Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

It’s the feast of Todos Santos, All Saints Day, and El Día de los Muertos: a time for the mingling of souls, living and departed. The annual month-long celebration in Petaluma and other Sonoma County cities helps bridge the Spanish and English-speaking communities in recognition of our deepest shared human experiences of love and loss and rebirth. Thanks to all who have worked to build this shared community celebration!

Please check out the calendar page for the more than 30 literary events happening this month, including NaNo 2.0—a FREE, community-led endeavor that’s keeping the spirit of National Novel Writing Month alive. Whether you’re chasing your first-ever draft or returning for another wild month of literary abandon, NaNo 2.0 has the pep talks, resources, and camaraderie to get you across the finish line. More information and sign-up here: nano2.org

Final Days of the Running Fence Exhibit

I’m sure many of you remember Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Running Fence art installation in Sonoma and Marin Counties in September of 1976. I was 20, just starting my senior year in college, and learned about this from a professor who offered to drive a small group of students to see if we could find it. This was September 24, the last day the fence would be running across the autumn hills, so off we went.

A few days ago, I visited the Museum of Sonoma County’s exhibit celebrating the fence’s 50th anniversary. There I found photos and a captivating short film which bring this living, breathing work of art back to life, as well as providing background on what it took to realize the artists’ vision. I learned, for example, that Christo and Jeanne-Claude employed college students from all over the Bay Area to help install the 2,050 fence panels over the course of three scorching-hot days.

Whether you experienced the Running Fence or not, I recommend visiting this exhibit which will be up through November 8, Museum of Sonoma County, 425 Seventh St., Santa Rosa. And while you’re there, check out the museum’s beautiful Día de los Muertos exhibit of art and altares.

Three New Anthologies Launching Soon!

And Then. . .
AND THEN… is the title of the 2026 Redwood Writers Poetry Anthology. The Launch Party is today Sunday, November 1, 2:30-5:30 p.m. at Main Hall, Sebastopol Community Cultural Center, 390 Morris St, Sebastopol. Contact Les Bernstein at lessieb13@yahoo.com with any questions. If this announcement arrives too late for you to attend, check with Les about ordering a copy to savor at your own leisure.

In Good Company: Holiday Survival Stories
I’m delighted to announce the publication of In Good Company: Holiday Survival Stories, an anthology of 26 tales of the holiday season by 14 poets, storytellers, and memoirists, edited by Susan Bono, Jo-Anne Rosen, and Susan Starbird. Celebrate Christmas and the New Year with a witch and a Wise Man, a ghost, a diminutive snowman, and the Marines . . . as well as family and co-workers who show up lugging gifts and baggage. And Santa, of course. In the spirit of the holidays, all are welcome, all are warmly embraced. Available now in Kindle or in paperback editions. The launch party will be December 6 in the community room of Lieb Housing, 210 Douglas St, Petaluma. See the December calendar of events for details.

Turning Poetry into Food: A Collection of Poetry X Hunger Poems
As we lean in November towards our celebration of Thanksgiving, editor Hiram Larew sends us news about a new collection of poems in which 50 poets from around the world lift their voices to raise awareness and funds for food security.

Awakening empathy, inspiring hope, and demanding change, these poems are offered as new and powerful tools to wipe out starvation and eliminate chronic malnutrition. Included in the collection is a how-to guide for those individuals and communities inspired to take action.

Net proceeds from the sales of this book go directly to vetted frontline anti-hunger organizations including local food banks, groups providing emergency relief at home and abroad, and child nutrition programs. The anthology includes standout contributions from poet laureates, prize winners and debut writers alike.

To order a copy or learn more about the anthology, visit Poetry X Hunger — NatureCulture.

Santa Rosa Arts Center’s Speakeasy Series

The spoken word and singer/songwriter series, hosted by Brian Martens and Simmon Factors at the Santa Rosa Arts Center, brings together music and poetry.

I’m so pleased to announce that on Thursday, November 12 (also my birthday!), I will be joining Sonoma County musician Scott Ray Laws for an evening of stories in song and poetry. The event starts runs from 6–8 pm with two 20-25 minutes sets by the featured poet and musician, followed by open mic. So bring out your songs and poems and help celebrate our vibrant community of art! The event is free, though donations appreciated. Location: Santa Rosa Arts Center, 312 South A Street, Santa Rosa.

Poetry Lives! Workshop and Open Mic

Poetry Lives! is a monthly workshop and open mic hosted by the Sebastopol Center for the Arts (282 South High Street, Sebastopol). The next one is scheduled on November 24, 6:00-9:00 p.m. The hour-long workshop, facilitated by Jordan & Phee Ranft, is dedicated to learning craft elements, discovering new poets, and generating new work. It is not mandatory to participate in the workshop to be a part of the open mic or vice versa. This event is all ages. $5/10/15/20 sliding scale for workshop. For more details and to pre-register: sebarts.org/poetry-lives.

Prose Poem for November

This tender scene by Sonoma County Poet Laureate Emerita Gwynn O’Gara takes place on a limestone outcrop, a seemingly barren landscape, its central character tugged by loss, as are we all. Yet its details are so beautiful it almost breaks the heart, reminding us that the only antidote to loss is to “love as much as [we] can.”

If you’re interested in seeing your work—prose or poetry—featured in a future Literary Update, scroll down for submission guidelines.

____

Listening to the Onions
by Gwynn O’Gara

A man sits on a limestone outcrop beside the Blanco River, a handful of
wild onions held to his left ear. His moustache white, his heart weakens.
A long way from Palestine. He, his ex-wife, and their daughter have
walked the river valley. Black butterflies swarm purple flowers. The
women skinny-dip. He must sell his rugs and weavings. He must love as
much as he can. The river flourishes over the stone ledges, the deepest
pool a thick teal. He listens to the onions in the sun.

____

About the author: In college Gwynn O’Gara was lucky to study with Denise Levertov. Later she worked as a poet teacher with California Poets in the Schools for 26 years, and coached students for Poetry Out Loud from its inception. From 2010-2012, she served as Sonoma County Poet Laureate. Her poems have been published in The Comstock Review, Paddlefish and The Evansville Review, and her latest book is We Who Dream published by Finishing Line Press.

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections

In 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer 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, co-editor
Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear literary folk,

Who Is She?
No doubt many of you have read Wallace Stegner’s iconic novel of the American West, Angle of Repose. Somehow I managed to get to 2026 without reading this book, despite its author being the founder of the creative writing department at my alma mater. So last month, I ordered it as an audiobook and found myself absolutely riveted by the vivid descriptions of New Almaden, Santa Cruz, Kanosha Pass, Leadville, Idaho, and Grass Valley—places I, too, have traveled to. Yesterday, curious about the history behind the novel’s main characters, I looked them up. And what I discovered reminded me of the story of Sanora Babb and John Steinbeck in Iris Dunkle’s biography Riding Like the Wind. Stegner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel lifts heavily and generously from the letters and journals of writer, painter, and illustrator Mary Hallock Foote, after whom Stegner based his character Susan Burling Ward. Besides her many novels and stories set in the West, Foote wrote her own autobiography called A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West, published by Huntington Library, which archives Foote’s letters and journals and which is where Stegner did his research. The autobiography was published at the request of Foote’s descendants, who were unhappy with the liberties Stegner took with Foote’s legacy, while relishing the fame her fine writing brought to him.

This year, The Sitting Room’s 2026 annual anthology Who Is She? Remarkable Women You Want to Know. Iris, who edited the collection, has hinted that there might be a second volume next year, and if there is, I know whose story I’ll be telling. If you don’t have a copy of this year’s anthology may be purchased on the Sitting Room website for $20 + $5 shipping.

The 29th Petaluma Poetry Walk 2026
Congratulations to Kary Hess and her team of volunteers and presenters who created another hugely successful Petaluma Poetry Walk. The venues and the readers were varied, and the new locations meant it was easier to get from one venue to the next without getting in and out of a car. I was able to get to 6 of the 8 venues, and at each the audience was standing room only. Hats off to Kary and her husband Daedalus Howell for awesome social media and PR campaigns that really spread the good news about the Walk. The second edition of the Petaluma Poetry Walk Magazine was another welcome addition, featuring poems by all the readers, an interview with Claire Drucker, our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate, reviews of recently released poetry books by local authors, and more. If you’re interested in ordering a magazine a few copies are still available for $25. Use this link: https://petalumapoetrywalk.org/product/petaluma-poetry-walk-2026-anthology-magazine/.

Bob Hass and Brenda Hillman at Copperfields in Sebastopol
Friday, October 2, 7:00 p.m. Copperfield’s Books welcomes two of America’s most celebrated poets—Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass and acclaimed poet Brenda Hillman—for a rare evening of poetry, conversation, and reflection in Sebastopol. Hass and Hillman will discuss their remarkable new books, A Third Commonness and Still House in the Desert: An Eco-Contemplation, exploring the intersections of poetry, landscape, memory, ecology, and the ways language shapes our understanding of the natural world. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is recommended, as seating is limited. Details and RSVP: copperfieldsbooks.com/event/2026-10-02/robert-hass-brenda-hillman

Poesía del Recuerdo/ Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading
On Saturday, October 17 at 6-8 pm, the Petaluma Historical Library and Museum will host the annual Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading, part of the month-long celebration of El Día de los Muertos. Come enjoy an evening of poetry and song honoring our departed loved ones, hosted by Sonoma County Poet Laureate Claire Drucker. Everyone is invited to share a brief poem of remembrance (2-3 minutes) in English, Spanish, or another language. Location: 20 4th Street, Petaluma.

Katherine Hastings Reads from Her New Book
Thursday, October 15, 7:00-8:30 p.m. Sonoma County poet laureate emerita Katherine Hastings will read from Temple of Curiosities; a fundraiser for Many Rivers Books & Tea. Eight years ago, Katherine and her partner, Cathy Rayhill, relocated from Sonoma County to Cathy’s native home on an island in the Niagara River between Canada and Buffalo, just over 20 miles from where local poet (and Many Rivers co-manager) Karl Frederick spent much of his childhood. Karl will have the pleasure of welcoming and reading with Katherine, who will introduce her latest of five books, Temple of Curiosities, in an evening of shared and braided poems of places near and far, always close by. Many Rivers, 130 S. Main St., Sebastopol.

Celebration of Phyllis Meshulalm’s Life
Phyllis Meshulam’s family will be hosting a celebration of her life and work on Sunday, October 18, 3-5 pm at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Here are the details.

 Sixteen Rivers Press Annual Fall Fundraiser
We at Sixteen Rivers Press hope to see you on Sunday, October 25, 2-5 pm at our annual fall fundraiser, celebrating our 27 years of collective publishing. There will be delicious hors d’oeuvres, great conversation, a fun silent auction, and the extraordinary and inspiring poetry of Alison Luterman and Kazim Ali, both long-time friends of Sixteen Rivers.

Please join us! The fund raiser gets off the ground at 2 pm at Northbrae Community Center, 941 The Alameda, Berkeley.

The event is free but let us know if you’re coming. You can read more and register at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sixteen-rivers-fall-fundraiser-and-27th-anniversary-celebration-tickets-1998599846943?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

____

Prose Poem for October
We’re in the zodiac sign of Libra, the balance, the scales. How hard it can be to find the fulcrum, the tiny shift in weight that takes us from being wrong or finding fault to forgiveness/forgiven! Sonoma County writer and educator Nicole R. Zimmerman’s prose poem “How to Repair” previously appeared in the NYT Modern Love section of Tiny Love Stories (January 2024 and reprinted December 2025), which she thinks speaks to its timelessness in this ongoing “season” of world conflict.

____

How to Repair

My wife orders takeout with her iPhone, but it rejects her card. She snaps at me as I try to help. I collapse into silence, a protective shield. When we’re wounded, our tendency is to get small. Snippy. Mean spirited. In these moments I wonder how the world’s conflicts will ever be resolved when we two who have committed to loving one another would rather find fault than mend relatively minor transgressions. She asks for a hug, so I hold her. I make two cups of tea. Drape a blanket over shoulders. Small gestures, perhaps. But my heart feels giant.

____

Nicole R. Zimmerman was a 2020 recipient of the Discovered Awards for Emerging Literary Artists, a program produced by Creative Sonoma and funded, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts. She holds an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco and is an alumna of Lit Camp. Her writing, which has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best American Essays, appears in newspapers, anthologies, and literary journals including the Los Angeles Times, The Best Women’s Travel Writing, and Creative Nonfiction.

Nicole has worked as a freelance reporter for Petaluma Patch, as a Towns correspondent for The Press Democrat, and as a copywriter for Grove Collaborative, Hipcamp, and Viator, a Tripadvisor company. She is a certified AWA Affiliate, leading writing workshops using the Amherst Writers & Artists method. She is working on a memoir titled Just Some Things We Can’t Talk About, a manuscript she aims to publish with a small press. She is the owner of Pencil & Pen, which offers a mutually supportive writing community and mentoring support through creative writing workshops.

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
In 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer 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, co-editor
Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

Call for Your Short Prose or Poem for October’s Literary Update
In 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer at the end of the Literary Update Post. I’ve met a few writers this way that I had never heard or read before. And some of these writers were making their publishing debut here. I didn’t receive any submissions in August, (maybe you were off on your summer adventures, as was I), so I’m hoping to jumpstart the fall selections with this call.

Send me a poem, a prose poem, a piece of flash fiction, or creative nonfiction—all genres are welcome, as long as the piece you send is no more than a page in length. I like to include pieces that in some way evoke or respond to the season, but that’s not a requirement. And if you’re saving your unpublished work for a grander stage, consider sending something you’ve already published. Just let me know the book or journal where it was first printed.

You’ll find more submission guidelines are at the end of this post.

On Creating and Editing
In late August, the pink belladonna make their annual appearance, heralding the return to school. I’ve been retired from teaching for almost six years, and still the end of summer evokes new syllabi, new books, school supplies, learning students’ names, and reciting the poem I always started the semester with in my Dreams and Inward Journeys class: Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learned Astronomer.”

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

This poem was one of the ways I’d introduce the difference between right and left hemisphere modes of thinking, and their parallels to the creator vs. editor: both are essential to writing, but a writer has to lead with the right, not with the left. Don’t invite the editor into the room till you have some pages filled. This Dreams and Inward Journeys class was actually English 1A, AKA Freshman Composition, but I found that talking about dreams and poetry eased us all into the writing process more gently than standard approaches to rhetoric. I’d also use William Stafford’s “A Way of Writing, “ in which he advocates for two guiding principles: receptivity—being open to any thoughts, perceptions, or words that happen to come along, without judgment—and a disregard for failure.

“So, receptive, careless of failure, I spin out things on the page. And a wonderful freedom comes. If something occurs to me, it is all right to accept it. It has one justification: it occurs to me. No one else can guide me. I must follow my own weak, wandering, diffident impulses.”

This “spinning time” in my own writing life is my favorite. It takes enormous trust in the process, but once you step outside the conscious intentions of the left-brain, let go the reins of rational control, something else takes over. Sometimes it’s guided by sound and music; sometimes by the threads of dreams or memories; almost always associative, metaphoric logic is at work. In this stage of writing, I feel like a spider throwing a line of web-silk out into thin air, then, trusting that the end of that line will find an anchor, I set out crossing this line of words, keeping a precarious balance between the part of me that’s consciously setting words down on paper and the part of me that’s “dreaming awake,” a term Stephen King used to describe his writing process in the essay “The Symbolic Language of Dreams.”

During the 40+ years when I was teaching, I set aside time each summer for a writing retreat, time away from home and kids and gardening and housekeeping—and far away from syllabi or grades or essays. It was like breathing again after a long time under water. I needed that “spinning time.”

This summer I set aside time for that other necessary part of the writing life: editing. I’ve been putting together a manuscript of poems written since 2011 or so (which is the last time I published a book of my own poems). Many of you have been through this process, and some of you multiple times. It’s exciting to come up with a way to order the poems, discovering common themes between pieces of widely different styles or subject matter, but humbling to winnow the poems down to the ones that together make a book. So many favorites end up in the “not this time” pile. Then there’s the challenge of soliciting and bracing for feedback. What a blessing to have friends and colleagues who will tell you the hard truths! And what a gift it is when someone says,” This is great!”

Gertrude Stein, who surely baffled many a reader and editor, once wrote a very tender piece about what it feels like when someone says “yes” to what you’re doing—when someone can see that intricate web which you’ve been holding in your mind actually there, and caught just-so in the morning light. If you scroll down to the end of this post, you’ll find this quirky piece by Stein.

