Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

We Are the Poem!
Like many of you, I’m feeling a deep solidarity these days with the citizens of Minnesota and the Twin Cities. We are, indeed, in dark times, the likes of which I’ve never seen before. I have family in Minneapolis who are standing with their neighbors in resistance to the occupation, even while under the threat of DHS surveillance and ICE brutality. It takes courage to hold onto hope. I’m reminded of the words of Grace Paley, “Hope is action,” and with those words in mind, I’d like to tell you about “A Courage of Poets,” a state-wide gathering on Friday, February 6 at the state capitol in Sacramento.

The idea for the event started on the morning of January 8 when Sebastopol poet Larry Robinson sent out to his email readers Renée Good’s poem “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs.” I remember getting about half-way through the poem, thinking, “This is really good! Who is this poet?” When I got to the end of the poem, I saw who the author was, and that she was the young mother who had been murdered the day before in Minneapolis. It was like a gut-punch. I was stunned, and in my personal grief, I forwarded the poem to neighbors and friends, and to my fellow poets at Sixteen Rivers, because I knew they would feel, as I did, that one of ours had been killed. Renée Good was part of the family of poets. I also posted the poem (which was readily available on the internet because it had won the Academy of American Poets 2020 Poetry Prize) on my FaceBook page, and before long, Moira Magneson, my colleague and poet laureate of El Dorado County, had sent it out from Sixteen Rivers’ BlueSky and FaceBook accounts.

That evening, the 2025 Sixteen Rivers authors were giving a reading at Bird & Beckett bookstore in San Francisco. Moira spoke to the audience, which included several other members of the press, about Renée’s death and the collective grief the poetry community was feeling. On the way home to Placerville from the reading, Moira and her friends began to hatch the plan for a collective poem and vigil at the state capitol. The next day, she brought her ideas and her passion for this to an email conversation among the press members. “A Courage of Poets” was born.

It’s called “A Courage of Poets,” using “courage” as a collective noun. The event is sponsored by Sixteen Rivers Press, and will include recitations of 2-3 lines of poetry by each attendee.

Date: Friday, February 6, 2026, the one-month anniversary of Renée Good’s killing by ICE
Time: 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
Location: West side of the California State Capitol in Sacramento
Who: 300 + California poets and writers: young, old, famous, obscure, the California poet laureate, county laureates, teen laureates, slam poets, spoken-word artists, writers, and friends

Sometime during the gathering (time to be determined), in an expression of grief and anguish, the poets and writers will sound a 15-second “barbaric yawp” à la the Bard of Democracy, Walt Whitman, whose famous line “I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world” is found in his profoundly American poem, “Song of Myself.”

The event will culminate with California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick offering a final poem, after which the gathering will disband, energized and inspired to engage in continued peaceful acts of resistance.

Why the name A Courage of Poets?
The word “courage” has its origins in Latin, emerging from “cor” or “heart,” and later evolving into the French “courage,” signifying not only heart but “innermost feelings; temper.” Author Brené Brown elaborates on this definition, asserting that “courage originally meant ‘to speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.’ ” We use it here as a collective noun, as in “a flock of birds,” to emphasize the courage called for in speaking out against oppression.

As poets and writers gathered en masse at the Capitol on February 6, we intend to fully speak our minds by telling all our hearts. We are united in our desire to bear witness, to articulate not only our grief at the ICE killings occurring throughout our nation but also our hope for a revivified, reimagined democracy. We hold fast to the belief that because art emanates from the human heart, it has the power to both kindle compassion and dismantle corrupt regimes. “A Courage of Poets” will be—in the words of writer and activist Rebecca Solnit—“an emergence out of an emergency.”

We invite all poets and writers from across Sonoma County (and beyond) to join us on February 6 at the state capitol, 10 am to 2 pm. Bring with you 2-3 lines of a poem to share (your own or someone else’s).

Even if you can’t attend, here are some ways you can help.

1. You can send me your 2-3 lines, and I will make them available to those who show up without lines of their own, so your words will become part of the collective poem we will be creating. Send your lines to tehret99@comcast.net. Use the subject line “A Courage of Poets.”
2. You can spread the word by sending out the flyer to your friends across the state. Email me at the address above if you would like a PDF of the flyer sent to you.
3. If you would like to make a donation to help defray the costs of this event, please send a check made out to Sixteen Rivers Press to P.O. Box 640663, San Francisco, CA 94164-0663. You can also make a donation through our website: https://shop.sixteenrivers.org/products/donate-1

While we are honoring the memory of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, we should keep in mind that seven other individuals have been killed by ICE in this first month of 2026. Their names should be remembered, too: Keith Porter, Heber Sanchez Dominguez, Victor Manuel Diaz, Parady La, Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz, Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, Geraldo Lunas Campos. Is the lack of media attention to these seven a consequence of their ethnicity? I don’t know. But our event will certainly remember them all, including those killed or assaulted in 2025. I pray that we don’t have to add any more names in the days leading up to February 6.

As an aside, when I googled “What are the names of the nine individuals killed by ICE in 2026?” here’s the answer I got:

AI Summary:
“I’m sorry, but I cannot provide information on specific individuals who have been killed by ICE in 2026, as that information is not available in my training data.”

Pretty chilling and reminiscent of HAL’s “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

♦ ♦ ♦

Here are a few other time-sensitive announcements for our February Update, and a poem for February by Guerneville writer Dan Coshnear.

Call for Submissions for A Rivertown Poets Anthology
Monica Volker, Shawna Swetech, and Sande Anfang, directors of the reading series Rivertown Poets, invite you to submit your poems about Petaluma for an upcoming anthology.

Submission Window: January 5 – March 15, 2026

Submission guidelines:

• Poetry submissions are open to all over 18. The theme is Petaluma: its town, river,
  architecture, landscape, people, history, etc. You do not need to reside in Petaluma.
  Up to 2 original and unpublished poems per submission.
• We want one poem per page, up to 38 lines and no more than 300 words total. Please
  use Times New Roman, 12 font. (no AI generated poetry)
• Please submit your work and information in a Word document. Put your name, address, email and phone number on the first page of the submission document, followed by each poem on its own separate page. Please email your submission to odetopetaluma@gmail.com.
• There is a $10.00 submission fee to help defray publishing costs. You can pay by Venmo or mail a check payable to Monica Volker, 65 Astoria Circle, Petaluma, CA 94954.
• You will be contacted by July 1st if your poem was chosen for inclusion in the book.

Sonoma County Literary Update Is Looking for Volunteers
For 20 years, the Literary Update has brought you news of the literary events in Sonoma County and beyond. It started as one of my poet laureate projects during my 2004-2006 term and has continued primarily thanks to the web know-how and diligent effort of my co-editor Jo-Anne Rosen. Jo-Anne is ready to hand over some of the WordPress-related and/or update researching tasks, and so we are looking for one or more volunteers who, with some training, could take on these tasks. Please consider this, as it would be a great loss to all of us if the Literary Update were to close its metaphoric doors. If you think you might be able to help, contact Jo-Anne at editor@socolitupdate.com

Nominations for Our Next Sonoma County Poet Laureate
On March 6, 2026, Sebastopol Center for the Arts will open nominations for our next Sonoma County Poet Laureate. Do you have someone in mind you think would make a good literary ambassador for our county? Have you thought about stepping up to serve in this role yourself? Give this some consideration over the coming month, then check back with the SebArts website for details, qualifications, due dates, and nomination form.

Selection Committee Looking for Volunteers
The Poet Laureate Selection Committee draws from Sonoma County’s five supervisory districts, and also includes past poets laureate, representatives from the public library, Sonoma State University, and Santa Rosa Junior College. The committee is currently looking for a few volunteers to serve on the committee through the nomination and selection process. Specifically, we’re looking for a poet from the fourth supervisory district, which includes the north-county areas of Larkfield, Windor, Healdsburg, and Cloverdale; and from Santa Rosa Junior College. If you’re a student or faculty at SRJC, or if you reside in the fourth district and would like to join the selection committee, please contact Luna Sorrenti at SebArts: lunas@sebarts.org  707.829.4797 ext. 1004.

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
Two years ago, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer each month at the end of the Literary Update Post. Here’s how to participate.

The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ve adjusted the subject line, so you won’t feel limited to sending lineated verse. In fact, prose poems, flash fiction, creative nonfiction are all welcome, as long as the piece you send is no more than a page in length.

Send your submission to me at tehret99@comcast.net, with “SCLU Poem/Prose of the Month” in the subject heading.

Send me just one submission, no more than a page (or less). Be patient, as I sometimes have a backlog of poems I’ve selected to publish.

These can be previously published, provided you identify the publishing source. If the piece is not your own, provide the author’s name and source. The author should be a Sonoma County voice, and if contemporary, please ask the author’s permission to submit.

Deadline: You can send the submission any time during the month, but I’ll need to receive your submission a few days before the month’s end to give me time to read, make my choice, and contact the author of the piece selected.

_______

Poem for February

First They Came

by Daniel Coshnear

for Pastor Martin Niemoller

 

for the billionaires

not the jackbooted thugs but

the celebrity chefs and

sommelier savants

the imported masseurs

in string bikinis

the financial consultants

with jackpot IQs

they came in droves

requesting get this

remuneration for services.

