Sonoma County Literary Update

Hi, Literary Folk!

We had some damn good fun last month with book launches, readings, and the Poetry Walk. Such a pleasure and honor to read with Elizabeth Herron and my fellow poets laureate emeriti! The finale at Aqus Café was sublime!

Tomorrow I’ll be gathering with 50 of my high school classmates and a handful of former teachers for a celebration of our 50th reunion. I went to an all-girls school, and so the gathering will be of women only, except for on male teacher—we did have those! I’ve been helping to organize this event, and doing so has brought me in touch with women from all over the country and who have led such different lives. We had a small class, just 107 graduates, and of these, sadly, 11 have passed away. Asked to say in a pre-reunion questionnaire what memories stand out from our 4 years together, one classmate wrote, “Girls becoming women without boys!” It made me laugh, but it is different when women come of age and into their own without constantly seeing themselves in the mirror of male acceptance and approval. It can be very empowering. Next month, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Suddenly it’s October, time for another literary tradition in Sonoma County: The Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading. (And speaking of “suddenly,” check out the poem for the month at the end of the post. It’s a hoot!)

Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading
On Saturday, October 21, from 6:00 to 8:30 PM, members of the community are invited to attend the annual El Día de los Muertos “Poesía del Recuerdo / Poetry of Remembrance” celebration. We are pleased to announce that this year’s event will take place at Petaluma Historical Library & Museum, 20 4th Street, Petaluma, CA 94952.

Our featured bilingual speakers will include Lalin the Poet (Luis Vasquez) and poet Gina Tello Bugarin; poet and painter Sandra Anfang; artist and community educator Irma Vega Bijou, former Sonoma County Poet Laureate Phyllis Meshulam, and many others. Our host for the evening will be Elizabeth Herron, Sonoma County’s current Poet Laureate.

Those who wish to honor the memory of someone who has departed are encouraged to bring something—a photo or an item that reminds them of their loved one—that can be placed on a community altar for the evening.

Those who would like to participate in the community reading are encouraged to share, in Spanish (or other language) and/or English, a brief poem or remembrance.

Poetry of Remembrance/Poesía del Recuerdo is part of the month-long El Día de los Muertos celebrations held in Petaluma during the month of October, featuring community altars, bilingual storytelling, sugar skull workshops, music, dance, and a procession with giant puppets.

Admission is free. For more information about El Día de Los Muertos events, check out Facebook at El Día de Los Muertos Petaluma.

Sixteen Rivers Press Benefit Will Feature California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick
For three years, Sixteen Rivers has hosted its annual benefit reading as a virtual event. We’re thrilled to return to a live event, complete with delicious food, books by our authors, new anthologies of teen poets, and a reading by California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick.

The benefit will be held on Sunday, October 22 from 2-5 PM at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, Berkeley. Please join us for a delightful afternoon of wine, hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, poetry, good company and conversation. The event is free and open to all. We ask that you use the link below to visit our EventBrite page. Once there, click on “get tickets” to let us know you’re coming. This will help us plan food and beverages for our guests. You can also use the EventBrite page to make a donation, if you’re so inclined. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sixteen-rivers-2023-fall-fundraiser-tickets-680501587567

Helping Writers Publish
Last month, I noticed a couple of workshops offered in Sonoma County focusing on strategies for getting published. Here’s another coming up next week on Sunday, October 8, 2:00-4:00 p.m. Occidental Center for the Arts Literary Series. Prepare to Publish! A General 5-Step Overview with Shawn and Crissi Langwell, Publishing Coaches. Details about cost and registration are on the calendar page.

Barbara Kingsolver reads from Demon Copperhead
When I was first starting out as a writer, I remember discovering Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees. What inspired me in Kingsolver’s novel was the breadth of its scope, and the author daring to engage the politics of single motherhood, adoption, and families that find themselves unexpectedly. I liked the way the novel wove in elements of nonwhite mythology and traditions in which women have power. This kind of writing can seem heavy-handed, yet I didn’t find Kinsolver’s writing to be didactic. It helped me imagine a female-centric narrative.

On Friday, October 13, 7:00 p.m. Book Passage will present Barbara Kingsolver reading from her Pulitzer Prize Winning novel Demon Copperhead. Hosted by Dominican University of California, In Angelico Hall (20 Olive Ave., San Rafael). Details on the calendar page.

“H.D.: Out of the Shadows” with Barbara Beattie
Another author whose struggle to discover her hero’s story inspired me is Hilda Doolittle, better known as HD. She began as an Imagist—the first Imagist, actually—and protégé of Ezra Pound. But she resisted the expectation to become the male poet’s muse, and eventually came to define herself apart from the powerful and patriarchal literary world of post WWI England and Europe. On Saturday, October 14, 2:00 p.m. at the Sitting Room Library. Barbara Beatie, an M.A. student at Sonoma State University will share with participants some of her paper that was presented at the American Literature Association Conference in May 2023. All are welcome and it is free, but please rsvp to Barbara at Beatieba@sonoma.edu. At 2025 Curtis Dr, Penngrove. More details: sittingroomlibrary.org/events.

While you’re at the Sitting Room, check out the Poetry Room. On the wall in a hinged display frame is the issue of Poetry Magazine in which Ezra Pound introduces HD and coins the term Imagiste, a donation to the Sitting Room from Crystal Ockenfus.
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Poem for October

“Tension”
by Billy Collins

“Never use the word suddenly just to create tension.”
– excerpt from Writing Fiction

Suddenly, you were planting some yellow petunias
outside in the garden,
and suddenly I was in the study
looking up the word oligarchy for the thirty-seventh time.

When suddenly, without warning,
you planted the last petunia in the flat,
and I suddenly closed the dictionary
now that I was reminded of that vile form of governance.

A moment later, we found ourselves
standing suddenly in the kitchen
where you suddenly opened a can of cat food
and I just as suddenly watched you doing that.

I observed a window of leafy activity
and, beyond that, a bird perched on the edge
of the stone birdbath
when suddenly you announced you were leaving

to pick up a few things at the market
and I stunned you by impulsively
pointing out that we were getting low on butter
and another case of wine would not be a bad idea.

Who could tell what the next moment would hold?
Another drip from the faucet?
Another little spasm of the second hand?
Would the painting of a bowl of pears continue

to hang on the wall from that nail?
Would the heavy anthologies remain on their shelves?
Would the stove hold its position?
Suddenly, it was anyone’s guess.

The sun rose ever higher.
The state capitals remained motionless on the wall map
when suddenly I found myself lying on a couch
where I closed my eyes and without any warning

began to picture the Andes, of all places,
and a path that led over the mountain to another country
with strange customs and eye-catching hats
suddenly fringed with little colorful, dangling balls.
____________________

Terry Ehret
Co-editor, Sonoma County Literary Update