Dear Literary Folk,
Many thanks for the organizers and presenters of September’s Petaluma Poetry Walk and the Sonoma County Book Festival. These two day-long events bring many luminaries to our county, and at the same time continue to celebrate the extraordinary writing community we share and continue to create together. Click here to view a photo gallery of the 2010 Petaluma Poetry Walk.
October also brings many more readings, workshops, and community events you can learn more about in the October Calendar, the County News, or the Workshops links above. Here are some events I’d especially like to draw your attention to.
Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival Saturday • October 2, 2010
Noon to 4:30 pm • Free
Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park • Berkeley
One block west of Downtown Berkeley BART
Strawberry Creek Walk • 10 am at Oxford & Center
Featuring Alison Hawthorne Deming, Brenda Hillman,David Meltzer, Al Young, Robert Hass
Camille T. Dungy poet & editor of Black Nature:Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry
John Felstiner — Can Poetry Save the Earth? A Field Guide to Nature Poems
Contributors to The Place That Inhabits Us:Poems of the SF Bay Watershed
Student & Youth Poets from River of Words California Poets in the Schools and Poetry Inside Out
Plus Environmental Presenters Julia Whitty — Deep Blue Home:An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean, and Annie Leonard — The Book of Stuff
For more information, visit Poetry Flash website: http://www.poetryflash.org/WS10.html.
Seventh Annual Bilingual Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading
This year’s reading will be held on Friday, October 22, 2010, 5:15 pm-8:45 pm at the Petaluma Art Center, 230 Lakeville St, Petaluma (corner of ‘D’ St and Lakeville St.). Many of you have participated before, and once again, I extend my personal invitation for you all to come enjoy an evening of poetry, music, food, and friendship.
Members of the community will gather to read poems in honor and remembrance of family and friends. Several notable poets will be part of the program, including Gwynn O’Gara, Terry Ehret, Gary Silva, Geri Digiorno, Armando Garcia Davila, and Beatriz Lagos.
Those who wish to honor the memory of a loved one are welcome to recite or read a one-page poem of their own or one that expresses their feelings. Poems may be in English or Spanish or both. You are also welcome to bring a copy of your poem for the Poetry of Remembrance binder, new this year. In addition, you may bring a favorite dish of yours or a favorite of a loved one.
If you are interested in reading a poem or volunteering in the program, contact Juanita J. Martin,Poetry of Remembrance Chair at (707) 419-2408, or email her at freelance@jmartinpoetwriter.com no later than October 15, 2010. You may also contact Terry Ehret at tehret99@comcast.net
Day of the Dead/El Dia de los Muertos
The Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading is part of a month-long celebration in Petaluma which runs from October 1-November 7. This year’s theme is Rio de las Vidas, (River of Lives). For a schedule of events, go to www.petalumaartscouncil.org Click on programs. You can also find us on Facebook at El Día de los Muertos.
Redwood Writers Annual Poetry Dinner
The dinner is the prelude to the all-day Redwood Writers Conference. It will be held on Friday, October 29, 2010 at the Flamingo Hotel. The Poetry Dinner features emcee Penelope LaMontagne; special Guest Gwynne O’Gara, Sonoma County 2010 – 2011 Poet Laureate; and Keynote Speaker Cheryl Dumesnil, author of I Triple-Dog Dare You: a Celebration of High-Risk Poetry. The host for the evening is Marlene Cullen, who will announce the winners of the Redwood Writers poetry contest.
Redwood Writers 2010 Conference
Saturday, October 30th, 7:30 am – 6:30 pm, Flamingo Hotel and Resort, 2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, CA
This one-day conference will feature agents, editors, and writers from all genres. They will offer their insights and experiences in the craft of writing at beginning through advanced levels, as well as the encouragement of fellow writers in a relaxed and friendly, wine-country setting. The morning keynote speaker is Elisa Southard, who will address the conference at 8:30, followed by twelve different workshop sessions. (Shameless plug: I’ll be offering a workshop called “Outside the Box” focusing on using the prose poem and flash-fiction mode for writing memoir.) The afternoon features luncheon keynote address by Sheldon Siegel, recognition of the prose contest winners, and a networking session, hosted by your CWC – Redwood Branch Board
For information about registration and to view the conference schedule, visit the Redwood Writers website at http://redwoodwriters.org/redwood-conference/
In closing, I’d like to share one of my favorite autumn poems
Hurrahing in Harvest
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks rise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?
I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes,
Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;
And eyes, heart, what looks, what lips yet give you a
Rapturous love’s greeting of realer, of rounder replies?
And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder
Majestic – as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet! –
These things, these things were here and but the beholder
Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his feet.
Happy Autumn to you all! May you find many occasions for hurrahing this harvest.
Literary Update Co-editor Terry Ehret
Click on any of these pages from the menu above to view the rest of the September Literary Update:
Monthly Calendar of Events
County-Wide News (Including News from East, West, and North County)
Poet Laureate’s News
Sonoma County in Print
Local Workshop Teachers and Writing Consultants
Current and Upcoming Workshops
Writers’ Connections
Conferences
Ongoing Writing Groups and Open Mic Readings
Calls for Submission
Recommended Northern California Journals and Presses
Directory of Sonoma County Writers
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