Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

Congratulations to Our Next Sonoma County Poet Laureate, Dave Seter!

The Sonoma County Poet Laureate Selection Committee is proud to announce that Dave Seter has been named Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2024-2026 from a field of gifted and well-qualified finalists. His term runs from August 2024 through July 2026.

Every Poet Laureate is a Sonoma County resident whose poetry manifests a high degree of excellence, who has produced a critically acclaimed body of work, and who has demonstrated a commitment to the literary arts in Sonoma County.

Dave Seter is a civil/environmental engineer, poet and essayist. He is the author of Don’t Sing to Me of Electric Fences (Cherry Grove Collections, 2021) and Night Duty (Main Street Rag, 2010). He writes about social and environmental issues, including the intersection of the built world and the natural world. He is also an emerging translator of contemporary Lithuanian poetry. His poems have won the KNOCK Ecolit Prize and received third place in the William Matthews competition. He is the recipient of two Pushcart nominations. His poems, essays, and book reviews have appeared in various publications including Appalachia, Cider Press Review, The Florida Review, The Hopper, The Museum of Americana, Poetry Northwest (forthcoming), and others. He has been an Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts, and has served on the Board of Directors of Marin Poetry Center. He earned his undergraduate degree in engineering from Princeton University and his graduate degree in humanities from Dominican University of California.

Dave’s project will be a county-wide initiative based on “Our California,” a poetry project developed by California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick and the California Arts Council. The first phase of “Our California” encourages individual Californians to write poems and submit them for posting on the arts council’s website. Dave will expand the concept in Sonoma County into more of a community-based project incorporating workshops and supportive readings of “Our Sonoma County” poems generated in the workshops. “The idea is to encourage dialogue on what it means to live in Sonoma County, and to assemble a poetic collage of Sonoma County’s history which incorporates a wide range of voices from diverse cultural backgrounds.” Workshops and readings associated with this project would take place primarily within our county library system and would be distributed throughout as wide a range of geographic locations within the county as possible. All events would be free to the public. No prior experience with poetry would be necessary for anyone wishing to attend and participate.

The Sebastopol Center for the Arts, along with the Poet Laureate Selection Committee, invites the public to a reception on Sunday, August, 18, 2024 at 2 PM. We’ll be honoring our outgoing Poet Laureate Elizabeth Herron and our new Laureate Dave Seter. Register for the reception on the SebArts website at sebarts.org/classeslectures/p/soco-poet-laureate-inauguration-dave-seter.

Remembering Jackie Kudler

43 years ago at the Napa Valley Poetry Conference (it was strictly poetry in its first few years), I met the brilliant poet Jackie Kudler. Though she lived and taught in Marin County and served on the board of the Marin Poetry Center, she was also well-known and loved by many of us in Sonoma County. 25 years ago, Jackie and I and five other Bay Area poets joined our visions to launch Sixteen Rivers Press. Her wisdom, candidness, humor, poetry and articles on local hikes were gifts for which she will long be remembered. Jackie died in June of complications of ALS. This fall Sixteen Rivers will release a posthumous collection of her poems, Ripenings. Her previous publications are Sacred Precinct and Easing Into Dark, both available at shop.sixteenrivers.org/collections/all.

To read one of Jackie’s poems, “The Machines,” scroll down to the Poem for June at the end of this post.

Petaluma Poetry Walk GoFundMe Campaign

The 2024 Petaluma Poetry Walk is coming up on September 15, but we need your help to fund this year’s event. The goal is to raise $2,000 to cover some expenses and to make sure the featured authors are paid a small stipend—usually enough to cover their expenses for gas and food. John Johnson and Dave Seter are organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Bill Vartnaw.

If you can contribute something, however small, please check out the GoFundMe page: gofundme.com/f/PetalumaPoetryWalk2024

The Poetry Walk begins 11:00 a.m. at Hotel Petaluma and winds up for the Grand Finale at Aqus Cafe, 6:00-8:00 p.m. The schedule may be found at: petalumapoetrywalk.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Readings for Reverberations

For Reverberations 2024, Sebastopol Center for the Arts (SebArts) is bringing together 56 rarely-seen works from curated Sonoma County collections along with 56 original ekphrastic poems written by some of the Bay Area’s most notable poets. These works offer an intimate adventure into realms of visual and literary art, shown side-by-side, supporting and enhancing meaning and expression.

The SebArts gallery is open Tuesday-Sunday: 10 am-4 pm with extended hours on Fridays: 10 am-7 pm. Reverberations 2024 will be on display through August 10. This month there will be two poetry readings by poets whose work is featured in the Reverberations Exhibit.

Tuesday, July 9, 2:00-4:00 p.m. This reading features Margaret Barkley, Amrita Skye Blaine, Terry Ehret, Robin Gabbert, Patricia Hartnett, Alicia Hugg, Karl Kadie, Briahn Kelly-Brennan, Patricia Nelson, Jean Wong.. Readings are free (separate $25 admission to Reverberations art show). Details/registration: sebarts.org/classes-lectures/poetry-readings-reverberations-2024-jul-9-2024

Sunday, July 21, 1:00-3:00 p.m. This reading feature: Susan Ackerman, Barbara Armstrong, Laura Blatt, Abby Bogomolny, Fran Carbonaro, Nancy Dougherty, Rebecca Evert, Gwynn O’Gara, Linda L Reid, Lee Rossi and Robert Thomas. Readings are free (separate $25 admission to Reverberations art show). Details/registration: sebarts.org/classes-lectures/poetry-readings-reverberations-2024-jul-21-2024

In the Dark

Off the Page Readers Theater and Redwood Writers invites local North Bay writers of all genres to submit up to five pieces of writing that may be selected for a dramatic reading. The theme is “In the Dark.”

It happens to us all, doesn’t it?

Someone comes to us, expecting something, and we feel clueless about the particular  circumstance….. or, we find ourselves in a place and time that we don’t recognize.

Then there’s the literal meaning …The physical dark holds the unseen, mystery, romance, danger, nightmares and sweet dreams…

… What does it mean for you?

For details about submitting your work and submission guidelines, visit redwoodwriters.org/2024-in-the-dark/

Signups are Currently Open for the Poetry Postcard Fest!

Do you love to write? Want to expand your horizons?

Organized by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, the Poetry Postcard Fest is a self-guided 56 day workshop that involves receiving a mailing list of other poets to whom they will send 31 first draft poems on postcards. The structure of the fest allows for flexibility of time to write and send the postcards, but it is suggested the poems be written and sent between July 4 and August 31st. Postcards can be purchased or hand-made, and participants are encouraged to be creative with themes and images!

It’s a great way to jump-start your creative spirit and enhance your writing career and connect to other writers! In fact, in 2023 the fest had 517 participants in 8 different countries and 44 different states and 5 Canadian provinces.

The fest is open to people who contribute at least $22 U.S. to the Cascadia Poetics Lab and register by July 4th. Register here: cascadiapoeticslab.org/ppf-2024-event-registration

What is this all about?

Throughout the duration of the fest, participants are encouraged to put poetry in the forefront of their lives by perceiving every moment as possible material for poetry, as well as putting aside time in their day to write postcard poems and read poetry for inspiration. The festival is seen as an exercise of both community and discipline, to dedicate oneself to writing thirty-one poems in 56 days, using limited space and mailing the postcards to other participant poets around the world. As described by participant Ina Roy-Faderman in a testimonial describing the 2016 Poetry Postcard Festival, “the words are out in space to touch someone else. And someone is sending you an essential moment of themselves–out of the goodness of their hearts, out of a willingness to commit to a piece of deep honesty and trust–which you get to hold in your hands.”

Find out more here: cascadiapoeticslab.org/how-it-works

But I’m not a poet! Can I still participate in this event?

Yes! Writers who already create poetry will naturally gravitate towards poetry events and contests, but what about writers who have never written a poem? This event is for you as well.

Cascadia Poetics Lab encourages the love of poetry and gives writers the opportunity to finish a project. Short form writing is invigorating, fun, and life changing. Think of how much joy the receiver will get when your poem arrives in the mail. Then, think of what it will feel like to finish a poem and release it to the world. This is truly the writer’s life.

We believe that poetry is the nexus at which self-knowledge, bioregionalism and expansive creativity converge. Cascadia Poetics Lab is a vibrant community whose workshops, festivals, and opportunities for connection can open the door to transformative experiences.

When does registration close?

July 4th, so get your registrations in soon! cascadiapoeticslab.org/ppf-2024-event-registration

Literary Event Schedule for the 2024 Napa Valley Writers’ Conference

July 21 – 26, 2024 – NVWC 2024 – 43rd anniversary conference
Maybe you’re already planning to attend this year’s Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, working closely in workshop with a writer you admire, attending craft lectures and readings. If so, lucky you! This year’s line-up is stellar!

But maybe you can only get away for an evening reading or a morning or afternoon lecture. Consider attending these events ala carte, so to speak. I hope to attend Emily Wilson’s craft lecture on translation and Bruce Snider’s “ Poetic Form in the Age of Trump.” Surely there’s something here that peaks your curiosity and fits your budget. There are even free drop-in community classes with Maw Shein Win and Carolyn Goodwin.  I can highly recommend both these excellent teachers/writers who will provide insight and discussion of the evening’s featured readers and their work.

For details about these events, check out this month’s calendar page.

EVENING READINGS
(Performing Arts Center, Napa Campus, Napa Valley College)
Sunday, July 21, 6:30 pm – Bruce Snider & Jamil Jan Kochai
Monday, July 22, 6:30 pm – Jane Hirshfield & Peter Ho Davies
Tuesday, July 23, 6:30 pm – Jan Beatty & Lysley Tenorio (reading takes place at Silverado Vineyards)
Wednesday, July 24, 5:30 pm – C. Dale Young & Lan Samantha Chang
Thursday, July 25, 6:30 pm – Emily Wilson & featured participants

DAILY CRAFT TALKS
(Performing Arts Center, Napa Campus, Napa Valley College)
Monday, July 22:
9 am – C. Dale Young – “Doubt and Uncertainty: The Adverbial Gesture as Rhetorical Strategy”
1:30 pm – Lan Samantha Chang – “Scope and Scale in the Novel and Short Story”
3 pm – Emily Wilson – “Re-translation, Why and How?”

Tuesday, July 23:
9 am – Bruce Snider – “SESTINAMERICA: Poetic Form in the Age of Trump”
1:30 pm – Jamil Jan Kochai – “Showing through Telling”

Wednesday July 24:
9 am – Jane Hirshfield – “Past? Present? Future? Verb Tense As Life Sense”
1:30 pm – Peter Ho Davies – “Truth or (Auto)Fiction?”

Thursday, July 25:
9 am – Jan Beatty – “The Beauty of Collision”
1:30 pm – Lysley Tenorio – “And Then We Came to the End: Notes on Endings.”

Friday, July 26:
9 am – First Books Panels in Fiction and Poetry – Please check back for locations

FREE DROP-IN COMMUNITY CLASSES
(Community room, McCarthy Library, Napa Campus, Napa Valley College)
Monday, July 22 – Friday, July 26 Poetry Encounter with Maw Shein Win 10:30 am
Monday, July 22 – Thursday, July 25: Guided Reading Class with Caroline Goodwin 4:30 pm

Each daytime event takes place on the Napa Valley College main campus, at 2277 Napa Vallejo Hwy, Napa, CA 94558.
Tuesday’s evening event will be held at Silverado Winery.

2024 PRICING for public admission
(tickets sold on-site prior to each Reading and Craft Talk)

Individual reading: $20
Individual craft talk: $25
Full week pass (all craft talks and readings): $275
Lectures-only pass (all 9 craft talks): $200
Readings-only pass (all 5 readings): $90
Single-day pass (two lectures and one reading): $65

______

Poem for June

The Machines
by Jacqueline Kudler

First the grill ignition failed,
then, not ten days later and
two months after you died,
the fridge condenser went, but slowly—
for days I watched
the glacier crawling down
along the back wall.
It wasn’t too much longer
before the timers in the double
oven and the upright freezer
quit, as if some universal
clock had simply stopped
somewhere, all dials fixed
at midnight.

By his fourth call,
the National Appliance guy
opined he’d never witnessed
such a run of luck—
everything breaking down
like that around me.
He hoped (with eyes
accustomed to assessing
hairline cracks and fissures)
that I was holding up okay.

I told him how my days,
amazingly enough, go well.
I wake, bathe, lunch with
friends, call the kids,
and at night, when I sit
down at the table, I light
a candle at your place.
Oh, I’m doing well
enough, I said,
but given their histories,
the nature of their finely
wired dispositions,
I wouldn’t presume
to speak
for the machines.

from Easing Into Dark (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2012)

______

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-editor