Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

Yesterday (6/30/25) at Café Frida, Audrey Meshulam, Phyllis Meshulam’s daughter, shared a handful of amazing poems from Phyllis’s newly released book (Re) Creations, just recently published by Kelsay Press. Audrey’s presentation was moving and powerful. Many of you know that Phyllis is living with a degenerative neurological disease, so we in the listening audience felt very grateful for the way she brought Phyllis’s voice and wisdom to us all.

Bravo to Gwynn O’Gara for hosting Sunday’s reading and for helping the series, which Ed Coletti started during our Covid years, to move forward.

Here is one of the poems Audrey presented, one which speaks of the life-affirming mother-daughter bond, and the work we must all do to resist this runaway train of our country, our violence, our destructiveness.

Dear Editor
for Christine Blasey Ford

There’s my grandma waving from the train window,
Smart, probing. What was a girl like that,
born in the 1880s, to do? Write letters,
some to newspapers, teach
Sunday School. When she died,
I hid a few letters in the attic of her house
so something of her would remain.
She speeds past.
There’s me at 24 in therapy.
The couch flashes past like a train car.
The girl is bright, insecure, not pretty.
The therapist is her father’s age,
promises sexual liberation, freedom from
self-doubts. Says he knows what she wants,
what she’s wanted for a long time. She thinks,
I do? I have?
The train speeds along,
driven by a patriarchal God.
I see a train car paneled like the Senate hearing room,
and Dr. Blasey Ford raising her hand,
swearing her truth, shy but certain
in the chambers of power, like
Susanna of the book of Daniel.
There’s Susanna covering herself with her shawl
while the lecherous elders leer, plot to extort favors.
There are Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey of Salem,
shaking their heads, loosened by the noose.
Anita Hill presses her face to the glass
to see if anything in the landscape has changed.
I see myself in the window of my laptop,
typing, typing. Writing letter after letter.
One for grandma, another for mom,
one for auntie, one for each daughter,
sister, girlfriend.
All the letters are for the women on this train,
or anyone carrying these scars.
Like a speeding train, I aim letters to papers
across the country, trying to ghost write a reckoning.

You can order a copy of Phyllis’s book on the Kelsay Press website: https://kelsaybooks.com/products/recreations.

On Saturday, July 12, at 6 PM FLAMENCO! LIVE! sets the stage on fire with the fury and passion of Spain’s legendary Gypsies (Roma) for a Dinner Show in the intimate atmosphere of THE BIG EASY. Stirring dances, blazing guitars, and soulful singing will transport you to another place and time.
 
The evening event is held at The Big Easy Club and Restaurant, 128 American Alley in Petaluma. Doors open at 5:00. $25 entry fee.

In addition to musicians and dancers, there will be live poetry as Raphael Block and John Johnson will recite poems by Lorca.

For more information, call (707) 774-9072.

Celebrate Three New Books with Iota Press
Sunday July 13, 2:00-4:00 p.m. North Bay Letterpress Arts printshop will host a unique reading and discussion of three books recently published by authors associated with the letterpress community: John Johnson, whose collection of luminous prose poems, Toss Repeat, was published by SurVision Books of Ireland after winning their James Tate Prize; judi goldberg, whose innovative memoir, COMMON CURRENCY: the shapes of words, is a cross genre romp about change, language and how we tell the stories we do; and Eric Johnson, author of Journeyman’s Dues, a set of stories and essays drawn from his experiences as a young union carpenter on monumental projects on the West Coast from 1965-83. NBLA, 925D Gravenstein Hwy., Sebastopol. Details: northbayletterpressarts.org/upcoming-events-1

“Summer Transversals” at Virtual Belmont Poetry Night
Belmont, located “down the peninsula” south of San Francisco, was my home town. In the 50s and 60s, it was a middle-class/working class town, which had no arts scene, no bookstore, and no café culture. But its library was where I discovered the fantasy landscapes of Narnia, The Borrowers, Half Magic, A Traveler in Time—my childhood passports to other worlds. Fast forward 60 years, and Belmont is a thriving upscale community with a dazzling library, several bookstores and cafes, and its own poet laureate, and a monthly poetry night.

