Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear literary folk,

Terry is traveling this holiday season, and I’m covering her beat this first month of 2019. Here’s a sampling of what we can look forward to on the literary front in January:

Barbara Baer’s new book The Last Devadas will be launched Sunday, January 13, 3:00 p.m. at Occidental Center for the Arts. Passionate and forbidden love clashes with tradition and caste in a changing India. Selected readings, Indian dance troupe performance, Q&A, book sales and signing. Exotic refreshments. Admission free, all donations gratefully accepted. Wine and beer for sale, refreshments by donation. OCA is located at 3850 Doris Murphy Court, Bohemian Hwy at Graton Rd. and is wheelchair accessible. For more info: 707-874-9392 or occidentalcenterforthearts.com.

Our local readers theater, Off the Page, will present their new show, “What Goes Around…” on Friday and Saturday, January 18 and 19 (7:00 p.m.) at Copperfield’s Books in Santa Rosa, and on Sunday, January 20 (3:00 p.m.) at Abacus in Sebastapol. (See calendar for details.) Off the Page is a Sebastopol-based readers theater group dedicated to supporting the works of local writers and actors. Musical opening by Patrick Michael McCarty and the stories, plays and poems of these writers: David Beckman, Malena Eljumaily, Jeremy Mitchell, Peter Moller, Margo Perin, Laurie Reaume, Jo-Anne Rosen, Linda Saldaña, Lisa Shulman, and Bright Winn. Copperfield’s Books, 775 Village Court, Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa. Abacus is located at 101 S. Main St., Sebastopol. Tickets at the door: $15 general, $10 students.

Sunday January 20, 2:00-4:00 p.m. Fiction and Poetry Mixer at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 High Street, Sebastopol. Ron Thomas will be featured reading from his recently published novel, I Want To Walk You Home. Devika Brandt, Donna Emerson, and Helen Heal will read poetry.

Sonoma County in Print: We were not notified of any new books being published in December, which is not unusual at end of year, but congratulations to several authors who were published in literary journals. See https://socolitupdate.com/sonoma-county-in-print for details. Please do let us know when you’ve got a poem, story or book newly in print. And do check the Calls for Submission page for publishing opportunities.

Petaluma-based Wordrunner eChapbooks will be considering fiction, memoir/CNF and poetry for the spring 2019 anthology, to be published in April 2018. The theme is Upheavals—any disruption or disturbance of the natural order of things. (Disclaimer: I publish this hybrid chapbook-literary journal, along with a few writer-colleagues, three times annually.) As always, we are looking for emotional complexity and clear, uncluttered writing, and we’d be very pleased to publish local authors. Readings are blind. Submissions are open January 1 to February 28, 2019. Authors are paid. We are proud of our 35 issues to date, some of which are also available in ebook format. Take a look at www.echapbook.com for top-notch writing, all of it free online. Guidelines and submission link are at http://echapbook.com/submissions.html

Wishing all of you a creative and joyous new year,

Jo-Anne Rosen
co-editor, Sonoma County Literary Update