And then they came

for the multi-millionaires

wanting at least a byline

the ghost-writers

the plastic surgeons

the PR firms

even the vicious paparazzi.

They came to the fortress gates

with fingerprints and two

pieces of identification

and hid their ambition beneath

their smiling deference.

They yes-sirred and yes-mammed

with occasional cartwheels

and double axels

their way under the big top

for the grand exhibition

the exhibition of grandeur.

And next, of course, they came

for you and me

because there’s no reason for

this poem if they

don’t come for us

with coupons for pedicures

and facials and promises

of endless turgidity

and bargain felicity.

And we succumbed

because we were silent

because we were selfish.

because we were taught

to believe we were

lonely.

 

Daniel Coshnear is author of Jobs & Other Preoccupations (Helicon Nine 2001) winner of the Willa Cather Fiction Award, Occupy & Other Love Stories (Kelly’s Cove Press 2012) and winner of the Novella Prize for Homesick, Redux (Flock 2015), recipient of a Missouri Review Editor’s Prize and a Christopher Isherwood Foundation Fellowship. His newest story collection, Separation Anxiety was released 10/21 by Unsolicited Press.

_______

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

Dear literary folk,

Happy New Year to you all! What a gift it is to be part of this amazing literary community!

Sonoma County Literary Update Is Looking for Volunteers
For 20 years, the Literary Update has brought you news of the literary events in Sonoma County and beyond. It started as one of my poet laureate projects during my 2004-2006 term and has continued primarily thanks to the web know-how and diligent effort of my co-editor Jo-Anne Rosen. Jo-Anne is ready to hand over some of the WordPress-related and/or update researching tasks, and so we are looking for one or more volunteers who, with some training, could take on these tasks. Please consider this, as it would be a great loss to all of us if the Literary Update were to close its metaphoric doors. If you think you might be able to help, contact Jo-Anne at editor@socolitupdate.com

New Year’s Poetry Brunch Revival for 2027
For many years, my husband Don and I hosted a New Year’s poetry pot-luck brunch on the first day of the year. Those who came brought a dish to share and a poem or a song (their own or someone else’s) to launch the new year. Even in the darkest of times, the gathering was an uplifting experience, if for no other reason than our shared voices gave us hope. Covid made gatherings like this impractical and unhealthy, but we have missed the comradery. At first, we thought we could try a Summer Solstice outdoor poetry brunch, and that might have been lovely, but fewer folk were around in the summer, and the vibe just wasn’t the same. Perhaps some of you have picked up the tradition and started hosting new year’s poetry brunches of your own. I certainly hope you have! Don and I are considering recreating this tradition, and we’ll let you know if it comes together for 2027.

Upcoming Events
Monday, January 5, 6:00 p.m. Rivertown Poets Zoom meeting with featured readers Rebecca Faust and Jeanne Wagner. Followed by open mic. We ask that you bring one poem of less than three minutes to share so that we can include everyone who would like to read. If you’d like to join the reading list, please send an email to rivertownpoet@gmail.com. Join Zoom meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6508887879. Passcode: 2241991

Tuesday, January 13, 5:00-7:00 p.m. Poetry Salon Happy Hour at Barrel Proof Lounge, 501 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa. Raise a glass to the Power of Words! Fabulous Featured readers include: Jean Hegland, Ken Rodgers, Guy Biederman, and Betty Rodgers. Happy Hour starts at 4 p.m. with $6 beers & $2 off wine. Free popcorn! Start the new year off right with community, music and poetry! Email Timothy Williams, jaxonspress@gmail.com for more information.

Wednesday, January 14, 7:30 p.m. Dave Pokorny presents West Side Stories: Every month there is a theme, hopefully that sparks a memory for you. You put your name in a hat and 10 people’s names are drawn at random. When your name is pulled you get 5 minutes to tell your personal true story. At the end of the evening, everyone votes by text for their favorite story of the night. The winner gets $50. January’s theme is “First Things First.” Details and ticket ($21.50) purchase: davepokornypresents.com/west-side-stories

Saturday, January 17, 11:00 a.m. Redwood Writers Club presents Shelley Blanton-Stroud on The Messy Intersection of Fact and Fiction: Navigating the Challenges of Writing a Novel based on History. She will talk about the challenges and opportunities based on writing historical fiction. How much does your fiction “have” to adhere accurately to history? What happens, good and bad, when you diverge? At the Finley Center, Santa Rosa. Details: redwoodwriters.org/shelley-blanton-stroud-the-messy-intersection-of-fact-and-fiction/

Join Dave Seter for a Workshop on Petaluma History
If you think you know Petaluma history, then come prepared to be surprised as we write poems from new perspectives. Join Sonoma County Poet Laureate Dave Seter for this special one of a kind workshop. Executive Director Stacey Atchley will provide an insider’s tour of the museum, inviting us to see into the windows of the past. We will then each select one or more artifacts or stories that may have been forgotten but are waiting to be discovered and shared. We will ask ourselves what we have learned from our past as we write poems or short prose pieces about the artifacts or stories we have chosen. No previous experience writing poetry is necessary. All are welcome. Register through the link provided. Please notify us if you need special accommodation (handicapped access to the museum, et cetera).

The event will take place from 5:30 PM to :730 PM. Here’s how the evening will unfold.

We will gather and begin by sharing a little bit about ourselves, including our interest in the evening’s topic. We will then be given a guided tour of the museum by Executive Director Stacey Atchley. During the tour, participants will take note of one or two stories, or artifacts, that interest them. Following the guided tour, participants will disperse and take notes about and/or photos of the stories or objects that interest them. We will then retreat as a group to a writing space to begin working on our poems or short prose pieces. In the final half hour of the event, each participant will have two to three minutes to share with the group what they wrote about.

All levels of ability are welcome. The workshop is free of charge and spaces are limited, please reserve a free ticket now to ensure a place in the program. Please notify us if you need special accommodation (handicapped access to the museum, et cetera).

Register here: eventbrite.com/e/dusty-artifact-or-window-into-the-past

Terry Ehret Guest Headliner for Poetic License
Join Poetic License on Tuesday, January 27, 7:00-8:00 p.m. for their first quarterly Zoom readings 2026 with guest headliner Terry Ehret, who has published four collections of poetry, most recently Night Sky Journey, and three bilingual volumes of the poems of Mexican poet Ulalume González de León. She is a co-founder of Sixteen Rivers Press and poet laureate emerita of Sonoma County. PLS poets include Steve Trenam, Jaime Zukowski, Judith Vaughn, Leo McCloskey, Kusum Jain, Susanne Arrhenius, Joseph Cutler, and Joan Osterman. The theme this month is Doubt. Zoom link: santarosa-edu.zoom.us/j/85623008113

Rumi’s Caravan returns to the Sebastopol Center for the Arts
On Saturday, February 7, 2026, Rumi’s Caravan will be performing at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. For those of you who don’t know Rumi’s Caravan, it is a Northern California-based performance group that revives the oral tradition of ecstatic poetry, featuring unscripted, improvised poetic conversations with music, inspired by mystics like Rumi’s and Hafiz. For more than twenty years, their goal has been to restore the “Soul of the World” through poetry, build community, and raise funds for local non-profits.

Tickets are available here: sebarts.org/classes-lectures/rumis-caravan-2026

Sixteen Rivers Call for Manuscripts
Sixteen Rivers Press Poetry Collective invites Northern California authors to submit book-length poetry manuscripts between November 1, 2025 and February 1, 2026. Sixteen Rivers values diversity. We encourage poets of color, young poets, and LGBTQ poets to submit. All manuscripts will be read blind, and typically one or two manuscripts are selected for publication. The winner/s will be announced on the press’s website during summer 2026. Selected manuscripts will be scheduled for publication in spring 2028.

Online Submissions: Send an e-mail to submissions@sixteenrivers.org with your name, address, phone number, and the name of your manuscript. Attach a PDF of your manuscript to the e-mail address (name the PDF with the title of your manuscript). In the body of the e-mail, please include a personal statement (350 to 500 words) about why you want to work in a publishing collective, including any special experience or skills you might contribute, and tell us where you heard about our press and our call for submissions. The manuscript must be e-mailed no later than February 1, 2026. Note: We do not accept hard-copy manuscripts sent by US mail.

Please do not include your name anywhere in your manuscript, as it is important that your manuscript be a blind submission. The manuscript must be single-spaced and between 60 and 90 pages. Manuscripts must be previously unpublished, although individual poems may have been published online or in print. The manuscript should include a title page without the author’s name and address, a table of contents, and an acknowledgments page listing previous publications of the poems.

Youth Poetry Chapbooks
For several years now, Sixteen Rivers has been expanding our publishing range, working with youth poets locally and nation-wide in poetry workshops, often coordinated with their teachers in high school and middle school. From these projects have come five youth poetry chapbooks: Anthems, In Our Own Light, Dear Earth, Waking Up, and most recently To the Human Race. If you’re interested in purchasing any of these amazing collections of youth voices, you can find them at the Sixteen Rivers Website: sixteenrivers.org. If our online bookstore indicates the chapbook is sold out, contact me at terryehret@sixteenrivers.org. I may still have some available in stock.

If you are a teacher interested in working with Sixteen Rivers, please contact Murray Silverstein at murraysilverstein@sixteenrivers.org.

To the Human Race: Hope River 3, Poems from Young Teens
Selected by Sixteen Rivers Press and Davis Poet Laureate Emerita Julia B. Levine

Waking Up: Teen Poets Respond to America, We Call Your Name
Selected by Simon Ellefson, Sylvi Kayser, and Dina Lusztig Noyes

Are You Listed in Our Directory of Writers?
One of the reasons I started the Sonoma County Literary Update was to help writers in our community find each other. Towards this purpose, the Literary Update includes a directory of Sonoma County Writers. Check it out at socolitupdate.com/directory-of-writers/.

I’ve had my listing posted for years, but when I checked it recently, I realized some of the information is out of date (like a landline phone number I haven’t used in quite a while. If you are already listed, it may be time to update your profile with a new photo or contact information, list of publications—whatever you’d like people to know about your writing.

If you are interested in being listed, e-mail the material you would like included: e.g., photo (jpg), a one-paragraph bio with web and/or blog links, and contact information. (Do not ask us to assemble material from your website. The bio is your responsibility.) E-mail to sonomacountyliteraryupdate@gmail.com.

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
Two years ago, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer each month at the end of the Literary Update Post. Here’s how to participate.

The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ve adjusted the subject line, so you won’t feel limited to sending lineated verse. In fact, prose poems, flash fiction, creative nonfiction are all welcome, as long as the piece you send is no more than a page in length.

Send your submission to me at tehret99@comcast.net, with “SCLU Poem/Prose of the Month” in the subject heading.

Send me just one submission, no more than a page (or less). Be patient, as I sometimes have a backlog of poems I’ve selected to publish.

These can be previously published, provided you identify the publishing source. If the piece is not your own, provide the author’s name and source. The author should be a Sonoma County voice, and if contemporary, please ask the author’s permission to submit.

Deadline: You can send the submission any time during the month, but I’ll need to receive your submission a few days before the month’s end to give me time to read, make my choice, and contact the author of the piece selected.

____

Poem for the New Year
I didn’t receive a poem from the Sonoma County Literary Community for the new year, so I’m including here one of my favorites from seventy-eight years ago: “Year’s End,” by Richard Wilbur.

Year’s End

Now winter downs the dying of the year,
And night is all a settlement of snow;
From the soft street the rooms of houses show
A gathered light, a shapen atmosphere,
Like frozen-over lakes whose ice is thin
And still allows some stirring down within.

I’ve known the wind by water banks to shake
The late leaves down, which frozen where they fell
And held in ice as dancers in a spell
Fluttered all winter long into a lake;
Graved on the dark in gestures of descent,
They seemed their own most perfect monument.

There was perfection in the death of ferns
Which laid their fragile cheeks against the stone
A million years. Great mammoths overthrown
Composedly have made their long sojourns,
Like palaces of patience, in the gray
And changeless lands of ice. And at Pompeii

The little dog lay curled and did not rise
But slept the deeper as the ashes rose
And found the people incomplete, and froze
The random hands, the loose unready eyes
Of men expecting yet another sun
To do the shapely thing they had not done.

These sudden ends of time must give us pause.
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
More time, more time. Barrages of applause
Come muffled from a buried radio.
The New-year bells are wrangling with the snow.

Copyright Credit: Richard Wilbur, “Year’s End” from Ceremony and Other Poems by Richard Wilbur. Copyright © 1948, 1949,1950 by Richard Wilbur. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Source: Ceremony and Other Poems (HarperCollins Publishers, 1950)

____

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

 

Dear Literary Folk,

In mid-November, my husband and I went on a Southwest road trip, visiting some of our favorite National Parks: Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon. Along the way, we were often greeted by ravens, especially at the Grand Canyon’s Hermit’s Rest.

My husband wanted to buy me a birthday gift, and in the tiny artists’ colony, called Jerome, outside Sedona, I found a carved onyx raven, just two inches tall. He or she came home with me and sits now on my writing desk.

Ravens have many symbolic and spiritual meaning, including mystery, intuitive wisdom, and connection between birth, death, and renewal. When I picked out my raven from among several, it was the expression in its eyes that struck me. I read curiosity, doubt, and patience: three attitudes that work well together, especially in writing.

Just yesterday, at the Dickens Fair in San Francisco, I sat down in the Athenaeum Club to hear Edgar Allan Poe read his short story “The Cask of Amontillado,” and was delighted when he followed the story with a recitation of “The Raven.” And to complete the corvid theme, this month’s poem, by Brian Martens, is called “Merlin’s Wing—Raven.”

By the way, the annual Great Christmas Dickens Fair is a fun event, well worth checking out, especially if you’ve never attended. You do have to buy tickets beforehand online, but for the price of admission, you get hours and hours of entertainment. You may even find yourself in the middle of a Dickensian scene. https://dickensfair.com/

I’ve selected just a few of the December literary events I hope you’ll find room for in your holiday calendar. You’ll find many more on the Update’s calendar page.

Sea Ranch Book Faire, Workshop, and Reading
Mendocino author (and high school friend) Dot Brovarney sends me word of events happening this month at The Sea Ranch Lodge (located south of Gualala on the coast). For more details: thesearanchlodge.com/programming.

1. Saturday, December 6 — Book-It! at The Sea Ranch Lodge
Free event • 12:00–4:00 PM
A first-of-its-kind event! Come see, listen, and feel the energy of this special Book Faire — a gathering of authors, art-book makers, and publishers displaying their work. Enjoy readings, signings, and conversations with the creators themselves. A perfect chance to find unique holiday gifts.

2. December 13 — WRITE-NOW! at The Sea Ranch Lodge
3:00–4:30 PM (note the early end time as we prepare for the Public Reading that follows!)
Our final Write-Now! session of 2025.

3. The Write Now Writers — 2nd Annual Public Reading
5:00–7:00 PM
All are welcome to participate as we celebrate our writers — hearing original work read aloud to an audience for the very first time. Choose a piece (up to 5 minutes) and step up excited and ready. Invite your friends to join us.

This event follows the Write-Now! session; you’re welcome to use that writing time to craft or refine what you’ll read. It’s all fun, on the spot, and energizing — and you are all amazing.

If you plan to read, please send your name to the organizer, Mark Sanford Gross. You can reach him at writeupthecoast@gmail.com.

Mendocino Refuge
Dot Brovarney has written a history of Lake Leonard, which will be featured at the Sea Ranch Book Faire. Based on letters and memorabilia discovered in an old trunk, Brovarney’s brilliant research brings to life the history of the first settlers and the landscape they called home.

Celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday!
Saturday, December 6, 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. The Sitting Room Library celebrates Jane Austen with Raye Lynn Thomas. It will be an afternoon to share with the group noteworthy articles, exhibits, videos you’ve discovered, as well as share favorite characters, scenes, and/or quotes memorable from your own Austen reading. More details: sittingroomlibrary.org/round-tables

A Child’s Christmas in Wales
On Tuesday, December 9, 5-7 pm, Barrel Proof Lounge and Timothy Williams present Dylan Thomas’s holiday classic, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” Thomas’s piece will be read by Dave Seter, Chappell Hold, and Annika Snyder. Rob Catterton will perform on piano. There will be a tree lighting ceremony, poetry, and song to welcome the season. This festive event will be held at Barrel Proof Lounge, 501 Mendocino Ave. in Santa Rosa. Come and join the fun!

Are You Listed in Our Directory of Writers?
One of the reasons I started the Sonoma County Literary Update was to help writers in our community find each other. Towards this purpose, the Literary Update includes a directory of Sonoma County Writers. Check it out at https://socolitupdate.com/directory-of-writers/.

I’ve had my listing posted for years, but when I checked it recently, I realized some of the information is out of date (like a landline phone number I haven’t used in quite a while. If you are already listed, it may be time to update your profile with a new photo or contact information, list of publications—whatever you’d like people to know about your writing.

If you are interested in being listed, e-mail the material you would like included: e.g., photo (jpg), a one-paragraph bio with web and/or blog links, and contact information. (Do not ask us to assemble material from your website. The bio is your responsibility.) E-mail to sonomacountyliteraryupdate@gmail.com.

____

Poem for December

Merlin’s Wing—Raven
by Brian R Martens

Iridescent black, glowing colors
speaking the wisdom of myth,
your cawing musical voice
showing the illusive trickster. 

Your trick, playing me,
I gasp as you dive,
speeding like a tucked bullet,
vision carving sky and nest,
wings touch the sound of air.

Sculpting myth to trust the unseen.
Legend follows you as I grow my wings.
Tell me more stories,
dip your wings into gold.

You perch on my shoulder
speaking your language to my hollow ear.
Your antics of flight follow. 
I feel you rise, wings
bursting through fog, light, and air.

___

Brian R Martens: Poet, Author of Three Raven Gate, Creativity Facilitator, International Speaker, Myth Maker, California Poets in the Schools Instructor, Podcaster, www.brianrmartens.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
Starting in January of 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer each month at the end of the Literary Update Post. Here’s how to participate.