Who Is She?
This year, The Sitting Room debuted its 2026 annual anthology in a new, perfect-bound format, edited by the Sitting Room’s program director, Iris Jamahl Dunkle. The anthology’s theme is reflected in the title Who Is She? Remarkable Women You Want to Know. On Saturday, September 12, 1-3 pm, the Sitting Room hosts a virtual launch on Zoom with over 30 contributors reading. Sign up via Eventbrite to attend. Copies of the anthology may be purchased on the Sitting Room website for $20 + $5 shipping.

Petaluma Poetry Walk Sunday, September 20, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
On Sunday, September 20, we’ll once again be treated to a festival of poetry unlike any others: a free, day-long movable feast of live poetry readings that brings together poets and community members in the heart of downtown Petaluma.

Founded in 1996 by the late Geri Digiorno, a beloved poet and former Sonoma County Poet Laureate, the Poetry Walk continues her vision of making poetry accessible, vibrant, and rooted in community. The Walk’s current director, Kary Hess, took over last year from Bill Vartnaw, who guided the Walk for many years before and after Geri’s passing in 2019. Kary has also launched a Poetry Walk Magazine which features work by the 24 poets who will present their work at eight local venues. Come for one reading, two readings, or stay for them all—the public is warmly invited to experience the power of poetry in any way that fits.

Featured Poets and Venues

• Hotel Petaluma, 11:00 a.m.: Dane Cervine, Lenore Myers, Carolyn Miller
• Keller Street CoWork, 12 Noon: Elizabeth Foster, Nika Grajqevci, Juno Phipps
• The Phoenix Theater, 1:00 p.m.: Lorrie Chang, Mahrs Emerson Schoppman, mOody bLaCk
• Copperfield’s Books, 2:00 p.m.: Farnaz Fatemi, Ellen Kombiyil, Claire Drucker
• Petaluma Historical Library and Museum, 3:00 p.m.: Pat Nolan, Adrián Arias, Francesca Bell
• Usher Gallery, 4:00 p.m.: Donna Emerson, Jack Crimmins, Dr. Jeanne Powell
• Jess Brown Design, 5:00 p.m.: Maw Shein Win, Lourdes Figueroa, Luisa Giulianetti
• The Big Easy, 6:00 p.m.: Deyci Carrillo López, Wendy M. Thompson, Cintia Santana

Detailed schedule: petalumapoetrywalk.org/2026-schedule

The 2026 annual poetry magazine The Walk will be available at the event and includes poetry from all 24 poets. Cover art is by Ellen Kombiyil, co-winner of the Raleigh Review‘s 2025 Geri Digiorno Prize. Preorder here.

The Gates of Midnight
If you enjoyed Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni, and its sequel Hidden Palace, then don’t miss award-winning and bestselling author Helene Wecker when she comes to Petaluma in celebration of The Gates of Midnight, the long-awaited conclusion to her mythopoetic trilogy. Friday, September 18, 7:00 p.m. Copperfield’s Books presents an evening of conversation as Helene discusses the inspiration behind her acclaimed fantasy series, the art of building magical worlds rooted in history. More details and RSVP: copperfieldsbooks.com/event/2026-09-18/helene-wecker

Café Frida is now Café Little Deer
Café Little Deer Poetry Festival continues the series started by Ed Coletti, and now hosted by Gwynn O’Gara. This month’s featured poets and musicians are Meg Hamill, Jordan Ranft, Kelly Gray, Ed Coletti, Claire Drucker, Dan Coshnear and Renée Owen with Brian Foster on Japanese flute. Location: Café Little Deer, 300 South A. St., Santa Rosa.

Mark your Calendars for These October Events
Watch next month’s post of the Literary Update for details about these two upcoming events.

Saturday, October 17:
Poesia del Recuerdo/Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading, 6-8 PM at the Petaluma Historical Library and Museum, 20 4th Street, Petaluma. An evening of poetry and song honoring our departed loved ones, hosted by Sonoma County Poet Laureate Claire Drucker. Everyone is invited to share a brief poem of remembrance (2-3 minutes) in English, Spanish, or another language.

Sunday, October 18:
Celebration of Life for Phyllis Meshalum, 3-5 PM at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts.

Sunday, October 25:
Sixteen Rivers Fall Fundraiser and 27th Anniversary Celebration: 2-5 PM at Northbrae Community Center in Berkeley with featured readers Alison Luterman and Kazim Ali. The event is free, but let us know if you’re coming. You can read more and register at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sixteen-rivers-fall-fundraiser-and-27th-anniversary-celebration-tickets-1998599846943?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

_____

Prose Poem for September

by Gertrude Stein

It is a very strange feeling when one is loving a clock that is to every one of your class of living an ugly and a foolish one and one really likes such a thing and likes it very much and liking it is a serious thing, or one likes a colored handkerchief that is very gay and every one of your kind of living thinks it a very ugly or a foolish thing and thinks you like it because it is a funny thing to like it and you like it with a serious feeling, or you like eating something that is a dirty thing and no one can really like that thing or you write a book and while you write it you are ashamed for every one must think you a silly or a crazy one and yet you write it and you are ashamed, you know you will be laughed at or pitied by every one and you have a queer feeling and you are not very certain and you go on writing. Then someone says yes to it, to something you are liking, or doing or making and then never again can you have completely such a feeling of being afraid and ashamed that you had then when you were writing or liking the thing and not any one had said yes about the thing.

_____

Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania and raised in Oakland, Gertrude Stein was an influential American writer, poet, and art collector, known for her avant-garde literary style and her role in the Parisian art scene during the early 20th century. She became a prominent figure in modernist literature and hosted a famous salon that attracted many leading artists and writers of her time.

 

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
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, co-editor
Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

I am writing this post from the Paradise Inn at Mount Rainier in Washington, in the last days of a three-week road trip through the Pacific Northwest. Up on the mountain, we’ve had glorious weather, which has made it possible to see three great peaks to the south: Mount Adams, Mount Hood, and Mount Saint Helens. Outside my window in the Paradise Inn, swallows swoop and dart, and at nightfall, a full moon lights the sky and the snow-clad slopes. It’s been thirty years since last I visited Rainier, and it continues to be a source of wonder and awe. Over these past weeks, we’ve been to Crater Lake, Bend, Salem, Gig Harbor, Seattle, the Olympic Peninsula, and now Rainier. We’ll spend a few days in Ashland before heading home to Sonoma County.

Christopher Nolan’s Film Adaptation of The Odyssey
While we’ve been on the road, the release of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey has sparked many conversations and prompted some very thoughtful reviews. I’ve been enjoying the ones posted on Facebook, though I haven’t yet seen the film myself. Among the reviews I read were those by Emily Wilson (who has translated both the Iliad and Odyssey), Brenda Hillman, Barbara Ungar, and Michael Joseph Arcangelini. What I’m enjoying is the revival of Homer as a subject of conversation. It’s fun to hear writers sharing their first exposure to Homer—usually in high school—and how the mythic stories have held up through the years. I was even more surprised to overhear several conversations among hikers on the Paradise trails who were engaged in debates with their fellow hikers about the role of women in the Odyssey and the way women bear the blame for the wrong that men do, the absence of gods and goddesses, and the pros and cons of Matt Damon’s version of Odysseus. When I arrived at my friend’s farm on the Olympic Peninsula last week, I noticed a wooden oar leaning against her barn. “You have an oar,” I noted, a little surprised because the only boat in sight was a motorboat. “Yes, I’ve carried it here like Odysseus, who couldn’t rest till he found people who didn’t know what an oar is.” Whatever the merits or demerits of Nolan’s Hollywood IMAX blockbuster version of this story, it’s brought the epic into conversation in a way I’ve never seen before.

This is the cover art for a book called Odysseus and the Oar: Healing after War and Military Service, by Adam Magers. Seeing this among the images of the Odyssey got me thinking that perhaps the conversations Nolan’s film is inspiring might also begin some healing dialogue about war. I know that rereading the Iliad recently in a workshop with Emily Wilson got me to think about the universal components of grief and irreconcilable loss. What Odysseus had to experience before he could die at peace might be useful for us to revisit as well.

Celebration of Phyllis Meshulalm’s Life
Last month I mentioned that Phyllis Meshulam’s family will be hosting a celebration of her life and work on Sunday, October18. Here are the details.