I’ve been invited by Monica Korde, Belmont’s current poet laureate and curator of the series, to be the featured reader on Tuesday, July 15, 7:00-8:30 pm, when the theme is “Summer Transversals: The Art of Translation.” I’ll be reading some of Ulalume González de León’s poems from Plagios/Plagiarisms (all three volumes), as well as some of my own poems of travel.

This is a virtual event on Zoom. Reading will be followed by Open Mic. Share a poem of your own or by a favorite poet. Or just pour a cup of tea and listen in. We welcome friends in poetry from around the world, so please share!

To participate & read for Open Mic, email monicakorde@gmail.com.


Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, July 20-25
Each summer writers gather at Napa Valley College for a week of workshops, critique sessions, readings, and craft lectures. Some of these are open to the public, This year’s faculty includes Poetry: Victoria Chang, Brenda Hillman, Major Jackson, Brian Teare; Fiction: Lan Samantha Chang, Mitchell S. Jackson, Margot Livesey, Sarah Thankam Mathews; Translation: Robert Hass, and Special Guests: Caroline Goodwin & Didi Jackson.

If you’re looking for inspiration for your own writing projects, see the readings and craft lectures on the Literary Update’s calendar page, or check out at this link: https://www.napawritersconference.org/napa-valley-writers-conference/2025-readings-craft-talks-schedule/

Among the public events are these, which are FREE to the community, held in the Community room, McCarthy Library, Napa Campus, Napa Valley College.

Monday to Friday – 10:30 – 11:30 am – Poetry drop-in generative workshop with Didi Jackson
Monday to Thursday – 4:30 – 5:30 pm – Evening reading guided class with Caroline Goodwin

Abby Bogomolny’s Creative Writing English 4ABC
Looking for a creative writing class this fall? Discover ways to tap your experience and develop a unique voice! We’ll practice poetry, fiction, memoir, and drama—plus way to free our imagination and hear the music of words. We’ll learn poetic devices and brush up on our writing skills in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

Class begins in Fall 2025 Santa Rosa Junior College, and meet on Wednesdays, 6-9 PM. For more information, contact abagomolny@santarosa.edu.

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Poem for July
This poem, by Shawna Swetech, captures the slow time and playful energy of summer, a welcome antidote to the crushing political news we wake up to each day. Its title is the Latin word “Solstium,” from sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still). Shawna shared this: “[The Solstice] is when the sun reaches its northernmost position . . . when the world takes a d eep breath while the motion of the seasons comes to a momentary halt. A time of the midsummer’s night . . . when the barriers between nature and magic, between reality and fantasy disappear.”

Take a deep breath and enjoy your own memories of summers past and present.

If you have a poem or short prose piece you’d like me to consider for a future Literary Update post, scroll down to the end of this post where you’ll find the submission guidelines. They’re very simple, and all are welcome.

Solstitium
by Shawna Swetech

June 21, sun at its northern zenith. So many now,
each one luscious of body, of radiant joy.
Let’s mimic the day and stand still a while,
track clouds across the face of sunflowers,
the full-leafed fig. Let’s bare our freckled
arms and legs to the warm breeze. Oh,
this barefoot happiness! Let it go on forever—
this slowed time of watermelon and ice cream.
This life moved outside. Let’s go ride bikes.
Let’s paddle board on the lake and pretend
we’re fish, or trees pulling cool water into roots.
Just beings, floating here under the bluest sky
of the longest day—our stirred souls
shouting,
Yes! Yes!


Shawna L. Swetech—a retired hospital nurse, is a poet and visual artist. Her poetry appears in Rattle, The Healing Muse, Marin Poetry Anthology, Ars Medica, Pulse, and the American Journal of Nursing, among others. Her poems and art, ranging from the personal to the political, draw inspiration from the deep wells of human nature and the natural world. Shawna is a co-host for monthly poetry reading series, Rivertown Poets. Her first poetry collection based on her nursing career, entitled Standing In Their Fire, is due for publication in late summer, 2025, by Kelsay Books. Shawna believes poetry and art are important healing medicines for the ills of our modern world.

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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