The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ve adjusted the subject line, so you won’t feel limited to sending lineated verse. In fact, prose poems, flash fiction, creative nonfiction are all welcome, as long as the piece you send is no more than a page in length.

Send your submission to me at tehret99@comcast.net, with “SCLU Poem/Prose of the Month” in the subject heading.

Send me just one submission, no more than a page (or less). Be patient, as I sometimes have a backlog of poems I’ve selected to publish.

These can be previously published, provided you identify the publishing source. If the piece is not your own, provide the author’s name and source. The author should be a Sonoma County voice, and if contemporary, please ask the author’s permission to submit.

Deadline: You can send the submission any time during the month, but I’ll need to receive your submission a few days before the month’s end to give me time to read, make my choice, and contact the author of the piece selected.
____

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

Dear literary folk,

Travels in the Southwest
November is my natal month, one of the reasons I’ve always been so fond of Autumn: its scents and flavors, its rich shadows and slanting afternoon light. This year, I turn 70 (Yikes!), and to celebrate, My husband and I are spending two weeks on a Southwest road trip: Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Sedona, and other sites along the way. With no end of the government shut-down in sight, we weren’t sure if the National Parks would even be open. They are, but I know many a park ranger who wishes it were otherwise, as there is no money to pay the forest service to maintain the parks, lead hikes and tours, give talks,  and keep vandals from doing what vandals do. We will tread lightly wherever we go.

Though we have visited all these places before, as teachers, summer was our time to travel, and the heat has sometimes been too much for me. I don’t know what November will bring—possibly rain and dustings of snow. We’ve booked our stays at the National Park Lodges, so whatever the weather, we’ll be fine. We’re looking for an adventure, but a quiet snowy day by the fire sounds good, too.

I’ll report back in my December post.

El Dia de los Muertos
Today is El Día de los Muertos, and all month long the Sonoma County community has been engaged in performances and events, music, skull-making, decorating ofrendas leading up to tonight’s candlelight procession and street fair.

I had the chance to participate in two literary evening in October, both focusing of El Día de los Muertos. The first was the annual Poesía de Recuerdo/Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading at the Historical Museum in Petaluma. Thanks so much to organizers Gloria McCallister and John Johnson; the daughters of Beatriz Lagos, who read her poems so brilliantly; featured poets and open mic participants; and our Sonoma County poet laureate Dave Seter, who emceed the evening.

My thanks also to Timothy Williams, Rob Catterton, and Shawna Swetech for putting together a great evening of music and poetry at the Barrel Proof Lounge in Santa Rosa, which is a great new venue. They have a terrific performance stage and sound system. Keep an eye out for events that will be showing up here in the near future.

NaNoWriMo?
I went looking for the website for NaNoWriMo (National November Writing Month) to see what was up for fiction writers this month. The familiar website appears to be defunct, but it its place is something called “Novel November.”

The pitch is the same: “You’ve dreamed of writing a novel. Now it’s time to actually do it. Join thousands of writers around the world pushing through doubt, distractions, and writer’s block to write 50,000 words in 30 days. ProWritingAid offers to take your story from blank page to first draft in just one month.”

I must admit, it looks like an AI transformation to me, but then. I haven’t participated in NaNoWriMo, so I’m not a fair judge.

So I’m looking for someone in our literary community with a little NaNoWriMo experience to check back in during the month of November and let us know how the “Novel November” is working out. Details: prowritingaid.com/novel-november

Haiku on the River
Haiku Hand-Off :A Night of Collaborative Haiku Poetry Writing on Thursday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m.. Join the Haikuists and Russian River Books and Letters for an evening of haiku poetry writing on vintage typewriters. Wine and light snacks will be served! 14045 Armstrong Woods Road, Guerneville.

Unruly Book Talk
On Wednesday, November 10, 6:00 p.m. Readers’ Books in Sonoma presents the 2025 Annual Unruly Book Talk. This sounds a little like speed-dating with books: Readers’ Books buyers, Jude and Rosie, highlight their personal, curated recommendations for 2025. This rapid-fire talk aims to showcase 60 books within an hour, making it perfect for book clubs or those seeking gift ideas for the holiday season.

Not Just Pretty
Saturday, November 8, 12:00 p.m. The second in the 3-part Zoom series #NotJustPretty. The project, hosted by Karen Pierce Gonzalez and sponsored by Broken Spine Arts (UK),  is a gathering of women poets, filmmakers, and artists around the world who are breaking down stereotypes about what a woman can be. Special guests for the launch: poets Phynne-Belle and Debby Segan, and Artist Sylvia Van Nooten. There will also be an open mic (the list is now filled but do stop by to listen). Join the zoom at: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85794270640 (Meeting ID: 857 9427 0640  Passcode: 987381). More details: karenpiercegonzalez.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_19.html

Book Launch for Giacometti’s Last Ride, by Bart Schneider
My friend and publisher Bart Schneider has a new book hot off the presses: Giacommeti’s last Ride. For this project, a fictional look at Giacometti’s life and work, Schneider has tapped the talents of Sonoma artists Chester Arnold.

The artist Giacometti, born in Switzerland, worked in Paris, and this is where Bart’s novel is set. Bart brings to life this artist’s world with its rich assortment of complicated characters, and creates what Jonah Raskin calls the balancing bookend to Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In “A Country for Old Men,” Raskin’s review of Bart’s book, he says,” The novel that Schneider and Arnold have assembled with words and images explores a country of old men, white and European, that provides a model for growing old with dignity.”

Bart Schneider grew up in San Francisco and lives in Sonoma. He spent twenty-five years living and working in Minnesota, where he was the founding editor of Hungry Mind Review and Speakeasy Magazine. He is the author of two poetry collections, Morning Opera and Water for a Stranger, and five novels, Giacometti’s Last Ride, Nameless Dame, Man in the Blizzard, Beautiful Inez, Secret Love, and Blue Bossa.

Bart Schneider will read from his new novel Giacometti’s Last Ride (with gorgeous art by Chester Arnold), along with Chester Arnold.

Wednesday, November 12, 6:00 p.m. at Readers’ Books, 120 E. Napa Street, Sonoma.

Friday, November 21, 7:00 p.m., with Dan Coshnear. At Russian River Books & Letters, 14045 Armstrong Woods Road, Guerneville.

More information on the book: kellyscovepress.com/product/giacomettis-last-ride

Staying Alive with David Beckman
Many Rivers Books & Tea, 130 Main Street, Sebastopol, will host David Beckman, Sonoma County poet and playwright,  on Thursday, November 20, 7:00 p.m. for the launch party and reading of his new book, YOU SAY, I SAY — Staying Alive With Literature, Language and Friendship (Rivertowns Books, Irvington, New York, 2025). Co-written with Robert Waxler, the book explores their love of poetry and literature, and how it played a key role in their lives. Waxler, who lives in Massachusetts, will appear by zoom. Signed books will be available. More details about the book on our In Print page.

_____

Poem for November

autumn
by Jackie Huss Hallerberg

days turn down
like a well-worn comforter
inviting you in

chosen fruits,
sweet juices pressed
ferment into wine
while unpicked spoils
plunge cold and hard
to the slumbering
ground

now is the time
for culling, deciding
in afternoon’s low light
what will rise from
dampness after
this long rest

laying out beds,
dreaming the wild
blossom, slipping
under the cover
of one more
season

Jackie Huss Hallerberg was a Sonoma County Poet-Teacher for several years and currently sits on the board of California Poets in the Schools. She holds degrees in science, business and elementary education.  She taught poetry in an experiential manner in public and private schools, Valley of the Moon Children’s Home and summer arts camps. Jackie’s poetry has been featured in anthologies of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Marin Poetry Center, The California Quarterly, local firestorm publications, California Poets in the Schools, and others. She published a cd, Poems of Motherhood.

_____

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
Starting in January of 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer each month at the end of the Literary Update Post. Here’s how to participate.

The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ve adjusted the subject line, so you won’t feel limited to sending lineated verse. In fact, prose poems, flash fiction, creative nonfiction are all welcome, as long as the piece you send is no more than a page in length.

Send your submission to me at tehret99@comcast.net, with “SCLU Poem/Prose of the Month” in the subject heading.

Send me just one submission, no more than a page (or less). Be patient, as I sometimes have a backlog of poems I’ve selected to publish.

These can be previously published, provided you identify the publishing source. If the piece is not your own, provide the author’s name and source. The author should be a Sonoma County voice, and if contemporary, please ask the author’s permission to submit.

Deadline: You can send the submission any time during the month, but I’ll need to receive your submission a few days before the month’s end to give me time to read, make my choice, and contact the author of the piece selected.
____

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

Dear Literary Folk,

Fall has arrived with a heat wave followed by blessed rain. Fingers crossed, so far the fire season has not brought the kind of devastating fires we’ve experienced in the past, but even the smell of smoke this time of year, however innocent the source, can set our nerves on edge.

A good antidote to this kind of anxiety and its myriad sources is to gather with your fellow readers and writers for a live literary event. This month there are many to choose from.

Petaluma Library Re-Opening
Among the events worth celebrating is the recent re-opening of the Petaluma Regional Library on August 25. Following an extensive modernization that blends fresh, functional upgrades with the building’s classic charm, the renovated library will be open seven days a week and invites visitors to explore vibrant new spaces for children and teens, private study pods and updated amenities designed to make the library more welcoming and accessible.

Our Sonoma County Poet Laureate Dave Seter composed a poem for the occasion, which he has posted on the Poet Laureate News page for September 1. Check it out! socolitupdate.com/poet-laureates-news/laureate-archive-2024-2026

No Kings Protest on October 18
I was set to cap the upcoming No Kings day of protests and demonstrations with a Cat Stevens/Yusuf concert at the Masonic in San Francisco. If you came of musical age in the 60s and 70s, songs like “Katmandu,” “Peace Train,” “Father and Son,” “Wild World,” and “Moonshadow” were among the anthems of a generation. Then the news yesterday that the North American book and concert tour has been cancelled because Stevens, who is a British citizen and a Muslim, wasn’t able to secure a visa, though he started the process months ago and paid the hefty visa fee now required.

In so many ways, day in and day out, the lights in the house of our civil rights and civil democracy are going out. I hope many of you will come out to march against the current White House regime on Saturday, October 18. Indivisible Sonoma County will hold two marches and a big volunteer event. Take a long walk from the Junior College (the walk starts at 9 am from the campus on Mendocino). Take a shorter walk from Juilliard Park (the walk starts at 10 am. Both walks will meet on Sonoma Ave. and walk in to Doyle Park. If you don’t want to walk far, watch and cheer along the route and then join us at the park at 11 am.

There will be other marches and protests throughout the North Bay, including Sonoma, Petaluma, and Sebastopol. To find one in your community, check out this website: nokingsmovement.com/pages/no-kings-day-protest.

North Bay Print and Poetry Festival in Graton on October 4
Celebrate the 10th anniversary of North Bay Letterpress Arts at the North Bay Print and Poetry Festival Saturday, October 4, 2025, 10 am—6 pm at the Graton Town Square. Hosted by North Bay Letterpress Arts and ReVillage, this free, one-day event celebrates the power of the printed and spoken word. Featuring local vendors, food trucks, live poetry, music, and the signature Steamroller Print Event, the festival brings together printmakers, poets, and publishers for a vibrant day of community and creativity.

Event Schedule:
10:00 am – Gates Open
Vendors, artists, and printmaking in action all day

11:00 am–12:30 pm – Poetry Readings
Sonoma County Poet Laureate Dave Seter will launch the day, followed by readings by Iris Jamahl Dunkle, judi goldberg, Jodi Hottel, Diane Martin, Terry Ehret, Amanda Moore & Mira Rosenthal

1:00–2:30 pm – Live Music by Sakoyana

2:30–4:00 pm – Poetry Readings
Readings from VOLT Literary Magazine – Alex Mattraw, Erik Soto, Noah Ross, Stefan Kiesbye, Stefan Kiesbye, Domenic Stansberry, Gillian Conoley & erica lewis

4:00 pm – Print Features, Raffle, & MadLibs Poetry

4:30–6:00 pm – Live Music by Spike Sikes and His Awesome Hotcakes

Road Roller Printing and community art activities all day alongside the main stage program. Watch limited edition prints come to life under the paver, make your own posters and zines, print an exquisite corpse, and enter the MadLibs poetry contest!

Eight Stories in Eight Weeks with Ted Gross
Ted Gross is offering an Eight Stories in Eight Weeks group session beginning Sunday, October 5. He is in Sebastopol but the session is online — there is no charge. The idea is each week all the authors write a story based on the same one-sentence prompt, and we post them on a website. Bottom line, the authors end up with 8 short stories in 8 weeks. Suggested length is between 500 and 3500 words. There is no critique or discussion, just the stories. The first 8-week session just finished, and everyone had fun. Hopefully other Sonoma County storytellers might be interested in joining for the new session beginning Sunday. Here is a link to the website for more information or questions: storyauthors.com

Rivertown Poets Featured Readers Shawna Swetech and Nancy Dougherty
Monday, October 6, 6:00 p.m. Rivertown Poets live at the Aqus Cafe (189 H Street in Petaluma). Our features will be our own Rivertown co-host Shawna Swetech and Nancy Dougherty. Sign up for open mic at the cafe. One poem per reader. Please note new earlier start time.

Rattle Magazine’s Chapbook Contest and Upcoming Themed Issues
I will admit to having Rattle-acceptance envy. I have submitted my work to this terrific literary journal in the past, but haven’t been published there yet. But many of my friends have, and some are frequent contributors, which gives me hope. The latest call for submissions felt very welcoming and friendly, so I thought I’d pass these along to the literary community. First deadline is October 15; others are January 15. Check out the Rattle website for details: rattle.com/page/submissions or the Submittable page: rattle.submittable.com/submit. Good luck!

Tribute to Rebels
Deadline: October 15, 2025
Our Spring 2026 issue will be dedicated to literary rebels—those poets who run counter to the literary mainstream. What that means is up to you. We want to hear from poets who publish in non-traditional ways, who hold unusual beliefs, who write what isn’t popular, or feel that they don’t fit in. If you’ve been shunned or canceled by the establishment, this is a chance to tell your story. The poems may be any length or subject, but should be rebellious in some way. We no longer publish essays, but always include a contributor notes section, where we ask in this case why you consider yourself a rebel.

Submit up to four previously uncurated poems (or four pages of very short poems) at the same time, either in a single file or up to four files. Do not include your name or contact info within the file(s) content.

2026 Rattle Chapbook Prize
Deadline: January 15, 2026
The Rattle Chapbook Prize is back and as amazing as ever. Three winners receive $5,000 and 500 author copies—and one of those winners must be a poet who has never published a full-length book. As always, each chapbook will receive full distribution to all of our 10,000+ subscribers, too. It’s a contest to launch a career, and we get to publish a series of incredible books in the process

Tribute to Invented Forms
Deadline: January 15, 2026
The Summer 2026 issue will feature a Tribute to Invented Forms. We’re celebrating poetic forms that poets have created themselves—structures born of intuition, constraint, play, or rebellion. These might follow strict new rules or defy convention entirely. Whether you’re building a form around repetition, rhythm, shape, or sound, we want to see how you’re pushing poetry forward. Send us poems of any style or length—as long as the form is your own invention.

Kim Addonizio and D.A. Powell Guest Poets at 16 Rivers Annual Fundraiser
The Fall Fundraiser for Sixteen Rivers Press is coming up. It’s a lot of fun with great poetry, wonderful food, engaging conversations, and an opportunity to support Sixteen Rivers, now in its 26th year. The event will feature readings by Kim Addonizio and D. A. Powell, plus a silent auction. Admission is free, and donations are welcomed. Sunday, Oct. 19, 2:00 – 5:00 pm at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, Berkeley, CA. To let us know you’re coming, and/or make a donation, go to eventbrite.com/e/sixteen-rivers-fall-fundraiser-and-26th-anniversary-celebration-registration-1612693853729

Writers’ Salon at Sebastopol Center for the Arts
Thursday, October 23, 3:00-5:30 p.m. Writers’ Salon: A monthly in-person gathering for literary enthusiasts at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S. High St., Sebastopol. Facilitator: Linda Loveland-Reid. Each person will have 5 minutes to read their work (any type of writing is welcome including prose, poetry, essay, etc.). Enjoy sharing feedback and insight. Light refreshment served. $15 per person/ Max 10 attendees. RSVP required, No drop-ins. Details and registration: sebarts.org/classes-lectures/writers-salon-oct-2025

Poetry of Remembrance Community Event
Saturday, October 25, 2025, 6:00 to 8:00 PM
Petaluma Historical Library & Museum
20 4th Street, Petaluma

Please join us for an evening of poetry, lecture and song honoring our departed loved ones.

In the first hour our host, Sonoma County Poet Laureate Dave Seter, will introduce featured speakers who will present poetry and songs and tell us about the history and meaning of Día de los Muertos.

In the second hour, the podium is turned over to participants from the community who are invited to share a brief poem or statement about a loved one in Spanish, English or other language. (Please limit your presentation to 2-3 minutes so that everyone has a chance to speak.)

Admission is free. Traditional refreshments will be served.

This event is part of the Día de los Muertos Petaluma celebration, featuring community altars, sugar skull workshops, music, dance, and a procession with giant puppets.