 

Some August Events
Friday, August 7, 8:00-10:00 pm. Translator, performer, and poet Haleh Liza Gafori performs her translations of Rumi. Gafori’s most recent book of translations of poetry by the 13th century mystic and sage Rumi entitled Water was released in April of 2025 by New York Review of Books. Dance Palace, 503 B St., Point Reyes Station. Purchase tickets here.

Sunday, August 16, 2:00-4:00 p.m. Roundtable discussion at the Sitting Room with Jean Hegland and Still Time: how writing Still Time helped reframe her understanding of dementia; what kinds of research she did for this project; why she thinks that Shakespeare continues to speak to audiences around the world, and more.  In person at 2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove. Sign up here.

Saturday, August 22, 2:00-4:00 p.m. An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate Claire Drucker, at the Sitting Room, 2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove. Claire plans to read her work and lead us in writing prompts. Come help us celebrate Claire and get inspired to write your own work! Sign up here.

Tuesday, August 25, 6:00-8:30 p.m. Poetry Lives! A Monthly Workshop and Open Mic at Sebastapol Center for the Arts (282 South High Street, Sebastopol). The hour-long workshop facilitated by poet Jordan Ranft is dedicated to learning craft elements, discovering new poets, and generating new work. It is not mandatory to participate in the workshop to be a part of the open mic or vice versa. This event is all ages. $5/10/15/20 sliding scale for workshop. Details and registration: sebarts.org/classes-lectures/poetry-lives-august-25th-2026

Poem for August
Since I started featuring Sonoma County writers at the end of each month’s post, I’ve discovered authors who are entirely new to me, some of whom were making their publishing debut here in the Literary Update. This month’s author, Sheila Jones, is relatively new to publishing, though she’s been writing all her life. If you’re interested in submitting a poem or short prose piece, scroll down for the guidelines.

____

TP SHIRT
By Sheila Jones

This is all your fault
I wouldn’t get hurt
If you hadn’t left me
Alone to flirt
So bad I cry
Each night alone
All your fault
I’m so sad and sick
Of being alone all by myself
Getting older each day
I want it to change
So I see it this way
I fell in love
With a beautiful boy
A beautiful boy in a Tom Petty shirt
Wearing black leather
that makes me flirt
I want to be young
With a really short skirt
Get his attention
Kiss his lips hug his face
It’s all your fault
That I turned into this
Why did you leave me
Alone like this
The rest of my life
Is rolling by fast
I’ll be in love forever
Hope this spell won’t last
That beautiful boy
With the Tom Petty shirt
God he’s so gorgeous
I’m just a huge flirt

____

Sheila Jones is originally from NYC. She sang in the Group Image Band which released an album called A Mouth in the Clouds. She came to San Francisco in 1969. She has lived her life writing, living in Mexico with the Maya, riding horses, and playing music. Last year she discovered the literary communities of the Sebastopol Writers and Redwood Writers Club, and has been published in the 2025 SebArts Writers Anthology, Switching to ON!

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
In 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer 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, co-editor
Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

Thank You to Dave Seter and Congratulations to Our New Poet Laureate!
I invite you all to click on the Poet Laureate News page and read Dave Seter’s thoughtful and moving farewell message as our outgoing laureate. Dave has been a resourceful, gracious, and inventive literary ambassador, offering free workshops and hosting readings across the county. He’s also been as close to omnipresent as a person can be, short of cloning. Without fanfare or spotlight, Dave has been a presence (and sometimes a participant) at open mics, spoken word slams, the Favorite Poem reading, and the Petaluma Library branch opening, and so much more, drawing together readers and writers of all ages, levels of experience, and aesthetic persuasion, nurturing and celebrating our rich literary community.

As a past poet laureate, I serve on the PL Selection Committee, along with an amazing team representing SSU, SRJC, the Sonoma County Library, the county’s supervisory districts, and all the past laureates, including Dave. We were blessed to have an incredible group of nominees from which we chose five finalists. This is really such a collegial committee. We listen respectfully to one another as we discuss the strengths of each finalist. Then we come to a consensus decision. Believe me, it’s not easy, and yet we know that each nominee has such vision and talent, that Sonoma County will thrive as a literary community because of what they have already given and continue to share.

And now, I’m so very pleased to announce that our new Poet Laureate for Sonoma County 2026-2028 is Claire Drucker. Claire Drucker is a Jewish lesbian mom, educational consultant, poet, dancer and identical twin. Her first book-length collection of poems, The Life You Gave Me, was published in 2023 by Kelsay Books. Her chapbook, The Fluid Body, was published in 2014 by Finishing Line Press. Claire’s poems have also been published in numerous journals, including CA Quarterly, Jewish Literary Journal, Rust & Moth, Epiphany, Puerto del Sol, The Freedom of New Beginnings, and Women Artists Datebook, to name a few. She was an English professor at Santa Rosa Junior College for 27 years, where she taught creative writing, composition and critical thinking. For 13 years, Claire was a poet-teacher with CA Poets in the Schools, working with elementary-age children in the public school system. She received her BA in English Literature from The University of Virginia and her MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics from Naropa University. She is currently the poetry curator for The Sitting Room (sittingroomlibrary.org), a community library with over 7,000 titles dedicated to women writers and artists. Recently, Claire has been working on a collection of prose poems in response to the hundreds of words that have been erased since this regime came to power. She lives in Sebastopol. 

Claire’s project, titled “Voices Across Time: An Intergenerational Poetry Project,” proposes pairing high school students with elders in Sonoma County to create collaborative poems drawn from oral history interviews. This project grows from Claire’s lifelong commitment to honoring individual stories and amplifying often unheard voices.

The Sebastopol Center for the Arts, along with the Poet Laureate Selection Committee, invites the public to a reception on Sunday, July 12, 2026, at 2 PM. We’ll be honoring our outgoing Poet Laureate Dave Seter and our new Laureate Claire Drucker. Register for the reception on the SebArts website at sebarts.org/literary-arts.

_____

When Voices Rise: Songs and Poems of Resistance
On Friday, July 17, 6-8 PM, The Sebastopol Center for the Arts will host an extraordinary evening of poetry and music, in conjunction with the Resist and Persist Exhibition in the art gallery. “When Voices Rise” is hosted by poet Shawna Swetech and features the powerful words of local poets, songs from the Harmonia Choir, and an open mic for you to share your poetry on the themes of resistance, hope, or protest. This special evening event will be a celebration of personal and collective voices.

Featured poets include Dave Seter, Kim D. Hester Williams, Maya Khosla, Gwynn O’Gara, Shawna Swetech, Claire Drucker, and Elizabeth Herron. Sign-ups for open mic will be the night of the event. Location: 282 S. High Street, Sebastopol.

_____

Memorial for Phyllis Meshulam
In March, 2026, Poet Laureate Emerita Phyllis Meshulam passed away. As our Sonoma County Poet Laureate from 2020-2022, Phyllis guided us in her steady way through the shelter-in-place and social distancing of Covid-19. She brought together voices from across the county and beyond in her poet laureate project, the anthology called Freedom of New Beginnings—even as she faced the challenge of her newly diagnosed neurological illness.

Phyllis was a shining light in our literary community, especially her work with young writers in the CalPoets program, the Poetry Out Loud Program, and many events her students participated in, including the Petaluma Poetry Walk and the Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading. She reached diverse communities through her teaching and writing, from residents at Napa State Hospital, veterans, preschoolers, and English language learners. The legacy of her teaching and her poetry is imbued with her passion for justice, sensitivity, and inclusiveness.

Phyllis’s family invites the literary community to join them in a Celebration of Phyllis’s Life, on Sunday, October 18, 2026, 3:00 pm, Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Mark your calendars! Details will be forthcoming in August and September’s post.

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

— Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1881

_____

A Sampler from Our Literary Calendar
I’m going to be on a Pacific Northwest road trip July 13-August 3, so I will be missing so many of the cool literary events going on this month. I’ve listed below a few of these delights. Much more on the Calendar page.

If WiFi is available (and the creek don’t rise), I will do my best to send in my August 1st post from the road. I’ll be somewhere between Mount Rainier and Ashland.

Thursday, July 2, 6:00-7:00 p.m. A Reading with Sixteen Rivers Press at Napa Bookmine, 1625 2nd Street, Napa. Poets Lenore Myers, Caroline Miller, and Dane Cervine will read from their books.

Thursday, July 9, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Speakeasy: Poets and Singer/Songwriters. Musicians and poets each do a 20-25 minute set, followed by open mic. Afterwards we mingle for conversation and connection. Featured are poet John Monroe Johnson and musicians Scott Hensel and Lin Harding.

Thursday, July 16, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Copperfield’s Books is honored to welcome Greg Sarris home to Santa Rosa for a preeminent evening celebrating his powerful new novel, The Last Human Bear. Finley Community Center, 2060 W College Ave., Santa Rosa.

Friday, July 24, 7:00 p.m. Copperfield’s Books welcomes author and filmmaker Phil Cousineau to Sebastopol in celebration of his new book The Wisdom of the Odyssey: Twenty-Four Life Lessons from Homer’s Epic.

Sunday-Friday, July 26-31. Napa Valley Writer’s Conference. Readings, craft workshops, and community classes are open to the public. See napawritersconference.org/public-events

Thursday, July 30, 5:00-7:00 p.m. A Tribute to French Culture through Poetry and Music at Barrel Proof Lounge, 501 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa. To become a participant, contact Timothy Williams: jaxonspress@gmail.com, 707-321-3852.

_____

Poem for July
We’re approaching the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, yet so little in our country today evokes a celebration. This poem asks us to face our brutal history, so much of which is being erased even as we speak. Yet this history also reminds us that our ideals have endured and can still lead us out of darkness.

‘Tis of Thee My Country
by William Greenwood

William Greenwood was born in Arizona and studied at the University of California. After joining the farm workers’ struggle for justice during early unionization, he organized the first agricultural producer-marketing cooperative of Mexican farm workers. This led to a career in development which took him to residencies in Latin America, the Middle East, and Central Asia, working on agricultural and small business projects.

In the 1970s, he co–founded Green Horse Press with a small group of poets to translate and publish new poetry previously unavailable to English speakers. His publications include the chapbook Into the Center of America (Green Horse Press), Landscape/Cityscape (Word Temple Press) and Twenty Love Poems and A Song of Hope (Green Horse Press). A new book of poems, Aerials and Landings, will be published by Kelsay Books  later this year.

_____

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
In 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer 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, co-editor
Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

So many Sonoma County literary events to kick off your summer reading and writing! Take a look at the calendar page where I know you’ll find something to inspire you, from workshops on memoir, readings, open mics, storytelling, a chance to hear humorist David Sedaris read from his new book, The Land and Its People: Essays, the art and politics of home gardening, writing and body-movement, and opportunities to celebrate three of Sonoma County’s literary venues

Rivertown Poets Celebrates Thirteen Years
Though founder Sande Anfang now lives in Las Vegas, she’ll be “home” in Petaluma to host the June reading and celebrate the anniversary of Rivertown Poets on Monday, June 1, 6:00 p.m. live at the Aqus Café. Featured readers are the 2026 Sixteen Rivers Press poets Dane Cervine, Carolyn Miller, and Lenore Myers, followed by open mic. The cafe’s address is 189 H Street in Petaluma. See Facebook page for details. Email: rivertownpoet@gmail.com.

Come early to enjoy Aqus’s excellent menu and to sign up for the open mic.

Sitting Room’s Annual Birthday Party
The Sitting Room celebrates its 45th birthday with a party for all at 2025 Curtis Dr., Penngrove. Copies of the Sitting Room’s latest anthology: Who is She? Remarkable Women You Want to Know will be available along with past issues, samplers, free books, and all sorts of lovely “merch.” Tours of the always surprising library and archives will be offered, and there will be cake! No need to rsvp, but if you have any questions, email us at sitting.room.library@gmail.com.

Please park in the church parking lot adjacent or on the street. Those needing assistance should park in the driveway.

Visit the Sitting Room website (sittingroomlibrary.org) to learn more about this fabulous library devoted to work by women, and especially to see what’s coming up in their events, new podcast, and round table discussions.

Also check out this recent feature in the Press Democrat (pressdemocrat.com/2026/04/09/south-county-library-celebrates-women-authors/).

Two Poetry and Music Events at Café Little Deer
(formerly Café Frida)
The first of two June events is on Sunday, June 7, 12:00-2:00 p.m. with Jam Band Poetry, hosted by Sonoma County Poet Laureate Emerita Gwynn O’Gara and the LushCattPark Trio,

The second June event is on Sunday, June 28, 1:00–3:00 p.m. when Café Little Deer hosts a poetry festival featuring Gwynn O’Gara, Anika Snyder, Dan Barth, Sidney Regelbrugge, Michael Riedell, Marjorie Stein, Adrian Lürssen, Blake More,Raphael Block with cellist Wendy Climan.

Both events are at Café Little Deer, 300 South A Street, Santa Rosa. Come early for lunch and chilling. Kitchen closes at 2 p.m.

 

 

 

Poem for June
I recently came across this quote from Kahlil Gibran: “Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most love is lost.” A few days later, I read the poem “Diastema,” which local poet Lew Buchner sent in for the monthly poem/short prose feature in the Literary Update (scroll down for details about submitting your work). Lew’s poem explores the potency of the space between memory and loss, action and intention, between what we say and what we mean, between one line and the next.

________

Diastema
by Lew Buchner

There is a word for the gap between teeth:
diastema.

But what do you call the space between
the things we knew we had
and the things we lost?
that blue sock
my favorite wool hat
an old friend’s kindness?

And there’s the gap 
between what we say 
and what we mean: 
sunlight on the branch 
the spider waiting in the shadow —
the shape of the stone 
that alters the way the water flows —
“Yes of course” when I really meant 
“I’m afraid to say no”.

All disappearing into that big smile
and the little space 
where even music stops to breathe 
even the wind leaves room between gusts 
even this line
waits.

________

 

Lew Buchner is a cabinetmaker and poet living in Sonoma County, California. A longtime practitioner of Zen koan meditation, he writes poems rooted in work, family, community, and the surprising depth of ordinary moments.

 

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
In 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer 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, co-editor
Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

We’ve just come to the end of National Poetry Month, and the Sonoma County literary community gave us so many fabulous ways to bring poetry into our daily lives and to recognize local poets with new books. Among the county-wide events were the five-poet reading at Occidental Center for the Arts, the Favorite Poems event at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, the celebration of the book at Barrel Proof Lounge in Santa Rosa, the radio interviews with local poets on KRCB, a virtual reading with Poetic License, Dave Seter’s poet laureate workshop, and much, much more. Many thanks to those who organized and hosted these events. I was busy all month attending and participating in as many as I could, and filled with gratitude for what we together create each month right here.

Remembering Lee Perron and Richard Silberg

Last month, I paid tribute to our poet laureate emerita Phyllis Meshulam, who passed away at the end of March. Sadly, two more poets have left us, and I grieve our collective loss.

LEE PERRON
I’m not sure I ever met Lee in person, which is a strange thing to say about someone I considered a friend. Over the years, we corresponded often about poetry. Lee was a long-time supporter of Sixteen Rivers Press, and in his email poetry series, he featured many poets, local, national, international, contemporary, and classical, including Lynn Trombetta, Blaise Cendrars, Ezra Pound, Natalie Diaz, H.D., Billy Collins, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.  Through his series, I discovered authors entirely new to me, as well as little gems by poets whose work I thought I knew, and familiar ones I hadn’t reread in years.

Our mutual friend Pat Nolan provides this bio, photo, and poem to remember Lee: poet, bookseller, collector, Rexroth aficionado, and raconteur. Born in 1941, Lee will be remembered by his friends by his unfailing generosity and love of literature. He published two poetry collections of note, Silent Crow (1983), and more recently, Celtic Night (2013), of which the poet Michael Hannon wrote: “Lee Perron’s poems have shown me the path to the dark forest pool where Psyche terrifies her guests, and the poet is, at last, allowed to surrender his vision. Inexorable death, inexorable life—just as he found them, water mixed with the sun.”  Lee was also the editor and publisher of Sun Moon Bear Editions and a long time focal figure in the Sonoma Country literary life. He was a man of many talents and great erudition. Lee passed away Saturday, April 3rd after a long illness.

Lee Perron, from North American Suite (Sun Moon Bear Editions, 2015)

5.
Ostinato
•
meditating waves
manchester beach setting
coast solitaire
•
cazadero red slide
reached only by rain
remote as panthers
•
mantanzas creek butchery
historic pigs
dappled light dappled shade
•
twilight over healdsburg
hills manifesting
manifesting waves

6.
Coda
•
a way that cannot be told
day dreams at night
night dreams in the soil

• • •

RICHARD SILBERG
Richard wasn’t a Sonoma County poet, but many of us knew him and the integral role he played in the literary life of the San Francisco Bay Area. Born April 15, 1941, he hailed from New York City, studied at Harvard, and came to California where he studied creative writing at San Francisco State. He lived in Berkeley, and for decades he and Joyce Jenkins ran the Northern California and West Coast literary news journal called Poetry Flash.

I first met Richard back in the early 80s when I started at San Francisco State in the MA program in creative writing and began to dip my toes in the Bay Area poetry scene. At the Poetry Flash readings, held then in the loft of the iconic Cody’s Books in Berkeley, Richard introduced each poet with such wit, insight, and care that his one-of-a-kind introductions were already becoming legendary. To have Richard introduce one’s book was to feel deeply understood and profoundly honored.

I had my first experience of this in 1990 when my friends Susan Sibbet, Steve Gilmartin, and I co-produced a quirky three-poet chapbook of interlocking poems called Suspensions, and were invited to participate in the Cody’s/Poetry Flash reading series. This was our first-ever recognition, and for newbies like us, it felt so affirming. Every book since then, including the recent three-volumes of translation, received Richard’s attention. He had an instinct for finding a poem at the heart of every book, distilling it to a few lines that he would quote, and then inviting the audience to discover  for themselves what he had found in the work they were about to hear.

Many Bay Area writers came to know Richard through these introductions or through the workshops he taught at UC Berkeley Extension. Others knew him through his poetry, literary criticism, translations, his book reviews in Poetry Flash, and his work with the annual Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival.

Richard authored six collections of poetry, most recently The Horses: New and Selected Poems and Deconstruction of the Blues, recipient of the PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Literary Award 2006 and nominee for the Northern California Book Award in Poetry. D. Nurkse wrote about Horses, “Dynamic, kaleidoscopic, shot through with a thousand faces and voices too real to be characters, Richard Silberg’s work is a Chaucerian pilgrimage to strange and uncannily familiar places—Fremont, the Lower East Side, ‘the humped island of Mind.’” And about Deconstructing the Blues, Tony Barnstone wrote, “These poems are timeriffs and deathrants and they are written with a profound humanity, and with a ‘crying so deep / it was like coming / bitter crying / crying sweet like milk.’”

After several years living with the challenges of Parkinson’s disease, Richard passed away on April 21. He was 85.  I will post any information about a celebration/memorial honoring Richard as soon as I know the details.

Here’s a short poem to give you a taste of Richard’s poetry, originally published in Poetry Flash November 2018.

THE ANSWER

We write at it    as if death could be solved
like a riddle    deaf    dearth    earth    heart
How can it be that we will have to leave this world?
The other day    I stepped out onto my empty street
at sunset    mid-summer    glow of that wide
                breathing sphere
Magnificat    red slanting    Hush    wind whispering leaves
Standing there in planet turn    I believed I had the answer

New Feature on the Literary Update

Getting one’s book reviewed is a major accomplishment these days, especially when there is so much online chatter demanding our attention. But when a review appears, let’s celebrate that together. Starting this month, the Literary Update will begin featuring recent reviews of books by Sonoma County writers. This is a small section added to the Sonoma County in Print page. The first of these is a review of Donna Emerson’s new collection, Daphne Lifts Up.

If you have a book or chapbook that’s been recently reviewed—whether fiction, poetry, memoir, or essay—send the essential information to editor@socolitupdate.com: Your name, title of book, name of reviewer, a link to the review if online (or to a webpage for a print journal) and one succinct quotation.

Some Cool Events on the May Calendar

Wednesday, May 6, 7:00 p.m. Live storytelling: Redwood Nights: Storytelling Under the Stars at Deer Park Villa in Fairfax. Hosted by award-winning NPR storyteller Don Reed. THEME: MOTHER (Mother’s Day Week Show). Details and tickets: eventbrite.com/e/redwood-nights-storytelling-under-the-stars-at-deer-park-villa-tickets-945373817537

Friday, May 8, 8:00 p.m. Copperfields Books presents An Evening with David Sedaris, at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. David Sedaris is one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. His book, The Best of Me, collects 42 previously published stories and essays. Tickets: lutherburbankcenter.org/event/david-sedaris26/

Saturday, May 9, 4:00-5:30 p.m. North Bay Letterpress Arts presents: An Afternoon of Poetry with Robert Hass & Forrest Gander. At 925-D Gravenstein Hwy. S., Sebastopol. Free event. RSVP required. More details and registration link at: northbayletterpressarts.org/events-calendar/2026-hass-gander

Sunday, May 24, 2:00-4:00 p.m. Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan, at the Sitting Room Library (2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove). During this memoir workshop, we’ll be exploring different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life with a literary lens. Free. Sign up on Eventbrite.

Check out all the May readings, workshops, and events listed on the Calendar page.

Poem for May

At the Favorite Poems Event last month, I read a recent poem by Ilya Kaminsky, which appeared in the New Yorker. Several of you asked if I would include it in the Literary Update, so here it is.

Kaminsky was born in Odessa, Ukraine in 1977, and arrived in the U.S. in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the American government. In 2019, Kaminski was selected by BBC as “one of the 12 artists that changed the world.” He currently teaches in Princeton and lives in New Jersey.

Psalm for the Slightly Tilted
By Ilya Kaminsky
January 19, 2026

This is not
a good year.
But it has
witnesses.

When you see them protest the powerful,
since who else does,
they stand
like flagpoles outside the courthouse
after a northeaster.

They came with
the wrong shoes
for revolution.
Still,
they showed up.

Comfort, Lord,
their bodies—
each a question mark
doing time
as a coatrack,
hung with borrowed jackets.

They are your legion
of bent spoons.
They are the only ones
who showed up—
with their orthopedic flair.

I saw my people lean—
not toward hope but toward each other.
They chant off-rhythm
and mean it.

These are my kind of people:
no tears—just
steam from a kettle
that never quite boils.

In times like these, don’t forget us:
the lopsided
leaning on one another,
like sodden paperbacks
left out on the stoop—
Nobody opens them.
But they still insist
on carrying the plot.

Comfort us standing up—
half scarecrow
half saxophone
with a squawk.
While stiffness becomes state policy,
comfort us sitting—
in that collapse called calm.

In the year they come for us
watch my people
make protest signs
out of old pizza boxes.
Watch—

there are no boring people
which is unfortunate.
You’d think statistically
we’d get at least a few—
one-speed souls
with just meh stuff to do.

But none of them are dull.
Each—
a suitcase
held together
by duct tape.

These are your coffee-stained saints
who rise not with trumpets
but with Advil.
They stand
and wait
creased like maps
of a country
that doesn’t exist anymore.

Published in the print edition of the January 26, 2026, issue of The New Yorker.

_____

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections

In 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer 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, co-editor
Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

Remembering Phyllis Meshulam
It is with great sadness that I share with you the news that Phyllis Meshulam passed away on Sunday, March 29, after several years facing, with grace and courage, a debilitating neurological disease. I have known Phyllis for almost three decades, as a colleague with the California Poets in the Schools Program, as a participant in many workshops at the Sitting Room, as a fellow poet and traveler, and as a friend.

A long-time resident of Sonoma County, Phyllis published five books and chapbooks of poetry, including Land of My Father’s War (Cherry Grove Collections, 2019), which won the Artists’ Embassy International Award; and most recently (Re)Creations , published by Kelsay Books in 2025. Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate, said of Land of My Father’s War, an “urgency of spirit has emerged eloquently here in these poems of perception and even prophecy. . . .” And Maxine Hong Kingston said of (Re)Creations,”O Hope! The Poet can create our world again. Phyllis Meshulam breaks apart the old memes/archetypes/ stories and re-tells them. And we—her readers and listeners—can make our lives on this earth anew.

In addition to her books, Phyllis’s poems have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, including Ars Medica,; Bullets into Bells; Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace; and What Redwoods Know. Phyllis is also the editor of Poetry Crossing, CalPoet’s 50th anniversary lesson plan book, an inspirational resource for writers and teachers.

For more than thirty years, Phyllis was an active participant in the Veterans Writing Group convened by Maxine Hong Kingston, and a poet-teacher with CalPoets, giving presentations at the nation-wide writing conferences, AWP and Split This Rock.

As our Sonoma County Poet Laureate from 2020-2022, Phyllis guided us in her steady way through the shelter-in-place and social distancing of Covid-19. She offered online workshops, video poetry writing lessons, and brought together voices from across the county and beyond in her poet laureate project, the anthology called Freedom of New Beginnings—all of this while facing the challenge of her newly diagnosed illness.

Phyllis was a shining light in our literary community, especially her work with young writers in the CalPoets program, the Poetry Out Loud Program, and many events her students participated in, including the Petaluma Poetry Walk and the Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading. She reached diverse communities through her teaching and writing, from residents at Napa State Hospital, veterans, preschoolers, and English language learners. The legacy of her teaching and her poetry is imbued with her passion for justice, sensitivity, and inclusiveness.

Besides the many conferences, local readings and literary events, book launches, and conversations we shared on long drives or over lunch at the Redwood Grill, I had the great good fortune to travel with Phyllis and her husband Jerry on two writing-travel trips to Ireland and Wales. I will remember most about those journeys the moments when we wrote and read together in places that rang deep with the voices of the poets whose work we were studying, especially W.B. Yeats and Dylan Thomas. On one particular afternoon, we were driving the hills of Carmarthenshire, searching for Fern Hill, the family farm of Dylan Thomas’s Aunt Annie and Uncle Jim, which the poet immortalized in his poem by that name. Our group of writer-travelers stood outside the gates of the old farm house at the foot of Fern Hill, while Phyllis led us in taking turns reading stanzas of Thomas’s ode to childhood. The photos included here are of Fern Hill and the farmhouse (taken by Jerry Meshulam), the reading at the gate, and Jerry and Phyllis with the guidebook that led us there.

 

Here is what some of her colleagues on the Poet Laureate Selection Committee had to say about Phyllis’s legacy.

“Hard to believe I first met her nearly thirty years ago when she was training to be a poet-teacher. I’ll remember her as an outwardly quiet and calm soul who fiercely and persistently voiced her love for the world through poetry and activism.”
—Arthur Dawson

“Phyllis has walked into challenging situations where she [felt] poetry [could] make the heart stronger. When schools were closed during the 2017 fires, she took the initiative to lead poetry classes for children at the synagogue Congregation Shomrei Torah on Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa.”
—Maya Khosla

“It’s a sad day. Phyllis has helped so many young people onto the path of poetry and deep creativity as well as writing and working to make our world a better place.”
—Clara Rosemarda

“Phyllis was a warm, kind, and yes, quiet yet profound poetic voice in our community. I will miss her soft wisdom which I fortunately had the benefit of receiving when I helped her with one of her PL projects.”
—Kim Hester-Williams

“Phyllis was a quiet storm in Sonoma County’s poetry world — a hard worker for so many years. A true gift.”
—Katharine Hastings

For Phyllis
Your life was integral to the world of rising light
to scores of young voices at their Poetry Crossing
To the first fresh words they learned to pen down,
To the journeys they will continue long after you
have slipped quietly away, dew disappearing
with the advance of day.
—Maya Khosla

To honor Phyllis’ legacy, I have included her poem “Goddess’s Dream” from (Re)Creations at the end of this post.

Welcome and Thanks to Our SCLU Volunteers
I would like to extend a warm welcome to the Sonoma County Literary Update’s two new volunteers: Ann Hutchinson, who is helping with technical tasks; and Amy Whitcomb, who is helping with research. Amy will be collecting information for the calendar and workshops pages for the next issue, and will help update some pages that are out of date. 

All of us have for many years been indebted to Jo-Anne Rosen, who does all the work of compiling, editing, and sending out the Literary Update each month. I contribute a monthly post, which creates the illusion that the Update is a result of my efforts. As Jo-Anne trains our volunteers and begins to step back from some of her many tasks, I hope you will take a moment to let her know how important her work has been to you and the literary community. None of this could happen without her. You can contact her at editor@socolitupdate.com

Nominations Still Open for Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2026-2028
Sebastopol Center for the Arts is still welcoming 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 and check with the SebArts website for details, qualifications, and nomination form. The deadline is April 17, 2026.

West Side Stories
In a conversation last month with journalist Beulah Vega, she recommended stepping out of my familiar poetry and fiction venues and discovering other audiences and authors, especially spoken word and performance artists. So a few weeks ago, I decided to find out what goes on at West Side Stories, held monthly in Petaluma at the Polly Klass Center.

Every month there is a theme. Storytellers put their names in a hat, and ten people’s names are drawn at random. Participants then have five minutes to tell a personal true story. At the end of the evening, everyone votes by text for their favorite of the night. The winner gets $50. The series is curated by Dave Pokorny, who opens the evening with his own story on the month’s theme.

On the night I attended, Wednesday, March 11, the theme was “Don’t Quit Your Day Job.” We heard a story about a journalist who had been writing for Sports Illustrated, but turned to driving delivery for Amazon when he was laid off. There was a woman whose mother was having such a good time in her memory-care facility that the daughter began to wonder if she, too, could quit her day job, maybe even develop dementia, or at least make a convincing case. The evening’s winning storyteller was Ben Bourdon, whose tale “Being a Benjamin: Unexpected Wisdom from a Homeless Shelter Blogger” was both humorous and tender its portrayal of the clients he had assisted in their various states of disability. That homeless shelter blogger had told him that his name Benjamin meant “the son of my right hand,” meaning a helper: “Your job and your life is to assist other people, to help them live their best life,” the old man explained, and that’s what Ben has been doing the last 22 years.

If you’d like to read the winning story and/or listen to the article in which it is featured, you can find it online on the Argus Courier website: petalumanews.com/2026/03/20/being-a-benjamin-unexpected-wisdom-from-a-homeless-shelter-blogger/

I’ve been giving a shout-out and spotlighting West Side Stories for years now, but until that evening, I’d never attended. I highly recommend it! But keep in mind, this venue gets a packed audience, so if you’d like to attend, be sure to get tickets in advance: Details and ticket ($21.50): davepokornypresents.com/west-side-stories

The next West Side Stories will be on Wednesday, April 8, 7:30 p.m. April’s theme is “Too Many Irons in the Fire.”

Here are the themes for the next few months:
May 20: Good Things Come to Those Who Wait
June 10: If It Ain’t Broke
July 8: Money Talks
August 12: Hang in There
September 9: It’s Not Rocket Science
October 14: It Take Two
November 11: Grit
December 9: All’s Well That Ends Well

National Poetry Month Turns 30!
April is National Poetry Month, which turns thirty this year. Launched by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month has grown into the largest literary celebration in the world. For three decades, it has created opportunities to read, share, and experience poetry—at home, in classrooms, in libraries and bookstores, and online—affirming poetry’s place as a vital part of our culture. To check out ways that you can celebrate, here’s the website for the Academy: poets.org/national-poetry-month-turns-30-join-celebration-april.

• Read a new poem each day to discover different styles and voices.
• Attend local poetry readings or open mic events to experience live performances
• Write your own poems to express your thoughts and feelings creatively
• Share your favorite poems on social media to inspire others.
• Explore poetry anthologies or collections to broaden your literary horizons.
• Join a poetry workshop or class to enhance your writing skills and connect with fellow poets.

And check out some of the wonderful readings, events and workshops here and near Sonoma County.

Favorite Poems Reading and Benefit for Sebastopol Center for the Arts
Founded by Robert Pinsky, who served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 1997 to 2000, the Favorite Poems Readings have been a fun way to celebrate National Poetry Month. This month, on Sunday, April 19, 3:00-5:00 p.m, our Sonoma County poet laureate, Dave Seter, will lead an inspiring afternoon of poetry, tea, and cookies with shared voices and meaningful connections. Join us for a heartwarming afternoon celebrating the power of poetry, benefiting SebArts’ Literary Arts Program. Your ticket includes a beautifully handmade ceramic mug from our ceramic studio! Sliding Scale: $35/$45/$55. More details and tickets: sebarts.org/classeslectures/p/favorite-poems-with-dave-seter

Other Events Around the County
Saturday, April 4, 3:30 p.m. Found Poets! At the Big Easy in Petaluma. bigeasypetaluma.com/event/found-poets-poetry-month-featuring-bernice-espinoza

Saturday, April 11, 2:00-3:30 p.m. Celebrate National Poetry Month with Sonoma County authors at Santa Rosa Northwest Library: events.sonomalibrary.org/event/poetry-reading-106400

Sunday, April 12, 3:00-5:00 p.m. Occidental Center for the Arts Literary Series celebrates National Poetry Month: occidentalcenterforthearts.org

Sunday, April 19, 1:00 p.m. Sixteen Rivers Press North Bay Book Launch at Book Passage in Corte Madera: bookpassage.com/event/sixteen-rivers-press-north-bay-book-launch-2026-corte-madera-store

And there’s much more! Check out the Calendar page for a more complete list of April readings and events, and the County News page for other announcements.

____

Poem for April
This month’s poem is the sonnet “Goddess’s Dream,” by Phyllis Meshulam, the opening poem in her collection (Re)Creations. The YouTube link is a recording of the poem set to music, composed by Brent Hitman.

youtube.com/shorts/n11emTGNQJ0

Goddess’s Dream
by Phyllis Meshulam

The black new moon of my belly is set
in a crescent of shine, and from it
a boy, a girl will soon come forth,
more or less in my image, of course.

They now are fish-like; may they always recall
their slick gill-slits. Come their time to crawl
may they be tutored by beetles and moles.
Their time to run, likewise by deer and a foal.

May my daughter grow strong as my son
never shoved from her place in the sun.
For I have dreamed of weeping women
and deadly warriors, and have seen

the universe split open, crack into stars:
into Venus, teardrop, blood-drop of Mars.

____

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.

Terry Ehret, co-editor
Sonoma County Literary Update

 

Dear Literary Folk,

A Courage of Poets
On February 6, about 200 poets from across California came together to the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento to remember our fellow poet Renée Good and the more than 30 individuals who have died in ICE custody or as a result of ICE actions. 

The gathering, envisioned and organized by El Dorado County poet laureate and Sixteen Rivers member Moira Magneson, featured musicians who played inspirational songs from protests past as the poets came together for the spontaneous creation of a group poem.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass was there. So were Brenda Hillman, Maw Shein Win, Alison Luterman, Arthur Dawson, William O’Daly, Lin-Marie de Vincent, and county poets laureate from across the state. A few of you who couldn’t attend sent me lines to read, which then became part of the weave. California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick’s “Courage” provided the coda to the day’s event, followed by a great “barbaric yawp,” à la Whitman from the poets.

Here’s what my colleague Murray Silverstein had to say about the experience: “[W]hat astonished me most, and moved me to tears was the weave of words, what folks said, as we snaked around the circle, came in turn to the mic. The odd and surprising juxtapositions — Lincoln and Lorca, Frost and Ferlinghetti – seemed somehow so composed…and it did become, as Moira imagined, a single poem! Heart, meet brain. Never seen/heard anything like that…and then, every so often, in the midst of lines by Whitman, Mueller, Dickinson, Duncan, Levertov and the poet next door, folks simply said the names of ICE victims, and a word or two about them. So f—ing powerful! 

“And Lee Herrick’s poem at the end — as the circle was nearing the end, I was wondering how he could possibly ‘sum up’ such an improbably rich weave, but he did. Beautifully.”

A Courage of Poets was co-sponsored by Sixteen Rivers Press and the Sacramento Poetry Center. The t-shirts worn by the volunteers summed up our purpose and our vision: “We are the poem” and “We will poem our way out of this dark.”

Here is Lee Herrick’s poem, also available on the Academy of American Poets’ website. You can find a video of Lee reading his poem on the capitol steps on my Facebook page or on Sixteen Rivers Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.

_____

Courage

I almost stopped believing in the ocean.
Imagine that. I almost stopped believing
in the music of such massive natural splendor.
I had lost sight of it, lost sight of hope
because innocent people were killed
by people in masks, hiding their faces,
their shame parading as providence,
their weakness posing as policy.
But then, I remembered the tides.
I was restored by the courage of poets
whose songs sounded like ocean waves
guided by the moon. Even now, there is music.
Children laughing on the swings, a student
learning the saxophone, a woman reading
her rough draft by the lake, a father whistling
a love song in his native language.
Courage is from the Latin word cor,
which means heart, which means we are a heart of poets.
As in, take courage, take heart. As in, the widow
was grateful for your encouragement, your giving heart.
As in, the heart of your convictions.
What I mean is: we are made of love
and therefore larger than their terror.
As a great poet said, they can cut back all of the flowers,
but they cannot hold back spring.
We are a massive natural splendor, too.
In the end, all we are is love and love and love.
In the end, the ocean and the music might save us.
Meet me at the beach. Bring your light.
Bring your songs. I’ll wait for you.

Copyright © 2026 Lee Herrick. Used with the permission of the author.

_____

Book Launch for Fran Claggett-Holland’s New Collection
On the afternoon of Sunday, February 15, the Sonoma County literary community came together to celebrate Fran Claggett-Holland’s new collection of poems At Dusk, published by RiskPress. More than a book launch, the event, held at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, was a celebration of the profound influence Fran has had in our literary community and beyond and the quiet, but unmistakeable genius of her poetry. Writers, family, and friends sang tributes to Fran and read their own poems inspired by her mentoring. Fran read her poems, too, and spoke movingly about the ways in which we as a community depend on each other, nurture each other’s creative lives, and become a voice and a heart for a country in crisis.

_____

Last 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. Venmo → @Monica-Volker
• You will be contacted by July 1st if your poem was chosen for inclusion in the book.

_____

Calendar Bytes: Cool Things Happening This Month Around the County
Check out the calendar of events for March for a more complete list of workshops, readings, performances, open mics, etc. Here are a few that caught my eye.

Sunday, March 8, 4:00-5:30 p.m. Occidental Center for the Arts’ Lobby. Jazzmyn Inisis will read from her book, Shah Razad and the Djins Who Loved Her. Jazzmyn is a local writer who was deeply influenced living in the middle east as a child of a military father stationed there in the 1950’s. Join us for an afternoon of mystery and storytelling with Jazzmyn, accompanied by middle eastern food and fine wines available for purchase. For more info: occidentalcenterforthearts.org

Tuesday, March 10, 5:00-7:00 p.m. The 12th Barrel Proof Lounge/Timothy Williams Poetry Salon presents Two Golden Hours of All Things Irish. Featuring: Elizabeth Herron, Lin Marie diVincent, Hugh Shaklet, Anika Snyder, Gwynn O’Gara and Rob Catterton, and special guest Fergus Lenehan. In the theater for poets, writers, and musicians at 501 Mendocino Avenue, downtown Santa Rosa.

Wednesday, March 11, 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 “Don’t Give Up Your Day Job.” Details and ticket ($21.50) purchase: davepokornypresents.com/west-side-stories

Saturday March 21, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. Dave Seter and Librarian Terra Emerson will be co-leading a workshop on the topic of “Documenting Current Events Through Poetry” at the Sebastopol Branch of Sonoma County Library located at 7140 Bodega Avenue. Details at https://events.sonomalibrary.org/event/copy-hold-potential-poet-laureate-event-94149?language=en

_____

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.

_____

Poem for March

A VALENTINE FOR MINNEAPOLIS

by Lisa Shulman

I love the crunch of your boots in the icy streets,
the rhythmic beat of your mittened hands,
the steam of your breath and the heat of your words 
in this brutal cold and ice-clapped world.
I love the chapped red of your cheeks, your dripping nose
the ice crystals on your eyebrows, your hair,
as you carry signs and bags of food and offer your arm
to that woman on the ground.
I love the street medics with their packs,
the rolling neighborhood patrols,
and the cafes open for free soup and coffee.
I love your cousins in Chicago, Portland, L.A.
I love the way you bang on drums, on cans and dumpsters,
your raucous all-night singing,
your harmonies as you kneel on frozen sidewalks,
your whistles and car horns.

I love your walking school buses,
your inflatable frogs, and knit red hats.
I love the warm and flowing river of your bodies
pouring through your city—
blood pulsing through its veins.
I love your courage that ignites our own,
fire melting ice.
I love your heart.

_____

Lisa Shulman is a poet, children’s book author, and teacher. Her poetry has appeared in Sheila-na-gig, About Place, Anacapa Review, Inkfish, Kitchen Table Quarterly, New Verse News, and elsewhere. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Fragile Bones, Fierce Heart. A Pushcart nominee, Lisa teaches poetry with California Poets in the Schools, and workshops for women in recovery. www.lisashulman.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.

Terry Ehret, co-editor, 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.

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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.

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Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor