VIRTUAL - Maggie Doyne - BETWEEN THE MOUNTAIN AND THE SKY

Start:

Tuesday, June 21, 2022 - 7:00pm

Location:

Virtual

This event will take place on Zoom Webinar. Click here to register.

Maggie Doyne wil be in conversation with Mark Duplass.

In her new book, Between the Mountain and the Sky, Maggie Doyne shares her story of leaving her comfortable middle class home in New Jersey for a gap year with no expectations that it would change the trajectory of her entire life. But on a trip to Nepal she met a young girl breaking rocks in a quarry and felt an immediate call to help the local children. She used the $5,000 in her savings to buy a piece of land and create a children’s home.

Maggie went on to found BlinkNow, a nonprofit dedicated to serving the children of Nepal and she subsequently co-founded a school as well as a health clinic, women’s center, and more. She has been globally recognized for her community-based and sustainable initiatives and was named a CNN Hero of the Year. The book has great early praise and support including from beloved, bestselling authors Cheryl Strayed and Elizabeth Gilbert.

Praise for the book includes:

"This soulful story of tenacity is immensely inspiring." - Publisher's Weekly

" In this inspiring account, Doyne reminds us, "All we can do, as life rushes in and out, is hold each other close and let love shape us." - Booklist

"Maggie has the courage to act for the good when she sees a need and the conscience to use her privilege to empower others. She is a heart warrior of the first order, and I'm grateful and honored to count her among my dearest friends." - Cheryl Strayed

"She is what I wish I could be-what I wish we all could be. Her story has already inspired countless thousands of people, and it's time the world had a book about her." - Elizabeth Gilbert

Maggie Doyne is co-founder of the BlinkNow Foundation and Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School in Surkhet, Nepal. At age nineteen, she used her babysitting money and worked with the local community to build a home for orphaned children in war-torn Nepal. In 2010, she and her team opened a school for five hundred of the region’s most impoverished children. Throughout the past decade, BlinkNow and Kopila have worked to deepen and grow the organization through grassroots community development efforts.

Her work has been championed by Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist Nicholas Kristof and the Dalai Lama, among others. The story of BlinkNow’s beginnings has been featured on the Huffington Post, VH1, MTV, and DoSomething.org. Maggie was named Glamour magazine’s Woman of the Year and was used as an example for her groundbreaking work at the Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy. In 2015, she was named CNN Hero of the Year. Her new book, Between the Mountain and the Sky, was released in March 2022.

Mark Duplass is an award-winning actor, filmmaker and producer. He and his brother Jay first gained recognition in the early 2000’s for writing, directing and producing several acclaimed independent and studio films, including The Puffy Chair, Baghead, Cyrus, and Jeff, Who Lives at Home.

On the television side, Mark and Jay have created two critically acclaimed television series for HBO: Togetherness (in which Mark also starred) and the anthology series Room 104.

As an actor, Mark has appeared in a wide range of film and television projects. From 2009 to 2015, he was a series regular on the hit FX comedy series The League. He has also had recurring roles in Hulu's The Mindy Project, National Geographic's Manhunt, and the second and third seasons of Amazon Studios' Goliath. Notable on-screen feature film credits include: Bombshell opposite Charlize Theron, Paddleton, Tully, Blue Jay, The One I Love, Safety Not Guaranteed, Your Sister's Sister, Humpday and the Creep franchise.

Mark most recently starred in Season 1 of the Apple TV series The Morning Show opposite Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon alongside Steve Carrell and Billy Crudup, all of whom, including Mark, were nominated for an Emmy. The series was nominated for two Golden Globe awards and Crudup won The Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. The Morning Show will be returning for a second season.

During COVID, Mark filmed the independent feature, Language Lessons, which he co-wrote alongside Natalie Morales. Natalie directed and starred alongside Mark and the film recently premiered at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Next, Mark is set to star opposite Sterling K. Brown in the upcoming independent feature, BIOSPHERE, written by Mark and Mel Eslyn with Mel set to direct and Duplass Brothers Productions set to produce.

Notable producer credits include the Emmy-winning Netflix documentary series Wild Wild Country and the HBO animated series Animals, as well as the feature films Safety Not Guaranteed (in which Mark also starred), The Skeleton Twins and Tangerine. Most recently, the Duplass Brothers executive produced the HBO Max series, The Lady And The Dale.

In May 2018, Mark and Jay published their first book, LIKE BROTHERS, which examines their lifelong personal and professional partnership which is now available in paperback too.