Chaucer’s Books Author Talk & Signing- Daniel M. Jaffe “Russian Silhouette: A Memoir of Activism and Identity”

Thursday, October 22 2026- 6:00 PM

Russian Silhouette: A Memoir of Activism and Identity, explores Daniel M. Jaffe’s numerous travels to the USSR and post-Soviet Russia from the 1970s through the 1990s.  Having studied Russian at Princeton University, he repeatedly immersed himself in communities of oppressed Soviet Jews and political dissidents, many of whom were confronting arrest, imprisonment, labor camp sentences, and internal exile. Even after being arrested by the KGB and ordered never to return, Daniel did return many times to help his friends.  Their courage in asserting their identities and values inspired Daniel finally to come out as a gay man and fight for his own civil rights in the US.   Russian Silhouette…makes the point that when we pursue social justice for others, we might well be discovering justice for ourselves. – Courtesy of the Author

About the Author Daniel M. Jaffe, who lives in Santa Barbara, is an internationally published, award-winning author.  He  taught creative writing in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program for 20 years, at UCSB Extension, and elsewhere.  RUSSIAN SILHOUETTE is his 10th published book. Courtesy of the Author