books, including “Saudade,” “Mariana,” “Our Lady of the Artichokes,” and “Fado & Other Stories.” She is the first Portuguese American to have her work recorded for the Archives of the Library of Congress, Hispanic Division. The Ambassador to the U.S. from Portugal is throwing her a book launch party at the end of the month.
Despite these cosmopolitan successes, Vaz still thinks fondly of Castro Valley. Four of her siblings still live in the Bay Area, and two went to Castro Valley High, where her godmother Clementina Vaz was a P.E. teacher long ago.
“I’ve always felt that it was my little corner of the Bay Area,” she says. “Castro Valley was always where we had the family holidays when I came to California. I have happy memories of walking with my best friend Colleen Hammer to Castro Village and Al's Market. And I had such a good time taking swimming lessons at the Castro Valley High pool. We would always get an ice cream sandwich from the vending machine they used to have there.”
Vaz now resides in New York with her husband, Christopher Cerf, whom she had met back in Irvine. The two had lost track of each other for over a dozen years but were reintroduced when she moved to New York.
“We’ve been together 16 years now. Christopher wrote many of the original Sesame Street songs, and he’s still devoted to children’s literacy,” she says.
Vaz says she is grateful that Flatiron Books/Macmillan published her book because they arranged publicity, leading to her inclusion in People magazine and other media.
“Above the Salt” can be purchased at independent bookstores such as Books on B in Hayward and those listed at bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc. It is available in print, Kindle, and audiobook formats. TV and film rights for the story are represented by Rich Green of The Gotham Group.