Dear Literary Folk,
I’m off to Ireland and the Czech Republic next week, so I won’t be on hand to compose a July post for the Literary Update. Jo-Anne, our wonderful co-editor who keeps this website updated, will step in for me.
One of the newer features on the Sonoma County Literary Update is the Directory of Sonoma County Writers. Jo-Anne and I set this up almost a year ago, and since then 32 of you have joined the roll call. Of course, I know there are more than 32 writers out there. If you’re reading this and not yet on the directory, you can remedy that in a snap. All you need to do is send a jpeg photo and a short bio. Include your contact information and a link where someone could go to buy your books.
Congratulations to Bibliophoria poetry contest winners Lin Max, John Johnson, and Susan Adams (none of whom are yet in our directory, but should be!). Their work will be printed by Eric Johnson of Iota Press. Gwynn O’Gara, Sonoma County Poet Laureate, was the final judge for the blind submission contest. The winners will be reading their work on Friday, June 10.
Two birthdays are coming up this month: Copperfields and the Sitting Room. When I moved from San Francisco to Petaluma in 1990, these were the two writing communities that welcomed me. Through Jane Love, who was the readings and events co-ordinator and editor of the much beloved Dickens literary journal, I met so many fine writers. And through JJ Wilson and Karen Petersen, founders and directors of the Sitting Room, I found a home for my writing workshops where I’ve had the pleasure of working with so many of you.
I hope you will join in the celebrations planned for these two vital members of the Sonoma County Literary Community. Details are included in the June Calendar of Events.
Saturday, June 4, 12:00 p.m. Copperfield’s Birthday Party.
Sunday, June 5, 2:00 to 5:00 pm. Sitting Room’s 30th Birthday Party.
In more recent years, Katherine Hastings and Ed Coletti have given us a way to celebrate our local writers and to gather as a community to welcome visiting authors. Both Katherine’s WordTemple and Ed’s Café Azul series( new name Poetry SoCoCo) ( new name Poetry SoCoCo) have events scheduled this month.
Saturday, June 18, 7:00 p.m. The WordTemple Poetry Series returns to the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, located at 6780 Depot Street, Sebastopol.
Saturday, June 4, 7:00-9:00 pm. Poetry Azul has a new name, at a new venue and time: Poetry SoCoCo opens at the SoCo Coffee at 4th & Brookwood, 1015 4th Street, Santa Rosa. For more details, see Ongoing Groups/Open Mics page.
And finally, Bibliophoria is sponsoring and hosting a number of important events this summer. Thanks to Christine Walker who has helped to bring all these aspects of writing and book-art together.
Bibliophoria: Celebrate Book Arts! takes place in June & July in Sebastopol. Workshops, readings, exhibitions, parties, town tour, and merchant tie-ins. All for the love of books. Hosted by Sebastopol Center for the Arts and Copperfield’s Books, in honor of the independent store’s 30th Anniversary. http://bibliophoria.com
Writer’s Sampler Series at Sebastopol Center for the Arts: Monday evenings June 20: Making Art with Words: A Collaboration in Print Art & Poetry. June 27: Inkling to Ink & Beyond: Developing and caring for your nonfiction book. July 11: The Many Faces of Memoir: Finding the Style and Structure That Works for You. July 18: The Making and Marketing of a Chapbook. http://bibliophoria.com/writers-sampler/
Children’s Book Writing Conference for writers and illustrators interested in learning more about writing for children from published authors/illustrators and a children’s book editor/agent. A day-long
intensive with sessions devoted to picture books, middle-grade and YA, editing, and presentation. July 16, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sebastopol Center for the Arts. $110 includes lunch. http:// bibliophoria.com/childrens-book-conference/.
To close, here is my poem for June: Eavan Boland’s “White Hawthorne in the West of Ireland.”
Boland will be the special guest poet for the Sixteen Rivers Benefit on October 22, 2011. You may want to save the date for that. Details available at http://www.sixteenrivers.org.
I will also be offering a workshop on Prosody this fall at the Sitting Room, in which we will be studying Boland’s work, along with three other poets. Check my website for details in July: www.terryehret.com.
Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor
WHITE HAWTHORN IN THE WEST OF IRELAND
By Eavan Boland
I drove west
in the season between seasons.
I left behind suburban gardens.
Lawmowers. Small talk.
Under low skies, past splashes of coltsfoot
I assumed
the hard shyness of Atlantic light
and the superstitious aura of hawthorn.
All I wanted then was to fill my arms with
sharp flowers,
to seem, from a distance, to be part of
that ivory, downhill rush. But I knew,
I had always known
the custom was
not to touch hawthorn.
Not to bring it indoors for the sake of
the luck
such constraint would forfeit —
a child might die, perhaps, or an unexplained
fever speckle heifers. So I left it
stirring on those hills
with a fluency
only water has. And, like water, able
to redefine land. And free to seem to be —
for anglers,
and for travelers astray in
the unmarked lights of a May dusk —
the only language spoken in those parts.
— Eavan BOLAND, Outside History, selected poems – 1980-1990, (Norton/1990).
Click on any of these pages from the menu above to view the rest of the June 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
How to Send Announcements to the Literary Update
About the Literary Update
Contact
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