Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

I am writing this post from the Paradise Inn at Mount Rainier in Washington, in the last days of a three-week road trip through the Pacific Northwest. Up on the mountain, we’ve had glorious weather, which has made it possible to see three great peaks to the south: Mount Adams, Mount Hood, and Mount Saint Helens. Outside my window in the Paradise Inn, swallows swoop and dart, and at nightfall, a full moon lights the sky and the snow-clad slopes. It’s been thirty years since last I visited Rainier, and it continues to be a source of wonder and awe. Over these past weeks, we’ve been to Crater Lake, Bend, Salem, Gig Harbor, Seattle, the Olympic Peninsula, and now Rainier. We’ll spend a few days in Ashland before heading home to Sonoma County.

Christopher Nolan’s Film Adaptation of The Odyssey
While we’ve been on the road, the release of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey has sparked many conversations and prompted some very thoughtful reviews. I’ve been enjoying the ones posted on Facebook, though I haven’t yet seen the film myself. Among the reviews I read were those by Emily Wilson (who has translated both the Iliad and Odyssey), Brenda Hillman, Barbara Ungar, and Michael Joseph Arcangelini. What I’m enjoying is the revival of Homer as a subject of conversation. It’s fun to hear writers sharing their first exposure to Homer—usually in high school—and how the mythic stories have held up through the years. I was even more surprised to overhear several conversations among hikers on the Paradise trails who were engaged in debates with their fellow hikers about the role of women in the Odyssey and the way women bear the blame for the wrong that men do, the absence of gods and goddesses, and the pros and cons of Matt Damon’s version of Odysseus. When I arrived at my friend’s farm on the Olympic Peninsula last week, I noticed a wooden oar leaning against her barn. “You have an oar,” I noted, a little surprised because the only boat in sight was a motorboat. “Yes, I’ve carried it here like Odysseus, who couldn’t rest till he found people who didn’t know what an oar is.” Whatever the merits or demerits of Nolan’s Hollywood IMAX blockbuster version of this story, it’s brought the epic into conversation in a way I’ve never seen before.

This is the cover art for a book called Odysseus and the Oar: Healing after War and Military Service, by Adam Magers. Seeing this among the images of the Odyssey got me thinking that perhaps the conversations Nolan’s film is inspiring might also begin some healing dialogue about war. I know that rereading the Iliad recently in a workshop with Emily Wilson got me to think about the universal components of grief and irreconcilable loss. What Odysseus had to experience before he could die at peace might be useful for us to revisit as well.

Celebration of Phyllis Meshulalm’s Life
Last month I mentioned that Phyllis Meshulam’s family will be hosting a celebration of her life and work on Sunday, October18. Here are the details.

Some August Events
Friday, August 7, 8:00-10:00 pm. Translator, performer, and poet Haleh Liza Gafori performs her translations of Rumi. Gafori’s most recent book of translations of poetry by the 13th century mystic and sage Rumi entitled Water was released in April of 2025 by New York Review of Books. Dance Palace, 503 B St., Point Reyes Station. Purchase tickets here.

Sunday, August 16, 2:00-4:00 p.m. Roundtable discussion at the Sitting Room with Jean Hegland and Still Time: how writing Still Time helped reframe her understanding of dementia; what kinds of research she did for this project; why she thinks that Shakespeare continues to speak to audiences around the world, and more.  In person at 2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove. Sign up here.

Saturday, August 22, 2:00-4:00 p.m. An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate Claire Drucker, at the Sitting Room, 2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove. Claire plans to read her work and lead us in writing prompts. Come help us celebrate Claire and get inspired to write your own work! Sign up here.

Tuesday, August 25, 6:00-8:30 p.m. Poetry Lives! A Monthly Workshop and Open Mic at Sebastapol Center for the Arts (282 South High Street, Sebastopol). The hour-long workshop facilitated by poet Jordan Ranft is dedicated to learning craft elements, discovering new poets, and generating new work. It is not mandatory to participate in the workshop to be a part of the open mic or vice versa. This event is all ages. $5/10/15/20 sliding scale for workshop. Details and registration: sebarts.org/classes-lectures/poetry-lives-august-25th-2026

Poem for August
Since I started featuring Sonoma County writers at the end of each month’s post, I’ve discovered authors who are entirely new to me, some of whom were making their publishing debut here in the Literary Update. This month’s author, Sheila Jones, is relatively new to publishing, though she’s been writing all her life. If you’re interested in submitting a poem or short prose piece, scroll down for the guidelines.

____

TP SHIRT
By Sheila Jones

This is all your fault
I wouldn’t get hurt
If you hadn’t left me
Alone to flirt
So bad I cry
Each night alone
All your fault
I’m so sad and sick
Of being alone all by myself
Getting older each day
I want it to change
So I see it this way
I fell in love
With a beautiful boy
A beautiful boy in a Tom Petty shirt
Wearing black leather
that makes me flirt
I want to be young
With a really short skirt
Get his attention
Kiss his lips hug his face
It’s all your fault
That I turned into this
Why did you leave me
Alone like this
The rest of my life
Is rolling by fast
I’ll be in love forever
Hope this spell won’t last
That beautiful boy
With the Tom Petty shirt
God he’s so gorgeous
I’m just a huge flirt

____

Sheila Jones is originally from NYC. She sang in the Group Image Band which released an album called A Mouth in the Clouds. She came to San Francisco in 1969. She has lived her life writing, living in Mexico with the Maya, riding horses, and playing music. Last year she discovered the literary communities of the Sebastopol Writers and Redwood Writers Club, and has been published in the 2025 SebArts Writers Anthology, Switching to ON!

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
In 2024, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer 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). Be patient, as I sometimes have a backlog of poems I’ve selected to publish.

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.

Terry Ehret, co-editor
Sonoma County Literary Update