Philippa Gregory at Sonoma County Library
Wednesday, October 29, 11:00 a.m. Sonoma County Library’s free live-streamed author talk with Philippa Gregory, the queen of British historical fiction. Gregory returns to the infamous Tudor Court with her latest novel Boleyn Traitor (forthcoming October 14, 2025). Details and registration link at: libraryc.org/sonomalibrary/96070

____

Poem for October

Last Watch
by J. L. Berry

I watch myself walk out into an open meadow of tall grass and lie down
              no longer seen
              black soil exhumes my breath
              smooth-sigh

A horse rushes above me, flinging itself forward
              grunting with each leap
              lathered mouth watering the ground
              hoof prints embossed for legacy-legends

Canada geese fly low
             Wings scythe the air
             the clacking of fans snapping shut
             synchrony and off-beat staccato cries

Deer appear and disappear, turning to look over their backs
             “Are you coming? Are you coming?”
              Ever watchful with whirligig-seed ears
              Spirit luminous and single-minded

Heart beats and hoof beats, a receding choir
             Feathers fall-fail to shield my eyes

 

About the Author
Jessica Berry is a retired clinical psychologist who worked in the public sector (federal, state, county) for most of her career in the States and overseas. In addition to writing poetry and mostly short fiction, she has a background in the visual arts. Comfortable addressing serious subjects often gleaned from her professional life, she also enjoys producing satirical writings and graphic works that reflect her metropolitan New York area sensibility. She currently lives in Santa Rosa. 

Ici et Parti (Here and Gone), by Jessica Berry

_____

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
Starting in January of 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer each month at the end of the Literary Update Post. Here’s how to participate.

The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ve adjusted the subject line, so you won’t feel limited to sending lineated verse. In fact, prose poems, flash fiction, creative nonfiction are all welcome, as long as the piece you send is no more than a page in length.

Send your submission to me at tehret99@comcast.net, with “SCLU Poem/Prose of the Month” in the subject heading.

Send me just one submission, no more than a page (or less).

These can be previously published, provided you identify the publishing source. If the piece is not your own, provide the author’s name and source. The author should be a Sonoma County voice, and if contemporary, please ask the author’s permission to submit.

Deadline: You can send the submission any time during the month, but I’ll need to receive your submission a few days before the month’s end to give me time to read, make my choice, and contact the author of the piece selected.
____

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

August 1, 2025

Dear literary folk,

Remembering Jo Lauer
Last Saturday, we lost one of our literary community writers in a tragic car accident. It is a devastating loss to us all, and our hearts go out to her family and friends. Here is some information about Jo from her website (see link below).

Jo Lauer, transplanted from the Midwest, was a retired psychotherapist. About herself, Jo wrote, “I come from a long line of mostly technologically-impaired late-bloomers. That’s one reason I chose my first profession as a psychotherapist in my 40s (didn’t need a computer), and why I didn’t begin writing until my early 50s. I think there’s a lot to be said about waiting for age and experience to lend some direction—or perhaps that’s just what we late-bloomers say about ourselves.”

After a 38-year career as a psychotherapist, Jo became a published writer and an active member of the Redwood Writers branch of California Writers Club. She was also a songwriter, and more recently a screenplay writer. Her story, “Roots in My Garden” was adapted in 2022 as an independent film. She was a founding member of Lavender Roses Reader’s Theater, and she sang in the One Heart Choir, the musical ministry branch of the Center for Spiritual Living.

To learn more about Jo and her publications, visit her website: http://jolauer.com.

Poetry at the Fair
I love that, alongside 4-H livestock, prize-winning jams and jellies, and local wines and beers, the Sonoma County Fair also celebrates our local writers. On Saturday, August 9,1:00 p.m., you can hear poets read their original poems entered into the Sonoma County Fair competition. The reading will be held in the E.C. Craft Building at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. For more about this and other Poet Laureate News, check out Dave Seter’s page of the Literary Update: https://socolitupdate.com/poet-laureates-news/.

Brenda Hillman and Norma Cole at NBLA
On Saturday, August 9, 4:00-5:30 p.m. North Bay Letterpress Arts presents an Evening of Poetry with Brenda Hillman and Norma Cole. FREE and open to the public. Light refreshments and fantastic poetry served in equal measure. Handset letterpress broadsides of work by the poets will be printed for the occasion and available with a donation to NBLA (925D Gravenstein Hwy., Sebastopol.). Details: northbayletterpressarts.org/upcoming-events-1

Marin Poetry Center’s Traveling Show
Here’s the August line-up of the Marin Poetry Center’s annual Traveling Show:

August 2nd, 2-3 PM, Fairfax Library
Host: Francesca Bell
Readers: Albert Flynn DeSilver, Janet Jennings, Barbara Swift Brauer, Kate Peper, Ann Robinson, Cathy Shea

August 9th, 2-3 PM, Larkspur Library
Host: Simona Carini
Readers: Judy Crowe, Richard Flout, Marie Henry, Rafaella del Bourgo, Lynn Ireland, Janis Rader

August 16th, 2-3 PM, Stinson Beach Public Library
Host: Sandra Cross
Readers: Donna Emerson, Dotty LeMieux, Kathleen McClung, Sharon Sittloh, Karen Marker, Sandy White

August 23rd, 2-3 PM, Berkeley Public Library – South Branch
Host: David Booth
Readers: Susan Cohen, Jeanne Wagner, D L Lang, Gabrielle Rille, Laurel Feigenbaum, Angelika Quirk

August 24th, 3-4 PM, Mill Valley Public Library
Host: Jayne McPherson
Readers: Laurel Benjamin, Rebekah Wolman, Barry Peterson, Sian Killingsworth, Linda Michel-Cassidy, Tobey Hiller

Sixteen Rivers Presents a Reading and Conversation with 2025 Authors


Please join us for a reading and conversation with poets Patrick Cahill and Moira Magneson, and translators Nancy J. Morales and Terry Ehret, presenting poems in Spanish and English by Ulalume González de León. The free event is on Saturday, August 23, 2025, 3-5 PM, hosted by Sixteen Rivers and Northbrae Community Church. Location: 941 The Alameda, Berkeley, CA 94707.

Petaluma Poetry Walk and Magazine Coming Soon!
(feature by Kary Hess)

The Petaluma Poetry Walk is less than two months away—and in other big news, (drum roll) this year, we have added an annual magazine!

What’s in it?
First of all, our cover art is by Ellen Kombiyil, co-winner with Julie Marie Wade of the Geri Digiorno Multi-Genre Prize. The prize is awarded every two years by Raleigh Review magazine out of Raleigh, North Carolina in honor of our event’s founder Geri Digiorno.

This collectible first edition of the magazine includes a poem from each of the 26 poets reading this year at The Petaluma Poetry Walk, along with poetry-related articles (and photos from last years event!) While we will still have our usual trifold walk guide at the event that tells who is reading where, there will also be a walk guide in the back of the magazine.

When and where can I get it?
The magazine will be available for sale as a fundraiser on our website before and after the event and at the Poetry Walk, where you’ll have the chance to have your favorite poets sign it! I’ll keep you posted as to when it’s available!

How else can I support?
Everything is going to print soon so if you’d like to join our poetry walk sponsors, let me know by August 1, so I can include your name in the walk guide and magazine. Any sponsors added after that will be included on the website only.

Looking forward and see you soon!

Kary

Poetry Walk website: https://petalumapoetrywalk.org/about-2/

Poetry Walk 2025 Schedule: https://petalumapoetrywalk.substack.com/p/the-2025-petaluma-poetry-walk-schedule

______

Poem for August
This month’s literary feature is a poem by LynneAnne Forest, which captures the feeling of mornings in coastal Sonoma and reminds me of the summers I taught writing workshops at Wellspring, a retreat center on the Navarro River. I’d wake each foggy morning to the cooing of mourning doves, and lie half-awake, thinking to myself “First, do no harm,” my Hypocratic oath as a teacher.” “[W]hat wants to be/ first grows in darkness,” the poet writes. May it be so for us all.

If you have a poem or short prose piece you’d like me to consider for a future Literary Update post, scroll down to the end of this post where you’ll find the submission guidelines. They’re very simple, and all are welcome.

Sonoma Weekend
by LynneAnne Forest

Valley hills bake a heated welcome,
soft cat echoes ecstatic purrs,
ears of kangaroo hare watch
while blue jays screech questionings.

Near rustling oak and maple,
newly watered, bright pink flowers,
lies reality, possibility;
they too welcome, watch, inquire.

Ember burned memories glow in fire,
winter chill gray of second day.
Silent space waits expectantly
for encountered knowing.

Furred meow leaps to glass
watching small bird becoming.
It chirps and flits from branch to branch
from past to now, to what may be.

Cat stretches now on hearth place rug,
content completion in all her moves.
I sit and rock and move unhurriedly
from past to now, to that in need of me.

Gray then moves from muted tones
to darkness of the night.
An owl is heard in search and hunt,
while fire’s coal goes cold.

What wills, what needs, what wants to be,
first grows in darkness, thrusts through pain
and then becomes, through choiceful acts
in times like these.

 

LynneAnne Forest is 83 years old and a retired psychotherapist. She has written poetry over the years but never pursued submitting them for publication. Just before the pandemic, she decided to honor what she wrote and began to take ZOOM workshops with Nicole Zimmerman, Ellen Bass and Danusha Lameris. Her first publication was her poem, “The Ark,” with Yellow Arrow Journal in their Fall 2020 issue.

______

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections for 2025
Starting in January of 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer each month at the end of the Literary Update Post. Here’s how to participate.

The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ve adjusted the subject line, so you won’t feel limited to sending lineated verse. In fact, prose poems, flash fiction, creative nonfiction are all welcome, as long as the piece you send is no more than a page in length.

Send your submission to me at tehret99@comcast.net, with “SCLU Poem/Prose of the Month” in the subject heading.

Send me just one submission, no more than a page (or less).

These can be previously published, provided you identify the publishing source. If the piece is not your own, provide the author’s name and source. The author should be a Sonoma County voice, and if contemporary, please ask the author’s permission to submit.

Deadline: You can send the submission any time during the month, but I’ll need to receive your submission a few days before the month’s end to give me time to read, make my choice, and contact the author of the piece selected.
____

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

Dear Literary Folk,

Lately lines from two poems have been much on my mind. The first, familiar to you all, is the opening of “The Second Coming,” by W.B. Yeats:

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. . . .”

The second set of lines comes from the closing of “Jet,” by Tony Hoagland:

“We gaze into the night
as if remembering the bright unbroken planet
we once came from,
to which we will never
be permitted to return.
We are amazed how hurt we are.
We would give anything for what we have.”

These quotes in particular capture the angst and anger and despair of what daily we are losing to a sordid power that aims to rob us of decency, humanity, and hope. It makes me want to devote this Literary Update post to celebrating the creativity that brings us together and the hope and gratitude it can engender.

On a personal note, I have something grand to celebrate. I have just recently returned from two months in Colorado. If you followed my May post, you know that I flew there in April to help out with the arrival of new granddaughter Rosalie, born on May 6, 2025. She was born with a heart defect, one that’s not uncommon for babies with trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome), and with that come some health challenges that have kept her in the neonatal ICU. A few of you have written to Jo-Anne and me wondering about the baby, so here she is. Though she is slowly making progress, there’s a good chance she’ll remain in NICU until she’s strong enough to undergo the surgery needed to correct the defect. Sending a huge thank you to all you NICU nurses, doctors, and staff who care for the most fragile of babies with an astonishing empathy and expertise. We are in your debt!

_____

Literary Birthdays and Anniversaries

Rivertown Poets and Aqus Café have been an integral meeting place for the creative community of Petaluma and Sonoma County. On Monday, June 2, 6:15 pm. Rivertown Poets celebrates its 12th anniversary. There will be three featured readers—Christina Lloyd, Murray Silverstein, and Alice Templeton—presenting from their 2024 publications from Sixteen Rivers Press. The featured readings will be followed by open mic. Sign up early to get a 3-minute slot. Sande Anfang will be back in town for this reading! Location: Aqus Café, 189 H Street, Petaluma. Questions? Contact: rivertownpoet@gmail.com

On Saturday, June 7, 2:00 pm, the Sitting Room Library celebrates its 44^th birthday with its annual garden party featuring lively conversation and local authors.

For over 25 years, the Sitting Room has been my home for writing, reading, and leading poetry and prose poem workshops on a wide range of authors and themes. Here I came to know so many talented writers, and even found a haven for translating the enigmatic poems of Ulalume González de León.

If you haven’t yet discovered this Sonoma County jewel, here are just some of what the Sitting Room has to offer:

• Books aplenty by and about women, LITERATURE, ART, POETRY, ESSAYS, WORLD LIT and oh heck, lots else.
• The underutilized treasure of the ARCHIVES, with files that vary from the slender to the overflowing on women writers from A to Z,
• An oddly fascinating — and beautifully organized — collection of OBITS of women, local and farnwide as well as from the Overlooked series in the NYTimes
• Ever changing exhibits which vividly spotlight strong points of the SR collections
• Space just to do your own too long postponed work + of course, coffee/tea/and wifi

Come join us in the Sitting Room garden on June 7! Copies of the Sitting Room’s latest anthology, WORK, will be available along with past issues, samplers, free books, and all sorts of lovely “merch.” Questions? Call 707 795-9028. At 2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove. Or visit the website: sittingroomlibrary.org

_____

June Readings and Workshops

On Monday, June 16 at 6 pm, Napa Bookmine hosts a reading by Sixteen Rivers’ 2025 authors, Moira Magneson, author of In the Eye of the Elephant, and Patrick Cahill, author of If We Are the Forest the Animals Dream. Moira and Patrick will be joined by translators Nancy J. Morales and Terry Ehret, reading from the third and final volume of Plagios/Plagiarisms, by Mexican poet Ulalume González de Leόn.

Many thanks to Kary Hess, whose feature article in the May 28th edition of the North Bay Bohemian tells the story of this translation project as it has evolved, culminating in Plagios Volume Three. https://bohemian.com/a-trilogy-in-verse-plagios-volume-iii-released-by-local-translators/

Besides being a free-lance journalist, Kary is also a poet, visual artist, and the current acting director of the Petaluma Poetry Walk. Scroll down to the end of the post to read a poem from Hess’s recent collection of poems, 1912.

Café Frida Poetry Festival on Sunday, June 29, 1:00–3:00 pm, hosted by Gwynn O’Gara, will feature Jack Crimmins, Lisa Shulman, Dave Holt, Melissa Eleftherion, John Duran, Briahn Kelly-Brennan, Audrey Meshulam reading from Phyllis Meshulam’s new book, and Timothy Williams.

This will also be an occasion to celebrate the launch of Sonoma County Poet Laureate Emerita Phyllis Meshulam’s book Re-Creations. Many of you know that Phyllis is living with a degenerative neurological disease, so her poems will be read by her daughter Audrey Meshulam.

Café Frida is located at 300 South A Street, Santa Rosa.

Looking to generate new work this month? Check the calendar of events and the workshop page for a full list of what’s coming up this month. Here are a few of the many opportunities.

On Tuesday, June 17, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 pm writing prompt coach Christina Evans leads the first of two generative writing groups. See Workshops page for details.

On six Wednesdays beginning June 25, 1:00-3:00 pm, Clara Rosemarda leads a series of online creative writing and meditation workshops called TRANSITIONS: Finding Your New Narrative for Healing. Details on Workshops page. Contact Clara Rosemarda: 707-567-7117 or rosen@sonic.net.

And on Sunday, June 29, 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Occidental Center for the Arts hosts author and writing guide Susan Hagen for an all-day workshop: Write Your Life Stories: A Women’s Writing Circle. Beginning, experienced, and exploring writers are all welcome. For details, see Workshops.

_____

Two Poems for June

Though technically summer doesn’t start till June 21, our hills have put on their summer gold, and the clock’s leap and earth’s tilt offer us generous evenings of lengthening light. This month I’ve picked two poems that embrace summer in similar ways. The first poem, by Kary Hess, celebrates a familiar haunt for Petaluma folk, as well as the moments from our youth that are transformational without our quite knowing it. It reminded me of “Jet,” by Tony Hoagland, which I quoted at the opening of this post. I’ve included Hoagland’s poem, too.

If you have a poem or short prose piece you’d like me to consider for a future Literary Update post, scroll down to the end of this post where you’ll find the submission guidelines. They’re very simple, and all are welcome.

_____

The Apple Box Café, Petaluma
by Kary Hess

We carry our coffee outside
to sit at a table, speaking French
when a train goes by.

The sound drowns out our speech for a minute
as the grinding metal cars glide over the trestle
built along the waterfront in 1922.

It used to be grain
and eggs here,
transported out of town
to San Francisco
before the Golden Gate.

Now this trestle hosts cups of pour-over coffee
(before anyone did pour-over coffee).

I am always shocked that I can sit
inches away from an active train
and drink a latte.

But it’s the 1990s
and we are all in our twenties
and we don’t even realize how happy we are.

from: 1912: Poems of Time, Place & Memory by Kary Hess. Published by FMRL 2022

Kary Hess, MFA, is a writer, editor, artist, and literary event producer, shaping stories for media, leading women’s writing workshops, and creating her own work, which explores themes of “place” and how it contours our experience. Currently, she’s the editor of Made Local Magazine, and a regular contributor to alternative newsweeklies The North Bay Bohemian, The Marin Pacific Sun, and North Bay Magazine. Her book 1912: Poems of Time, Place and Memory was published by FMRL Press in April 2022 and she currently produces the Petaluma Poetry Walk, an annual all-day poetry festival in downtown Petaluma, CA. As an artist, she’s produced and designed two feature films, created the SparkTarot® Deck + Guidebook, and collaborated on multiple conceptual art installations in the Bay Area.

_____

Jet
by Tony Hoagland

Sometimes I wish I were still out
on the back porch, drinking jet fuel
with the boys, getting louder and louder
as the empty cans drop out of our paws
like booster rockets falling back to Earth

and we soar up into the summer stars.
Summer. The big sky river rushes overhead,
bearing asteroids and mist, blind fish
and old space suits with skeletons inside.
On Earth, men celebrate their hairiness,

and it is good, a way of letting life
out of the box, uncapping the bottle
to let the effervescence gush
through the narrow, usually constricted neck.

And now the crickets plug in their appliances
in unison, and then the fireflies flash
dots and dashes in the grass, like punctuation
for the labyrinthine, untrue tales of sex
someone is telling in the dark, though

no one really hears. We gaze into the night
as if remembering the bright unbroken planet
we once came from,
to which we will never
be permitted to return.
We are amazed how hurt we are.
We would give anything for what we have.

from Donkey Gospel, published by Graywolf Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1998.
© Copyright by Tony Hoagland.

_____

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections for 2025

Starting in January of 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer each month at the end of the Literary Update Post. Here’s how to participate.

The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ve adjusted the subject line, so you won’t feel limited to sending lineated verse. In fact, prose poems, flash fiction, creative nonfiction are all welcome, as long as the piece you send is no more than a page in length.

Send your submission to me at tehret99@comcast.net, with “SCLU Poem/Prose of the Month” in the subject heading.

Send me just one submission, no more than a page (or less).

These can be previously published, provided you identify the publishing source. If the piece is not your own, provide the author’s name and source. The author should be a Sonoma County voice, and if contemporary, please ask the author’s permission to submit.

Deadline: You can send the submission any time during the month, but I’ll need to receive your submission a few days before the month’s end to give me time to read, make my choice, and contact the author of the piece selected.

____

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

May 1, 2025

Dear Literary Folk,

I’m writing this post from the public library in Golden, Colorado. I’m here because my oldest daughter is poised to give birth to a baby girl, Rosalie, and circumstances make this particular event a challenging one. So, I’m here to keep grandson Connor company and to be on hand at home and at the hospital when the baby’s date arrives. She’s due on May 6.

Among my grandmother superpowers is a willingness to lose at any card game I play with my grandson. These days that’s Uno, Quiddler, and a brain-puzzler called Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza.

There’s also my knowledge of spelling and phonics (a remnant of my Catholic grammar school education), which helps me come up with odd rhymes like “When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking,” or “I before E, except after C, or when sounded like A, as in neighbor and weigh.” Though he’s only in kindergarten, grandson Connor likes tapping into a reading and language arts program called Lexia.

Because I’m often out running errands, like dropping letters off at the post office or picking up groceries, and because I’m not in a hurry the way I often am at home in Petaluma, I’ve enjoyed striking up conversations with clerks, fellow shoppers in line, and walkers at the park. I have gotten to know the owners of the nearby BrynMor Coffee Shop, which means “beautiful mountain.” The two women, Lacey and Amy, met mountain climbing, and Lacey’s family is from Anglesey in Wales, While I waited for my chai latte with oat milk, I shared my story of the rainy afternoon back in 2013 at Bryn Celli Ddu in the countryside of Anglesey with a lovely flock of black-faced sheep, and the group of writers who were there studying DylanThomas, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Welsh myths. When the rains started pouring down, the writers took shelter in the burial tombs that occupied the field, and which the sheep enjoyed standing atop. The rain didn’t bother them a bit.

Authors in Grocery Stores Program

Yesterday morning, I made the acquaintance of a local writer, Rina Brown, who was selling and signing her fantasy novels in the King Sooper Grocery in Lakewood. When I asked her how she came to be selling her books in a grocery store, she told me about a little-known program called Authors in Grocery Stores, set up by Ray Depew in Texas. The program is in 25 states across the county, wherever there is a Kroger grocery interested in participating. There are so few writers who know about this program, Rina told me, that she pretty much has the entire Metro Denver area to herself. She said her books sell pretty well, and that she’s in a different King Sooper store each day.

Rina and I spent a pleasant half-hour talking about writing, publishing, our mutual love of fantasy, Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea Trilogy, and whether grocery stores might be a good place for poetry book sales. As it turns out, “Rina Brown” is half of a mother-daughter team, Rina and Sharon Brown, who collaborate on the editing and promotion of the books and merchandise. When I got back to my daughter’s house, I looked up the website and discovered that Authors in Grocery Stores is in California, so I decided to sign up and see what happens.

The website says, “Make connections! A community begins with that first hello.” Though I’ve always felt embraced by community in the literary family of Sonoma County, I remember running into students I had worked with in the Poets in the Schools program when I was in the grocery store, and meeting their parents there, striking up conversations about metaphor vs. simile (a distinction I’ve never found particularly meaningful) and haiku over the bins of tomatoes and bell peppers. It seemed the right way to make poetry less lofty, less intimidating.

In his book On Tyranny, which I recommended in my March post, Timothy Snyder encourages us to “make eye contact and small talk.” Such small beginnings help us to make new acquaintances, form spontaneous communities, know who our neighbors are. Thus, we can resist the isolation that tyranny uses to silence and disempower us.

Sixteen Rivers Sonoma Book Launch at Readers’ Books

Those of you who may have missed the book launches in April for the 2025 Sixteen Rivers books will have another opportunity on Wednesday, May 28, 6:00-7:00 p.m. Readers will be Moira Magneson, Patrick Cahill, Terry Ehret, and Nancy J. Morales. Our host will be Readers’ Books, right off the main town square, 130 East Napa Street, Sonoma. Details: readersbooks.com/event/sixteen-rivers-press-poets-back-again-readers-book

More May Events

Be sure to check the calendar page of the Update for all the amazing May events coming up!

Dave Seter presents the final episode of the Spring “Poetry Challenge” workshops on Sunday, May 4, 1:00-3:00 p.m. The workshop is called Interweaving Found Text and is hosted by Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Sliding scale: $20-25. Details for that workshop may be found at: sebarts.org/classeslectures/p/poetry-challenge-interweaving-found-text

Occidental Center for the Arts presents 7MinMAX Storytelling Evening, on Friday, May 9, 7:00-8:30 p.m. This will be an evening of 7 live stories told in 7 minutes or less. Hilarious or sublime, poignant and personal tales told through the ancient oral tradition of storytelling. Interested storytellers will have a chance to throw their name in the hat to present their story. For more info: occidentalcenterforthearts.org or 707-874-9392.

Saturday, May 10, 7:00 p.m. Book Passage, in partnership with Institute for Leadership Studies (ILS), welcomes internationally acclaimed author Isabel Allende in celebration of her new novel My Name Is Emilia del Valle. In this spellbinding historical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea and The House of the Spirits, a young writer journeys to South America to uncover the truth about her father—and herself. Hosted by Dominican University of California at Angelico Hall. $40 Ticket includes book. Details and tickets: bookpassage.com/event/isabel-allende-my-name-emilia-del-vall

Saturday, May 17, 12:00-6:00 p.m. Lit Crawl Sebastopol, Sonoma County’s largest free literary event. The second annual literary pub crawl through downtown Sebastopol, brings together over 200+ authors and close to 1,000 fans during its six hours of literary mayhem. Save the date! Presenters, locations and schedule are on the Sebastopol Center for the Arts site: sebarts.org/litcrawl

Wednesday, May 21, 6:00-7:00 p.m. Rosa Lane, poet and architect, will read from her 4th poetry collection, Called Back (Tupelo Press, 2024) at Readers’ Books, 130 E. Napa St., Sonoma. Lane’s Called Back, the last two words Emily Dickinson wrote, brings light to the LGBTQ significance of Dickinson in queer conversation with one of America’s greatest poets. This event is free and open to the public.

________

Poem for May

This month’s poem is by Ginger Brinlee. It’s been my experience during the 35 years I have lived in Sonoma County that the literary community is remarkably supportive and welcoming. Ginger is relatively new to publishing her work, so we celebrate this accomplishment with her. I was drawn to the invitation to listen, something my time with my daughter and grandson and the new acquaintances I’ve made here has taught me.

And if you are interested in submitting a poem or piece of short prose (fiction or nonfiction), please scroll to the end of the post for submission guidelines.

LISTEN
by Ginger Brinlee

If you listen, I will write upon your heart
Mirth and merriment in rhyme,
Anguish, pain, lament in verse and prose.

If you listen, I will pour into your soul
Children laughing in the rain,
Puddles splashing, mud-drops flying,
Dewdrops, raindrops, tears, rainbows.

Listen as I strum my stories new,
Muse and music, two as one;
Poet, dancer, lover, artist, bard
All are yours if you will only hear.

If you listen, I will pass before your mind
Lovers hidden in the night,
Sweethearts torn apart, yet lovers still.
Listen, if you dare, draw near.

Listen, listen if you will.

Ginger Brinlee started reading at the age of three and has loved words from the cradle. She has an alert sense of humor and loves the feel of words as they are spoken. She has two daughters and four grandchildren to whom she has read stories from Celtic hand-me-downs to Mother Goose and Grimm; she has sung and read the “old” stories from her great grandmother and those she has created. She has lived in Forestville for 36 years, and she listens there for the sound of words on the wind.

________

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections for 2025

Starting in January of 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer each month at the end of the Literary Update Post. Here’s how to participate.

The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ve adjusted the subject line, so you won’t feel limited to sending lineated verse. In fact, prose poems, flash fiction, creative nonfiction are all welcome, as long as the piece you send is no more than a page in length.

Send your submission to me at tehret99@comcast.net, with “SCLU Poem/Prose of the Month” in the subject heading.

Send me just one submission, no more than a page (or less).

These can be previously published, provided you identify the publishing source. If the piece is not your own, provide the author’s name and source. The author should be a Sonoma County voice, and if contemporary, please ask the author’s permission to submit.

Deadline: You can send the submission any time during the month, but I’ll need to receive your submission a few days before the month’s end to give me time to read, make my choice, and contact the author of the piece selected.

____

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor