Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

Here’s the news for March!

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Poetry Out Loud in Sonoma County

by Phyllis Meshulam

I know I said this last year, but this year actually was the 11th annual Poetry Out Loud (POL) Sonoma county-wide competition. If you’re not familiar with it, POL is a nationwide poetry recitation program for high school students. It starts in the classroom when students choose poems from an online anthology to memorize. It proceeds all the way to nationwide contests in Washington D.C. in April each year. The idea for the program came from Sonoma County’s Dana Gioia during his time as head of the National Endowment for the Arts. For the first time this year, our event took place at the Sonoma County Central Library, a very welcoming and upbeat venue. It happened on the evening of February 12.

Sarah Condello has represented Analy High School for three years in the county-wide Poetry Out Loud competition. This year she took away top honors at our local contest and she will represent Sonoma County on March 18 at the Crest Theater in Sacramento (4 pm) and on March 19 in the State Capitol Assembly Chamber where rounds 2 and 3 will take place, starting at 8:30 that morning. Sarah’s selected poems are “The Mortician in San Fancisco” by Randall Mann, “Where the Wild Things Go,” by D. Gilson, and “Epitaph” by Katherine Philips.

Diana Macias of Casa Grande High School was our runner-up, Mia Fleisher-de-Kozan of Santa Rosa High School came in 3rd, and Nayelli Rios of Roseland University Prep was 4th. There were twelve high schools participating.

Sarah writes of her experience, “Poetry Out Loud has fostered my growth from a shy, frightened Freshman to the confident person who I am today. I have vastly improved my speaking skills and read some beautiful poetry along the way.”

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Watch for These March Calendar Events

There are several readings coming up this month I’d like to give a special shout-out for.

Ed Colletti and Donna Emerson will be reading on Saturday, March 10, 1:30-3:30 p.m. at Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma. The reading will celebrate Ed’s new poems and Donna’s first full-length poetry book, The Place of Our Meeting. Hosted by Susan Bono. At 140 Kentucky Street, Petaluma. For more details, see: www.donnaemerson.com/readings

Children’s Book Publishing Process Revealed on Thursday, March 15, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Writers Forum presents Abigail Samoun at Copperfield’s, 140 Kentucky St. Free. Details: www.TheWriteSpot.us

Poets Kathleen Winter, Dean Rader, and Phyllis Meshulam will be reading on Saturday, March 17, 7:00 p.m. as part of WordTemple Poetry Series at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S. High St., Sebastopol. Santa Rosa poet Greg Randall hostsDetails forthcoming at: www.wordtemple.com

Reading for the anthology Know Me Here on Saturday, March 24, 7:00 p.m. Copperfield’s Books in Novato The evening will be emceed by Terry Ehret. For those anthology poets who would like to participate in the reading, please contact Terry at tehret99@comcast.net. Copperfield’s is located at 999 Grant Avenue in Novato.

Local Summer Writing Conferences

March is a great time to be thinking about attending a writing conference this summer. Luckily, we have two in neighboring Mendocino and Napa Counties that are terrific. I’ve attended both multiple times, both as a participant and a presenter, and can highly recommend the experience for writers at all stages in their careers.

July 29-August 3 Napa Valley Writers Conference. Applications are open now through April 1, 2018.

Faculty for the 2018 conference include Camille Dungy, Brenda Hillman, Jane Mead, and Carl Phillips, and fiction writers Lan Samantha Chang, Lauren Groff, Mat Johnson, and Howard Norman. For application information and details, visit the website at http://www.napawritersconference.org/

August 2-4  Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference. This is a vibrant gathering that offers morning workshops in a wide range of genres, relevant to differing experience levels—from a dedicated emerging writers’ workshop to a juried-in master class. Afternoons are packed with craft seminars, pitch panels, one-on-one consultations, and open mics; and every evening offers an opportunity to enjoy the camaraderie and connection that make this conference, in the words of a 2016 participant, “life changing.” An add-on or stand-alone publishing bootcamp is offered the day after the conference for all those interested in learning more about the business-end of writing.

A range of scholarships are available to make the conference accessible to writers from diverse backgrounds and to reward writing of outstanding merit. Each scholarship is awarded on the basis of merit to a recipient who meets the eligibility criteria of that scholarship.

Conference faculty include Elizabeth Rosner, Susan Bono, Indigo Moor, Linda Joy Meyers, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Vanessa Hua, Shanthi Shekaran, Elizabeth McKenzie, and others. Registration opens March 1: For details, check out the website: http://mcwc.org/.

Poem for March

March is Women’s History Month and February was Black History Month. As I write this, straddling the two occasions, I offer this short poem by Lucille Clifton. To hear it in the poet’s own voice, click here:

https://youtu.be/ZZN7hzmbi6E?list=PLB0uqVEuzoEd6QEVKKykzloVUJTLiGZ0I

Let there be new flowering

let there be new flowering
in the fields let the fields
turn mellow for the men
let the men keep tender
through the time let the time
be wrested from the war
let the war be won
let love be
at the end

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“Let there be new flowering” from good woman: poems and a memoir 1969-1980 by Lucille Clifton. Copyright © 1987. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update co-editor