Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

Happy Cross-Season Day, Groundhog Day, Saint Brigit’s Day, Imbolc, or Lá Fhéile Bríde, the Celtic Goddess Brigid’s Day—however you celebrate our shortest month, halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Last week, I heard the first frogs of the season singing their love-chorus along the banks of Thompson Creek—a sure sign of spring on the way. It’s the Year of the Snake, as the Chinese celebrate it, and though 2025 already feels like a very bumpy ride, the Wood Snake in Chinese tradition represents wisdom, intelligence, adaptability, intuition, and transformation—all qualities we’ll need in the months and years ahead.

Three Local Writers Remembered
Three wonderful writers have left us in the past month: Margaret Kaufman, Joe Zaccardi, and Casey FitzSimons. I want to take time to honor each of these writers and what they have contributed to their literary communities.

Margaret Kaufman was a dear friend and fellow founding member of Sixteen Rivers Press. A poet, short story writer, teacher, and editor, Margaret was also very active with Temple Emmanu-El and with her family, and she taught workshops on writing at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco. One of her poems, Aunt Sallie’s Lament, was published as a piece of book art, designed by Claire Van Vliet, using colored pages to mimic quilt pattern pieces, and words as stiches to weave a poignant narrative of a prairie woman. Another long poem, Sarah’s Sacrifice, published by Gefn Press, was set into cantata form by Ben Steinberg. Other books include Inheritance and Snake at the Wrist (both from Sixteen Rivers Press). In the last decade of her life, she struggled with dementia. She passed away on January 3, 2025. Fellow friend Valerie Berry said of Margaret, “She had that “Southern lady” style where graciousness was second nature, but watch out for the wit that could leave you wondering what butterfly just bashed some sense into you.”

Joe Zaccardi came to poetry “nel mezzo del cammin,” after a career that included being a medic in the Vietnam War. Joe was a poet of grace and sensitivity, evident in his collections The Weight of Bodily Touches from Kelsay Books and Songbirds of the Nine Rivers from Sixteen Rivers Press. One of Joe’s goals was to make of poetry an instrument of healing; indeed he was one of the kindest and most decent human beings I’ve ever known. Joe served as a board member and editor of the Marin Poetry Center Anthology 2010–2012. As poet laureate of Marin County (2012–2013), one of his projects was an anthology called Changing Harm into Harmony, on the subject of bullies and bystanders. A member of the LGBTQ community, Zaccardi believed that to write a single poem is a minor miracle. Mutual friend Murray Silverstein remembers this about the manuscript Joe submitted to Sixteen Rivers, destined to become Songbirds of the Nine Rivers: “I recall thinking, once I knew it was Joe’s, this is one man’s act of reparation, through poetry, for Viet Nam (where, of course, he served). And that made me love the book even more. The phrase “the redress of poetry” kept coming into my mind today (the title of one of Heaney’s books from years back) and I kept wondering why. Then, of course, it dawned: it’s what Joe achieved with Songbirds. . . . and really with the whole sequence of his books: each spoke to the world at such a different angle.” Joe passed away on January 15, 2025.

The poetry community mourns the loss of poet Casey FitzSimons, who passed on December 24, 2024.Casey was a frequent featured reader at San Francisco Bay Area poetry venues. She self-published 15 poetry books. She taught art in San Francisco for many years, was Director of Fine Arts at the Academy of Art College, served on the editorial staff of the Marin Poetry Center Anthology, and offered workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area on poetry craft and criticism. For those who wish to remember Casey, a tribute and poetry open mic celebrating her life will be held on April 12, 2025, in Half Moon Bay. Click on this link for more details about Casey’s life and work: pw.org/directory/writers/casey_fitzsimons.

Rivertown Poets Welcomes Sonoma County’s Poet Laureate and Youth Laureates
On Monday, February 3, at 6:15 p.m. Rivertown Poets, triple-header reading and open mic: featured poets will be Dave Seter, current Sonoma County Poet Laureate for 2024-2026, Youth Poet Laureate Lisa Zheng, and Youth Poet Ambassador Sabine Wolpert. Come early for dinner, good seats, and to sign up for open mic. The café fills fast. Aqus Cafe is located at 189 H Street. Open mic follows the readings. Please limit your share to one poem of less than three minutes.

Spring Workshops with Dave Seter
Our Sonoma County Poet Laureate, Dave Seter, will be leading three workshops hosted by the Sebastopol Center for the Arts this Spring. Sign up for one or all three.

Sunday March 2: Abstraction through Form
Sunday March 30: Documentary Poetry
Sunday May 4: Interweaving Text

These workshops form a series of Poetry Challenges because they are meant to help poets expand the boundaries of what they might normally choose as subjects or poetic styles. That said, these workshops are meant for all levels from the beginning poet to the more experienced poet.

Seter is donating his time, so any fees go directly to support programs at SebArts.

Follow this link for more details and to sign up: sebarts.org/literary-arts

Rumi’s Caravan Coming to Sebastopol
On Saturday, February 8, 7:00 p.m. A Benefit for SebARTS: Rumi’s Caravan 2025, An Evening of Poetry and Music in the Ecstatic Tradition at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 High Street, Sebastapol. Tickets from $25.00. More information and registration: sebarts.org/classeslectures/p/a-benefit-for-sebarts-rumis-caravan-2025

Have You Got a Book in You?
On Thursday, February 20, 6:00-8:00 p.m. The first of four weekly sessions of “There’s a Book in Me!” with author and Creative Writing Professor Noelle Oxenhandler. $100 for the entire course. At the Sonoma Community Center, 276 E Napa Street, Sonoma.

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Poem for February

Yes and No Tsunami
by William Greenwood

I drove out on the wharf
the middle of a Friday as agreed,
no matter that the February clouds
weighed in like concrete blocks.

The worn planks rumbled
under my slow wheels
until, once inside, I grabbed
a table by the picture window,
watched the water roll and
searched the bay for gumption.

Who knows what we had to eat
―lunch lasted into dinner.
No tsunamis hit the coast
that afternoon, but my Richter
seismographic kept on
going off the charts.

William Greenwood has published translations from the Guatemalan of poet Arqueles Morales and three chapbooks of his own poetry: Into the Center of America (Green Horse Press), Landscape/Cityscape (WordTemple Press), and most recently Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Hope (Green Horse Press).

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Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections for 2025
Starting in January of 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer each month at the end of the Literary Update Post. Here’s how to participate.

The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ve adjusted the subject line so you won’t feel limited to sending lineated verse. In fact, prose poems, flash fiction, creative nonfiction are all welcome, as long as the piece you send is no more than a page in length.

Send your submission to me at tehret99@comcast.net, with “SCLU Poem/Prose of the Month” in the subject heading.

Send me just one submission, no more than a page (or less).

These can be previously published, provided you identify the publishing source. If the piece is not your own, provide the author’s name and source. The author should be a Sonoma County voice, and if contemporary, please ask the author’s permission to submit.

Deadline: You can send the submission any time during the month, but I’ll need to receive your submission a few days before the month’s end to give me time to read, make my choice, and contact the author of the piece selected.

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Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor