Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

These words of Rainer Maria Rilke have been on my mind:

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer” (from Letters to a Young Poet.)

Some of us may be feeling stunned and dismayed by the world we awoke to last November 6, trying to find our footing on unfamiliar ground. Rilke’s quote addresses the necessity of living with uncertainty, “try[ing] to love the questions.” I’ve been thinking about what it means to live and love the questions. When I go out walking along the creekside trail near my house, I meet familiar faces, fellow walkers, many with their dogs. We greet each other, both dogs and walkers, perhaps a little cautious of political conversation, till we recognize that we are all walking this path, metaphoric and literal, together. That sense of connection is a language we can understand, a door that isn’t locked to us, and gives us the grounding we need to accept this time of uncertainty. “We’ve been here before,” we say, but in truth, we haven’t.

I first encountered Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet when I was in college and taking my first poetry writing workshops. In a recent romp through very old journals, dating back to 1975, I came upon another quote that was an important touchstone for me back when I was 19 and finding my way by fear or feel towards some kind of life with purpose and meaning. These words may be very familiar to many of you, too. They are from Carlos Castañeda’s The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. Castañeda relates a question Don Juan posed: “Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question… Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use.” Among the questions we’re learning to love and live, let’s add this one about the path we are walking, alone or together, into this unfamiliar world.

I encourage you all to write into the uncertainty, whether the language you find for this is in “a very foreign tongue” or brushes up against familiar forms that help us carry forward with hope. And if you are so inclined, please consider sending your work, prose or poetry, to me for possible inclusion an upcoming Literary Update. I’m especially looking for poems or prose that may help us start the new year. You’ll find submission guidelines at the end of this post.

Literary Events for December

Of course, there are many upcoming events you’ll want to get onto your calendars. Here are two I want to give a shout-out to.

On Monday, December 2, 6:15 p.m. Rivertown Poets goes live at Aqus Café, featuring Rivertown Poets founder and host Sandra Anfang, visiting from her new home in Las Vegas, and co-hosts Monica Volker and Shawna Swetech. Open mic follows the features. Open mic slots are three minutes each, including any introduction or backstory. If you’d like to be added to the list or, have any questions send an email to rivertownpoet@gmail.com. The list fills very quickly; it’s better to sign up and then cancel later, if necessary.

And on Saturday, December 14, 2:00 p.m. Book Passage presents Left Coast Writers®. Featured book: Wandering in American Deserts: Discovery, Visions, Redemption. Speakers TBA. Work by: Madeleine Adkins, J. R. Barnett, Daphne Beyers, Hugh Biggar, Michael J. Fitzgerald, Peg Wendling Gerdes, Cyndi Goddard, Thomas Harrell, Naomi Lopez, Mary Jean Pramik, Anne Sigmon, Tatum Tomlinson, Maw Shein Win, Judy Zimola and more …. Details: bookpassage.com/event/left-coast-writers%C2%AE-wandering-american-deserts-discovery-visions-redemption-corte-madera-store

Call for Submissions for SCW’s Women Artists Datebook

One of my favorite publishers is the Syracuse Cultural Workers in New York state. I’ve promoted their work here before because it is rare to find a group so committed to the creative folk who move our collective vision forward, and so inclusive in their promotion of artists.

This year’s 2025 Women Artists Datebook is available on their website at https://syracuseculturalworkers.com/products/2025-women-artists-datebook-1. You could order a copy for yourself, or to give as gifts. Or browse the website for other items that might suit your taste and needs.

If you like what you see, consider submitting your art or poetry for the 2026 datebook. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2025, but early submissions are welcome. Submission guidelines can be found here: https://syracuseculturalworkers.com/pages/call-for-art.

You can submit these at datebook@SyracuseCulturalWorkers.com. They are also accepting submissions of artwork for their 2026 Peace Calendar, posters, holiday cards, etc.

Annual Call for Submissions for Book-Length Poetry Manuscripts 

Sixteen Rivers Press, a shared-work poetry collective with a three-year commitment, invites Northern California authors to submit full-length poetry manuscripts between November 1, 2024 and February 1, 2025. All manuscripts will be read blind, and typically one or two manuscripts are selected for publication. The winner(s) will be announced on the press’s website during summer 2024. Selected manuscripts will be scheduled for publication in spring 2027.

Online Submissions: Send an e-mail to submissions@sixteenrivers.org with your name, address, phone number, and the name of your manuscript. Attach a PDF of your manuscript to the e-mail address (name the PDF with the title of your manuscript). In the body of the e-mail, please include a personal statement (350 to 500 words) about why you want to work in a publishing collective, including any special experience or skills you might contribute, and tell us where you heard about the press and our call for submissions. The manuscript must be e-mailed no later than February 1, 2025. Note: We do not accept hard-copy manuscripts sent by US mail. Please do not include your name anywhere in your manuscript, as it is important that your manuscript be a blind submission. The manuscript must be single-spaced and between 60 and 90 pages. Manuscripts must be previously unpublished, although individual poems may have been published online or in print. The manuscript should include a title page without the author’s name and address, a table of contents, and an acknowledgments page listing previous publications of the poems.

Sixteen Rivers values diversity. We encourage poets of color, young poets, and LGBTQ poets to submit.

______

Two Poems for December

Last December, as 2023 was coming to an end, Dan Coshnear sent this poem, which I saved for the right occasion. It speaks to me this December, and so I share it with you.

Which Password?

A poem like this could bore you.
It’s about fish farm management,
the history of concrete,
the mating rituals of lepidoptera,
and the difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit.
It’s about lipids and saturation.
It’s about somewhere in some city
something called an Archdiocese.
It’s about toting your heavy heart
and two cases of cat food in cans
up six flights of stairs.
Your thumbs aren’t fast enough
to get past this poem. It’s about
your thoughts while you’re waiting
to renew your password. Send it. 
Send it already! It’s about the time
you looked up to see
the face of the stripper.
So naked everything seemed.
It’s about the groan of your engine
and searching the dark, dusty shed
one more time
for the jumper cables. 

Daniel Coshnear is the author of a previous collection of stories, Jobs & Other Preoccupations (Helicon Nine Editions), which was awarded the Willa Cather Prize in Fiction. He teaches in a variety of university extension programs, including University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. Coshnear works at a group home for homeless men and women with mental illness. He lives in Guerneville, California with his wife Susan and their children Circe and Daedalus.

____

And here’s a poem for the year’s end by Jodi Hottel.

Threshold

I distill the year just passed
‘til amber liquid gleams—
but it’s a bitter draught,
not the honey it would seem.

I weave a fabric from alone,
a garment stitched from days,
wrap myself in lonely
‘til its seams begin to fray.

Under mulch and ash I burrow,
cloak myself with leaves,
wait for warmth to follow—
yearning for relief.

I cross into the new year,
So full of hope
                         full of fear.

Jodi Hottel’s recent chapbook is Out of the Ashes from Pandemonium Press. Previous chapbooks are Voyeur from WordTech Press (2017) and Heart Mountain, winner of the 2012 Blue Light Press Poetry Prize. Jodi’s been published in Nimrod International, Spillway, Ekphrasis, and anthologies including the University of Iowa Press and the Marin Poetry Center. Her work has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She lives in Sonoma County. jodihottel.com

____

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections for 2025

Starting last January, 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.

____

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

Dear Literary Folk,

It feels like we have all been wringing our hands these past few weeks leading up to Tuesday’s election. Some of us feel like the hands we have been figuratively (or literally) wringing. I hope you will all take the time to vote, and if you already have, thank you! So much is at stake.

Back in the fall of 2016, I led a workshop at the Sitting Room called “Singing in Dark Times: Reading and Writing Political Poems.” Certainly you all remember that particular election. Dark times indeed. One of the poems we read together was “Enemies,” by Wendell Berry:

____

Enemies

If you are not to become a monster,
you must care what they think.
If you care what they think,

how will you not hate them,
and so become a monster
of the opposite kind? From where then

is love to come—love for your enemy
that is the way of liberty?
From forgiveness. Forgiven, they go

free of you, and you of them;
they are to you as sunlight
on a green branch. You must not

think of them again, except
as monsters like yourself,
pitiable because unforgiving. 

____

Today I marked my ballot and dropped it in the ballot collection box outside the Veteran’s Memorial Building. On Monday, the sun poured in through the open doors of the cemetery chapel where my family and I set our sister’s urn in her niche. On Saturday, my daughter sang Bach’s “Ave Maria” and “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace,” the latter an adaptation of the Prayer of Saint Francis, which is framed in stained glass in that cemetery chapel. But how to be a channel of peace? Is there a way to hone ourselves, keep ourselves in tune so when we are called to place a calming hand on this troubled world, we’re ready?

I’ve learned over many years of writing and teaching that the gift, whatever that is, comes not so much to us as through us. And with whatever writing practice we’ve adopted, we are tuning ourselves as instruments. Maybe voting is a kind of exercise, certainly an exercise in hope, like taking the time to breathe through a difficult moment. And in breathing, we take in the ghosts around us, so full of the hope we’re needing.

This time of year, our dead come close to us, like the Super Moon in the perigee of its elliptical orbit. Make room for them. Gather them up like windfall apples. Think of them in the small acts of remembrance you may be inclined to on this Día de los Muetos. Ask them to guide us toward the kind of liberty, child of forgiveness, that Wendell Berry speaks of in his poem. Ask them to help us preserve that other liberty we are in danger of losing. But such prayers are not enough. We each have to do our part. As Mary Harris “Mother” Jones once said, “Pray for the dead. Fight like hell for the living.” And as another wise woman, Grace Paley, put it “Hope is action.” Let’s hone our instruments and get to work!

Poetry from the North Country: Lynne Knight and Katherine Hastings

I’m looking forward to zooming in for Monday’s Rivertown Poets, partly because the two featured readers are dear friends who have moved out of our geographical circle, but who are very much part of the work we all do here in the Bay Area. Katherine Hastings, our former Sonoma County Poet Laureate and director of WordTemple Reading Series, will be joining us via zoom from her new home in upstate New York, not far from the Canadian border. And Lynne Knight, colleague at Sixteen Rivers Press, will be joining us from her new home in British Columbia, Canada.

The reading will be on Monday, November 4, 6:15 p.m., followed by open mic. Open mic slots are three minutes each, including any introduction or backstory. If you’d like to be added to the list or, have any questions send an email to rivertownpoet@gmail.com. The list fills very quickly; it’s better to sign up and then cancel later, if necessary. Join Zoom Meeting: us06web.zoom.us/j/6508887879. Passcode: 2241991

West Side Stories: Less than Perfect

Join the chorus of Sonoma County storytellers on Wednesday, November 13, 7:30-9:00 p.m. when Dave Pokorny presents West Side Stories. Theme: Less than Perfect. The event takes place at Polly Klaas Community Theater, 417 Western Avenue, Petaluma. Details and ticket ($21.50) purchase: davepokornypresents.com/west-side-stories.

Annual Call for Submissions for Book-Length Poetry Manuscripts 

Sixteen Rivers Press, a shared-work poetry collective with a three-year commitment, invites Northern California authors to submit full-length poetry manuscripts between November 1, 2024 and February 1, 2025. All manuscripts will be read blind, and typically one or two manuscripts are selected for publication. The winner(s) will be announced on the press’s website during summer 2024. Selected manuscripts will be scheduled for publication in spring 2027.

Online Submissions: Send an e-mail to submissions@sixteenrivers.org with your name, address, phone number, and the name of your manuscript. Attach a PDF of your manuscript to the e-mail address (name the PDF with the title of your manuscript). In the body of the e-mail, please include a personal statement (350 to 500 words) about why you want to work in a publishing collective, including any special experience or skills you might contribute, and tell us where you heard about the press and our call for submissions. The manuscript must be e-mailed no later than February 1, 2025. Note: We do not accept hard-copy manuscripts sent by US mail. Please do not include your name anywhere in your manuscript, as it is important that your manuscript be a blind submission. The manuscript must be single-spaced and between 60 and 90 pages. Manuscripts must be previously unpublished, although individual poems may have been published online or in print. The manuscript should include a title page without the author’s name and address, a table of contents, and an acknowledgments page listing previous publications of the poems.

Sixteen Rivers values diversity. We encourage poets of color, young poets, and LGBTQ poets to submit.

Two Poems for November

I received two submissions this month, and found I wanted to include them both, as they each speak so eloquently to the season and its embrace (and transformation) of grief.

____

Visitation
by Lisa Shulman

Sometimes the dead drop in for a visit
unannounced they slip past me on the step
having no need for doors locked or open
they make themselves at home, kick off their shoes 
rest cold bones on empty creaking rockers
thumb through yesterday’s newspaper, old
New Yorkers, dusty books of poetry
or argue idly over the remote.

Sometimes the dead settle in the back seat
without asking, tag along for the ride
press pale cheeks to cool glass, watch flickering
reflections of light play on wet pavement.
I hear them whisper wordless seashell sounds
behind my back, as if I were the ghost.

Sometimes I think they fiddle with the knobs
on the radio when I’m not looking.
Why else would these hot tears spring to my eyes
at an old song I’ve never heard before?
Why else would I mourn at a certain turn
where crooked arms of valley oaks reach out,
an empty embrace holding a cold sky
reminding me of all that I have lost?

Sometimes I doubt, but if the dead do not
stop by, why then do I push back my plate
the bread in my mouth turned ash and dust?
Why then do I wrap myself in blankets,
warding off the dull chill of silent rooms
that are at once empty and too full to bear?

____

Lisa Shulman is a writer, children’s book author, and teacher. Her work has appeared in New Verse News, ONE ART, Poetry Breakfast, Catamaran, Minnow Literary Magazine, California Quarterly, The Best Small Fictions, and a number of other magazines and anthologies. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Lisa’s poetry has also been performed by Off the Page Readers Theater. Her chapbook Fragile Bones, Fierce Heart is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Lisa lives in Northern California where she teaches poetry with California Poets in the Schools. http://www.lisashulman.com

____

So Easy to Forget
by Raphael Block 

Grief has its rocks, waves, tides, 
spiraling depths—
and, like the vast ocean, 
it’s full of life, its folds filled 
with cod, squid, salmon, and kelp.

The ones I’ve lost swim inside—
some closer than in life—
their fins brushing against my skin.

They knock on my ribs, sometimes 
to wake me from reverie, 
and, in the night, their blessings 
murmur in my blood.

____

Raphael Block is the author of five poetry books, The Dreams We Share (2023), At This Table, Strings of Shining Silence, Spangling Darkness, and Songs from a Small Universe. Raphael produces the monthly Earth-Love Newsletter which can be viewed at raphaelblock.com along with a National Geographic selected 5-minute documentary.

____

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections for 2024

Starting last January, 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.

____

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

Dear Literary Folk,

Fall brings us together for our traditional seasonal literary events, with some new readings and workshops to spice things us. Last month, the Petaluma Poetry Walk offered us another spectacular line-up of poets in venues throughout downtown, some familiar and some new. Hats off to Bill Vartnaw, Dave Seter, Kary Hess, and the team of volunteers who made this year’s walk such a success—standing room only at every stop!

One of the highlights of the day was the reading at Copperfield’s of our California Poet Laureate, Lee Herrick, and the new San Francisco Poet Laureate, Genny Lim. If you missed that, or just want a chance to hear them again, both Lee and Genny will be reading at the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival, along with Jane Hirshfield and many others.

If you read last month’s Literary Update post, you know that I was traveling in Central Europe for three weeks, and the September edition was typed and sent from Hungary on my mobile phone (many thanks to Jo-Anne, my co-editor, for making it presentable).We were fortunate to enjoy mostly dry, hot summer weather. Not long after we flew home, the heavens opened up over Poland, Czechia, Hungary, and Austria with torrential rains and flooding, such as we have been seeing in the south-eastern US in the past few days.

My husband and I visited five countries that were entirely new to us. Most people were surprised that we referred to that part of the world as Central Europe. We grew up calling Prague, Krokow, and Budapest “Eastern Europe.” But these countries are actually more central than eastern. Prague, for example, is further west than Vienna. But until 1989, much of what is geographically Central Europe was part of the Soviet Block, behind the Iron Curtain, and under Soviet domination. One needed a special visa to visit these countries, so they weren’t on our Eurail route. I was fascinated by the history and the architecture of the countries we visited, as well as the candor of the people I met—their honest grasp of their troubled history, their complicity and resistance, both of which took a tremendous toll on their collective and individual psyches.

Among the most memorable days were those spent visiting the Schindler Factory Museum, Auschwitz, and Birkenau in Krokow,  Poland. Hungary, too has its dark history, and while walking along the promenade on the east side of the Danube one afternoon, my husband and I came upon a memorial called “Shoes on the Danube.” The memorial honors the lives of victims of a massacre of Jews by the Arrow Cross, the Hungarian Nazis. They lined up the Jews along the river, but before shooting them, they had them remove their shoes, which could be valuable if sold. The bodies were then thrown into the river.  The memorial marks the place where their shoes were left behind. As we begin this month of remembrances, I hope we will not lose sight of our shared grief and our humanity.

Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival
Saturday, October 5, 2024, Noon to 4:30 pm, free

Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park, MLK Jr. Way at Allston Way, alongside the Farmers’ Market, downtown Berkeley, one block from BART

Poetry & Music Celebrating Writers, Nature, & Community!

Poets, musicians, environmentalists, and community members will gather on Saturday, October 5, 2024, for the 29th Annual Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival, to celebrate Writers, Nature & Community, and to deliver an urgent message, with poetry and music, to consider the earth and climate change in our daily lives. Our belief is that we need the inspiration of poetry and music to meet our collective challenge.

The Festival begins with the Strawberry Creek Walk, poetry, nature commentary, and an easy walk along beautiful Strawberry Creek through UC Berkeley. To participate, meet at 10:00 am, at the southeast corner of Oxford at Center, on the edge of the UC Berkeley campus. All Festival events are free.

The Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival beginning at noon features Fred Cody Award-winner for Lifetime Achievement and Service Jane Hirshfield, “one of American poetry’s central spokespersons for the biosphere,” The Asking: New and Selected Poems; California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick, In Praise of Late Wonder: New and Selected; San Francisco Poet Laureate Genny Lim; James Cagney, Martian: The Saint of Loneliness, James Laughlin Award-winner from the Academy of American Poets; Ellery Akers, A Door Into the Wild: Poetry and Art; Marsha de la O, Creature, Pitt Poetry Series; Cintia Santana, The Disordered Alphabet, winner of the Northern California Book Award in Poetry, John Shoptaw, Near-Earth Object, Northern California Book Award-winner for Times Beach.

Book Launch Celebration for Ripenings by Jacqueline Kudler

Some of you told me how much you enjoyed the poem included in the July Literary Update: “The Machines,” by Jackie Kudler. This piece was recently performed by Off the Page Readers Theater on their theme of “In the Dark.” The poem accompanied a remembrance of Jackie, who passed away in May.

Mill Valley Public Library’s Creekside Room will be the site of a reading from Ripenings, a just-released poetry collection by the late Jacqueline Kudler. Light refreshments will be served.

Monday, October 7th | 6:30 pm
Mill Valley Public Library
375 Throckmorton Ave.,
Mill Valley, CA 94941

Registration required. To register, visit millvalleylibrary.org or call (415) 389-4292.

Lost and Found

My own penchant for poetry means that the announcements in these posts tend to be poetry-focused. But Sonoma County has a very vibrant community of fiction and nonfiction writers. West Side Stories provides a showcase for the diverse story-telling voices, so mark your calendars for Wednesday, October 9, 7:30-9:00 p.m. when Dave Pokorny presents West Side Stories. Theme: All Is (or is not) Lost. The event will be at Polly Klaas Community Theater, 417 Western Avenue, Petaluma. Details and ticket ($21.50) purchase: davepokornypresents.com/west-side-stories

2024 Poesía del Recuerdo/Poetry of Remembrance Community Reading

On Friday, October 11, from 6:00 to 8:30 PM, members of the community are invited to attend the annual 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 speakers include Lalin the Poet (Luis Vasquez), Georgina Tello Bugarin, Irma Vega Bijou, Lin Marie deVincent, Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo, and Jabez Churchill. Our host for the evening will be Sonoma County Poet Laureate Dave Seter.

We hope that you, too, will participate in the celebration by sharing, in Spanish or English or any other language, a brief poem or remembrance of a departed loved one.

Those who wish to honor the memory of someone 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.

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

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

Book Launch  for Riding Like the Wind

On Friday, October 18, 7:00 p.m. Copperfield’s Books welcomes friend and local author Iris Jamahl Dunkle to Santa Rosa for the launch of her evocative new biography, Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb. This saga of a writer done dirty resurrects the silenced voice of Sanora Babb, peerless author of midcentury American literature. Copperfield’s Books Montgomery Village, 775 Village Court, Santa Rosa. More details: copperfieldsbooks.com/event/iris-jamahl-dunkle-1

Sixteen Rivers Annual Fall Fundraiser and 25th Anniversary

Join us on Sunday, October 20th  from 2:00-5:00 pm for a delightful afternoon of wine, hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, and readings by Dorianne Laux and Joe Millar

Yes, it’s been 25 years since seven idealistic poets decided to create a regional poetry publishing collective, modeled after Alice James Book, but celebrating the voices of the San Francisco Bay Area. Since our inception in 1999, we’ve published more than 60 original collections of poetry; brought in new members of the press every year to learn about book production from the inside out; published two best-selling anthologies, The Place That Inhabits Us and America, We Call Your Name; and we’ve launched a new series of chapbooks by teen poets locally and across the country, inspired by the anthologies.

The event is free, hosted by the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda Berkeley, CA 94707. Here’s the link for more information and to let us know that you are coming. You can also use the link to make a donation to Sixteen Rivers: https://www.eventbrite.com/myevent?eid=1016910766477

Ghastly Ghostly Poetry

Do you have a poem that’s just right for the Halloween Season? Mark your calendar for Wednesday, October 30, 7:00-9:00 p.m.. North Bay Letterpress Arts presents a Ghastly Ghostly Poetry Reading and Open Mic. Join us for a ghoulishly good evening of ghostly readings. FREE and open to the public — B.Y.O.P(oetry)! At 925-D Gravenstein Hwy. S., Sebastopol.

Poem for October

This month, I continue the SCLU’s new feature of selecting a poem or short prose piece by a Sonoma County writer. I so appreciate those of you who have sent me your submissions, and invite all of you to participate. Scroll down to review the submission guidelines.

A Road, a River, the Railroad
by Donna  Emerson

Beside the green-black wall of trees,
packed so tight, so high,
we could never see over them,
nor houses among them,

we saw only the road,
the Canisteo River,
and the Lackawanna Railroad tracks.

They held us against the hills.
They took us to the bigger world,
yet we rarely went there.

We stayed at grandmother’s in Cameron Mills.
We lay at night hearing freight trains
far down the Canisteo Valley.

Long-short-short-long whistles blowing,
felt our beds rattle
from the racket of the train cars.

Thought we could tell the sound
of oil cars from box cars, from caboose.
Counted the accented ramble beats
as the cars flew down the tracks out of sight
after the eager engine.

Into North Cameron and Averell Hill
where Great Great Great Uncle William
had watched over the river and the rails
on his Morgan horse
before he took the road and the rails
to West Point, The Indian Wars, the Civil War.
He never came all the way back.

Donna L. Emerson lives in Petaluma, California, and western New York. Recently retired from Santa Rosa Jr. College. Donna’s award-winning publications include the New Ohio Review, CALYX, the London Magazine, and Paterson Literary Review. She has published four chapbooks and two full-length poetry collections. Her most recent awards: nominations for a Pushcart, Best of the Net, and two Allen Ginsberg awards. Visit her website: donnaemerson.com

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections for 2024

Starting last January, 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.

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-Editor

Dear Literary Folk,

News from Budapest
Actually, I’m enjoying a quiet morning in the town of Eger, center of Hungary’s wine country. The landscape looks a little like home, except it’s so remarkably green and has a few more castles.

I’ll be going wine tasting this afternoon before heading to Budapest where we will spend a few days (and no, I won’t be driving—we have a Hungarian guide and a Slovenian driver getting us from place to place).

My husband and I have been two weeks in Central Europe, first visiting relatives in Prague, and then with a small tour group making our way through Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia.

I’ve been posting photos and travel notes on Facebook, if you’re curious about the details.

Because this post is being typed one-fingerstyle on my iPhone, I’ll keep it short and ask your understanding if an event or announcement doesn’t get the shout-out it deserves.

Remembering Maureen Hurley
I imagine many of you reading this post knew Maureen Hurley. She was a vital force in the Sonoma County writing scene, especially the Russian River Writers Guild and California Poets in the Schools. She was truly a dynamic and energizing poet, artist, and teacher. When I moved to Sonoma County in 1990, Maureen was one of my mentors with California Poets in the Schools, and over the years we got to know each other’s lives and poetry pretty well, even discovering we have some common Irish relatives.

On July 15, 2024 Maureen Hurley suddenly and tragically died.

Maureen went to College of Marin to earn her AA, working in the theatre with Robin Williams, Michael Pritchard and a whole cast of characters. Maureen went on to Sonoma State University to complete her bachelor’s in Art, discovering her ability to tell stories in writing and poetry.

Maureen took jobs with local independent newspapers honing her writing and photography skills. She had fabulous editors who helped her learn and thrive in this creative world she discovered. Maureen also worked as an Artist in Residence for California Poets in the schools, teaching students poetry and art from pre-K through high school. Sonoma County was her stomping grounds at any or all the schools that supported the Arts hired her to teach. Maureen completed her last residency in May 2024 at Alexander Valley School after more than 40 years.

Maureen travelled the world studying ancient Celtic sites in Europe. 1986 travel to the USSR for cultural poetry and writing exchange, she lived in Moscow. She also travelled in Mexico, Central and South America, learning, seeing and experiencing indigenous cultures. She saw the wonder in the Galapagos Islands, swimming with dolphins and turtles.

A more complete obituary is posted online at Legacy.com, also the location for a celebration of life will be announced there.

Petaluma Poetry Walk
The Petaluma Poetry Walk is an annual poetry festival founded in September 1996 by the late poet Geri Digiorno. It features 25 poets reading their work at eight venues. The event has grown over the years, attracting notable poets and a diverse audience and includes readings in both English and Spanish.

During this day-long “movable feast,” participants walk to different locations to enjoy a variety of poetic performances. It has become a cherished tradition in Petaluma, reflecting the city’s rich cultural and literary heritage.

Go to petalumapoetrywalk.org for the full day’s schedule of poets and venues.

Poets: Christina Lloyd, Alice Templeton, Murray Silverstein, Emily Schulten, Lynn Watson, Gene Berson, Jonah Raskin, Lisa Summers, Stacey Tuel, Avotcja, Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş, Nancy Miller Gomez, Lee Herrick, Genny Lim, Ellery Akers, Lee Rossi, Georgina Marie Guardado, Jodi Hottel, Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo, Emilie Lygren, Kirk Lumpkin, Chris Olander, Lin Marie deVincent, Fran Carbonaro, Dave Seter.

Event Presenters: Terry Ehret, Gwynn O’Gara, Daedalus Howell, Elizabeth Herron, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Francesca Bell, Sabine Wolpert, John Johnson, Bill Vartnaw, and Kary Hess, with Steve Shain on standup bass.

Venues: Hotel Petaluma, The Petaluma Cheese Shop, Keller Street CoWork, The Phoenix Theater, Copperfield’s Books, Usher Gallery, The Petaluma Historical Library and Museum, and Aqus Café.

Sixteen Rivers Poetry Reading in Berkeley


Ed Coletti’s Fall Poetry Festival
final reading event of the year at Café Frida Gallery, 300 South A Street, Santa Rosa, on the outdoor stage, will happen on Sunday, September 29th at 1 PM. Any of you who have attended regularly know this series to be a joyful festival which began following the height of the pandemic when poets and audiences were hungering to get out and mingle. Each subsequent gathering has been similarly well-received by large (at least by poetry reading standards) audiences. Come one, Come all!  Come early to enjoy lunch and listen to the jazz! Readers, not necessarily in this order, will be: Elizabeth Herron, Dave Seter, Pat Nolan, Ed Coletti, Nancy Dougherty, Arthur Dawson, Brian Martens, Jodi Hottel. Steve Shain will provide accompaniment on bass.

Call for Micro-Prose Submissions
Sonoma-County based Wordrunner eChapbooks, a hybrid literary journal and chapbook publication, has a new call out in September for MICRO-PROSE, to be published online in October. Free submissions, one per author. A maximum of 200 words (fiction or nonfiction). Submit your polished gem of a micro before September 30. Guidelines: echapbook.com/submissions.html#micros

A Labor of Love
Are any literati reading this interested in a labor of love? Jo-Anne could use some help keeping the Literary Update up to date and thus re-vitalized. No technical skills are required. Some of our pages are sadly out of date and need to be checked for accuracy. Are all ongoing groups still ongoing? Have writers’ connections expired? If interested, you may contact her at: editor@socolitupdate.com.

______

Poem for September

Safeway
by Elizabeth Bennett

Your shapeless pink knit dress
hangs straight down your shapeless legs
to the toes of your black slippers.
The tag “Blair” sticks out from your collar.
You don’t know.
In the slow line of “Express < 15 Items”
  we stand.
You inspect Carmello and Hershey bars
content to plan an evening of chocolate.
You don’t know how sad I am
  standing behind you.
I offer to fix your tag
  and we meet in a sliver of dignity.

“Safeway” is from the chapbook The Price of Saffron, which can be purchased at Copperfield’s Bookstore in Sebastopol for $11.95.

Elizabeth Bennett‘s career has been as a teacher of English and ESL. Snce 2022, she has extended her love of teaching as a California Poet in the Schools. She has published two other chapbooks, Frog Takes Her Leap (1996), and The Colors of Apricots (2008). She takes immense pleasure in sharing and receiving the inspiration that poetry creates. She lives in Sebastopol, California.

______

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-editor

Dear Literary Folk,

I want to let you all know that I will be traveling in Central Europe August 18 through September 8, visiting Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia. If I’m able to get internet service, I’ll try composing a post for September from Budapest. It may be just a brief description of a highlight or two, along with some photos. Alas, I will miss the upcoming reception for our next Poet Laureate Dave Seter on August 18, but I’ll be back in plenty of time for the Poetry Walk on September 15. Information about both these events is included below and on our calendar page.

Emily Wilson’s Modern Vision of Ancient Myths
Hats off to the team of writers and directors of the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference! Last week’s conference was brimming with readings, craft lectures, workshops—some free and open to the public. Though I wasn’t able to attend as a participant, I made the trek from Petaluma to Napa twice to attend a craft lecture and reading by classicist and translator Emily Wilson. Wilson is quite extraordinary as a scholar, poet, and storyteller, and I am especially grateful to Iris Dunkle for introducing me to her.

I was captivated by her presentations, and especially moved when, at the close of her craft talk on translation, Emily Wilson read a scene from Homer’s Iliad in which King Priam, who has lost his son and heir, Hector, in battle, takes off his crown and goes secretly in the night to the enemy camp and the tent of the Greek chieftain Achilles, the man who has killed his son. He goes at great risk to his life and against the wishes of his queen to ask for Hector’s body. Achilles has kept the body to desecrate in full view of the Trojan king and his people, trying to find some solace for his own grief, rage, and guilt over the loss of his dear friend Patroclos at Hector’s hands. The two men meet, and in this very human moment, Priam touches his enemy’s knees.

It is an ancient gesture, a sacred request to be heard, to be granted some blessing one has no right to ask for. The one who receives this gesture must think very carefully before responding.

Achilles hesitates. He, too, is risking much. But Priam takes Achilles’ hand in his and kisses it–kisses the hand that has slain his son. Finally Achilles agrees to hear what the old man has come to say. For a brief time, they speak, not as enemies, not as king and warrior, Trojan and Greek, but as two human beings who are grieving. Achilles agrees to return Hector’s body and to allow a temporary truce for both sides to bury their dead. After that moment, the two return to their roles and their worlds. The war resumes. Within a year they will both be dead, and the worlds they knew will vanish.

I don’t know why this scene moves me to tears. It was clear many in the audience felt the same way, as did Wilson herself. There is an old adage that war is men’s tears, and this scene certainly illustrates that. But it also holds out the hope that beyond the power of fickle gods, corrupt governments, or self-serving corporations with their disregard for human life, it is possible for enemies to share their deepest humanity and to act with decency and honor, to carve out a small space of peace against all odds.

I wish this for all of us in our time of division and violence, warfare and injustice from which there seems no respite or reprieve. Wilson pointed out that both Homer’s world and our own are societies in their last days where violence is glorified and pain is entertainment. And yet, although ostensibly an epic of war, Homer’s Iliad does not celebrate warfare. This scene, as well as others in the epic, speaks to our common humanity and offers us a glimpse of what came before the clashing shields and swords of patriarchal Bronze Age Europe, and what we might take into our own world, if we seize the chance to remake it.

You can learn more about Emily Wilson and her work on this website: emilyrcwilson.com.

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

Celebrate Our Poets Laureate Elizabeth Herron and Dave Seter
You are all invited to a reception to honor outgoing Poet Laureate, Elizabeth Herron and our new Laureate, Dave Seter on Sunday, August 18, 2-5 pm at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S High St Sebastopol CA. This link will get you to the SebArts website where you can register for this event. The event Is free, but donations welcome. sebarts.org/classeslectures/p/soco-poet-laureate-inauguration-dave-seter

You can also hear Dave read on Monday, August 5 at 6:15 p.m. Rivertown Poets will be live at Aqus Cafe. Featured poets are Abby Bogomolny and Fred Carroll. Our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate Dave Seter will open the reading. Open mic follows the features. First come, first read. Come early for dinner and a spot on the list. Please time your reading to no more than 3 minutes total and no more than two poems, so that everyone has a chance to share. Sign up at Aqus, 189 H Street, Petaluma. Questions? Email rivertownpoet@gmail.com.

Poem for August
This month, we are featuring a poem by Fran Carbonaro. I will continue posting a poem or short prose piece by a Sonoma County writer. I so appreciate those of you who have sent me your submissions, and invite all of you to participate. You can check at the end of this post for submission guidelines.

_______

You Turn

by Fran Carbonaro

In the absence of kindness
take one deep breath
and then let it go
into the heat of confusion
or an echoless emptiness
where it may be swallowed up
like a dove in a black hole
listen as it coos gently in the dark

The next breath may disorient you
that’s a good sign
go ahead
lose your way
your point
your imitation
of someone you don’t
now recognize

You’ve made a U-turn
and like a boomerang
struck by lightning
random acts of kindness
now seem as natural
as being breathed into self
one who has forgiven
any part of the whole that
might have believed
you were not enough

from Out of the Blue, published by northern California fmsbw press

Fran will read from, Out of the Blue, followed by a short reception and open mic on Saturday, August 24, 2:00-4:30 p.m. Location: Church of the Incarnation, 636 Cherry St., Santa Rosa. A portion of book sales will benefit the Journey Center in Santa Rosa. More details: journeycentersantarosa.org/event/poetry-book-launch-open-mic

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Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections for 2024
Since January of 2024. I have selected a poem or short prose piece by a Sonoma County writer to include at the end of each monthly Literary Update post. 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.
_______

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update co-editor

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

Dear Literary Folk,

I’m traveling right now in Minnesota with family, visiting family on both sides of the family tree. As always, our literary calendar offers so many ways to enjoy our literary community. Check out the calendar page for June (and July, too!) to read more about these and many other upcoming events.

10th Bay Area Book Festival: Saturday, June 1 & Sunday, June 2, 2024
Presented by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria 
The Bay Area Book Festival is so much fun, and such a great way to hear local writers and sample books by independent local publishers. There are some pretty amazing headliners, as well as 10 Writers’ Workshops, an Outdoor Fair, and 4 stages full of top programming in downtown Berkeley. Daytime events are free, though some require registration. Evening events are ticketed.

Sonoma County authors Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Forrest Gander, and Greg Sarris will be among the speakers. If I weren’t in Minnesota, I’d be there!

For a complete schedule and Book Festival map, check out this link: https://www.baybookfest.org/june/

The first day of the Festival is Writers’ Day – June 1, 11-5 pm.
We know our community is filled with writers and authors, aspiring and published. The Festival wants to honor all of you with a day-long series of workshops and sessions that drill down into topics that will spur your creativity, engage your writerly minds, and even support you with practical, insiders’ advice and guidance in your journey to publication.

This full day of sessions will feature nonfiction, poetry, and fiction events, a session on publishing, and two workshops for kids and teens! The Workshops will be held at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd floor, Community Meeting Room. Workshops are free but spaces are limited and require advance RSVP.

Here’s one of the evening headliner events:
June 1, 5:30 pm: Joan Baez & Greg Sarris
Ground-breaking Mexican-American musician, artist, and activist Joan Baez joins accomplished writer, professor, and tribal leader Chairman Greg Sarris in a conversation about writing, creating, and legacy. Sarris is co-executive producer of Joan Baez: I Am A Noise, a deeply personal, profound, and haunting documentary that follows Baez on her 2018 Fare Thee Well goodbye tour and explores memory and abuse through home videos, journal entries, photographs, and therapy tapes. This pairing sold out in a few days last year, so we invited this dynamic duo again!

Greg Sarris will also be reading at the Rohnert Park-Cotati Library
Wednesday, June 12, 6:00-7:00 p.m. Rohnert Park-Cotati Regional Library presents local author Greg Sarris reading stories from his newest book, The Forgetters. At 6250 Lynne Condé Way, Rohnert Park. More details: events.sonomalibrary.org/greg-sarris

Reverberations 2024
Some of you may remember the ekphrastic art and poetry exhibition at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts called Reverberations. The first exhibit paired works of art from private collections and artists in the county with poets who responded to the art with their own original poems. The second exhibit paired poems written in the midst of the pandemic with artists who were inspired by the images in the poems to create new original pieces of visual art.

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 June 21 through August 10. The opening of the exhibit for members is June 21; the opening for the general public is June 22.

SebArts is also hosting a number of events keyed to the exhibition.

Sunday, June 23, 2-4 pm: Artist and Poet Panel
Wednesday, June 26, 5-7 pm: Poets read their interpretations of art pieces
Tuesday, July 9, 2-4 pm: Poets read their interpretations of art pieces
Sunday, July 21, 1-3 pm: Poets read their interpretations of art pieces
Thursday, June 27, 10:30 am-12:00 pm. Artist lecture on the “Struggles and Desires of Reverberations” with Linda Loveland Reid

Details/registration: sebarts.org/classeslectures/p/poetry-readings-reverberations-iii-jun-26-2024https://www.sebarts.org/reverberations

Celebrating Two Sonoma County Literary Traditions
Monday, June 3, 6:15 p.m. Rivertown Poets 11th Anniversary Reading, live at Aqus Cafe. Featured poets are Catharine Clark-Sayles and Anita May. An open mic reading will follow the break. Please time your reading to no more than 3 minutes total and no more than two poems, so that everyone has a chance to share. Sign up at Aqus, 189 H Street, Petaluma. Questions? Email: rivertownpoet@gmail.com.

Saturday, June 8, 2:00-5:00 p.m. The Sitting Room Library Birthday Party; 2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove. Enjoy carrot cake, cheese and fruit with music by Sarah Baker. Copies of this year’s publication, Travel Notes By and About Women Travel Writers, will be available + giveaway books.. For more information, call 707-795-9028.

Sonoma County Youth Poet Laureate and Poetry Ambassador
Sunday, June 9, 4:30 -6:30 p.m. ’24-’25 Youth Poet Laureate Inauguration & Teen Poetry Open Mic Sebastopol Center for the Arts hosts an evening of poetry readings with our latest Youth Poet Laureate, Lisa Zheng and Ambassador, Sabine Wolpert followed by Teen Poetry Open Mic. Location: Sebastopol Center for the Arts 282 South High Street Sebastopol. For details and to register, use this link: https://www.sebarts.org/classes-lectures/24-25-youth-laureate-inauguration-teen-poetry-open-mic

Ed Coletti’s Series at Café Frida Gallery Continues
Sunday, June 23, 1:00 p.m. Ed Coletti’s Spring 2024 Festival reading at Café Frida Gallery, 300 South A Street, Santa Rosa, on the outdoor stage. Readers: Katherine Hastings, Luis Vasquez (“Lalin”), Gregory Randall, David Beckman with friends (Intermission), Claire Drucker, Steve Shain (solo piece), Abby Bogolmony, Stacey Truel. For more information, contact Ed at edjcoletti@gmail.com.

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Poem for June
This month, I continue the SCLU’s new feature of selecting a poem or short prose piece by a Sonoma County writer. I so appreciate those of you who have sent me your submissions, and invite all of you to participate. You can check the previous posts in the archives for submission guidelines.

Tung Sing
by Jean Wong

It was a book,
red and thick,
written on newsprint
filled with strange black
strokes and radicals.
For a modest price
it could be bought in
any Chinatown store.

Through the year
it sat unnoticed
on my mom’s dressing table
by the bobby pins
and cold cream.

But if a consultation
was required
the whole family
descended upon its
pages.

My mother’s voice
thin, tight.
My father, focused, grim.
My brother and I
attentive, still.

We called the Tung Sing
a calendar. Yet beyond
dividing time into
weeks and months,
it also prophesied
good and bad luck days.

When would my broken leg heal?
Should dad open his new store
in the spring or summer?
Would my mother have
the second son
she yearned for
or another mere girl.

The book delivered
steady answers,
guiding my family
through misfortune
and hard times.
Yet its authorship
remains unknown.

Was it written by a
sage in a cave?
Or by some craven scholar
to please an emperor’s whim?
Could generations of people
be subject to a hoax?

We might as well
cut into a pigeon
and inspect its entrails.

I don’t believe in deities,
cross my fingers, or
knock on wood.
Church is not where I go
for solace.

Now when I pick a calendar
I get the one with
cute puppies.

Still, place the
Tung Sing in my hand
and my head bends
in soft
deference.


Jean Wong, author of Sleeping with the Gods and Hurtling Jade, is an award-winning poet, fiction, and memoir writer. Her work has been produced by the Petaluma Reader’s Theater, and Sixth Street Playhouse. Jean writes from the bottom of a well, amazed to look up and see the sky.

______

Terry Ehret
Co-editor, Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have my co-editor, the amazing Jo-Anne Rosen healthy again after her bout with pneumonia. She is indispensable to this Literary Update. It would not exist without her.

This past month, I’ve had the honor and pleasure of participating in the selection of Sonoma County’s Youth Poet Laureate, reading manuscripts by seven fine candidates, and learning of their engagement in their teen poetry communities. I must say, reading their poems and listening to their visions has given me great hope for the future of poetry and the future of this new generation; they are facing such profound challenges with remarkable grace and creative resilience. (See Duane BigEagle’s comment in the article below about the selection process and our new YPL Lisa Zheng, which I agree with heartily!)

Like Duane, I’ve also had many occasions to consider how isolated I felt as a young writer without a literary community, how long it took me to find my own authentic voice, and how much longer before I found my fellow poets. When I first conceived of the Literary Update back in 2004, I hoped it would help strengthen the bonds among writers and readers in our literary community, and I hope we can widen that reach by including the many talented youth and their vital voices in our readings, events, and programs.

Sonoma County’s New Youth Poet Laureate & Youth Poet Ambassador
California Poets in the Schools (CalPoets) announces the county’s new Youth Poet Laureate Lisa Zheng, a 10th grade student at Maria Carrillo High School. Sonoma follows the lead of the nation, the state and many California counties in acknowledging a young person who has achieved excellence in poetry, allowing them to be a leader for the county in raising the profile of poetry and developing its audience. Lisa Zheng is Sonoma County’s 3rd Youth Poet Laureate.  Her one-year term will begin immediately and end in April, 2025. Within that time, Lisa is committed to conduct at least four public appearances/readings/workshops. She will receive a $500 prize and an opportunity to publish a chapbook of her own poems or spearhead a broader, youth publication opportunity.

For the first time this year, Sonoma County will also appoint a “Youth Poet Ambassador.” Sabine Wolpert has been selected for this position for the 2024-25 term. Sabine is an 11th grader at Analy High School.

Lisa Zheng was selected as Youth Poet Laureate, and Sabine Wolpert was selected as Youth Poet Ambassador, from a qualified pool of applicants by a panel of judges in April, 2024. The judging panel included distinguished poets and teachers with deep ties to Sonoma County including Duane BigEagle, Terry Ehret and Ernesto Garay. Duane BigEagle, Native American artist and writer from the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, Sonoma County-based poet and painter, and one of the panel judges to interview the three finalists writes:

“Lisa expresses her thoughts and feelings in the language of a true poet.  Her delight in metaphor and imagery is clear and powerful… light years beyond anything I was capable of at her age. As I told all three candidates, they gave me great hope. If these young women are examples of the quality of the youth coming up, our future is in good hands.”

In Lisa’s own words:  
“Poetry is an empty Google Doc or a fresh leaf of paper where I can escape the rigid rules of school essays and pour my rawest experiences out. I sometimes even translate prose into rhythmic ballads by the piano. I am a “word nerd”: I like the elegance of specific words together and experimenting with unconventional syntax…My main purpose behind writing these poems, besides personal catharsis, is to give a voice to the psychological turmoils that many teens experience that are often kept in the dark due to shame of admittance, and give them a dose of hope and cause for change.”

The Sonoma County program is organized by California Poets in the Schools, in partnership with Urban Word, and supported by the Bill Graham Supporting Foundation and the Sonoma County Vintners Foundation.

(thanks to Megan Hamill of CalPoets for providing this feature.)

Our Own Light Youth Poetry Book Launch, Celebration Party
Speaking of the voices of youth poets, Sixteen Rivers Press has just released Our Own Light, a compilation of poems written in response to the poems in the anthology America, We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience, which brought together poetry across the millennia, speaking from moments of crisis and uncertainty.

Please join us to celebrate the launch of Our Own Light, a collaboration between Writopia Lab, Sixteen Rivers Press, and DC Youth Poet Laureate Sophia Hall. This launch event will feature readings from 8 of our 11 featured poets: Xavier Jackson, Vicky Zhou, Joanna Liu, Calene Lee, Krithik Ashokommar, Madison Moore, Anoushka Swaminathan, and Isabella Miraflores. 

You can purchase Our Own Light, as well as the anthology America, We Call Your Name and Anthems, the previous iterations of teen response poetry, at https://shop.sixteenrivers.org/collections/all

To join this magical afternoon of poetry, use the link below to fill out an online registration form. You will be sent the link to join in.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf_8mSEDRlBtN4vZmqLTYQVeu7jOy-A6ZmdNF43_0A8Tfrumg/viewform

Off the Page Readers Theater
On Friday, May 10, 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, May 11, 2:30 p.m. Redwood Writers and Off the Page Readers Theater present Six Winning Plays 2024.

Congratulations to the 10-Minute Play contest winners:
“Who’s in Charge Now?” by Joan Goodreau
“That Ol’ Black Magic” by Joan Goodreau (won’t be performed)
“And So it Begins,” by Joyce Sherry
“Our Roommate is Dead” by Crissi Langwell
“Milkshakes in Heaven,” by Shawn Langwell
“Garage Sale,” by Russell Kaltschmidt
“Blind Faith,” by Jack Fender

These winning plays will be performed at the Finley Center, 2060 W College Ave, Santa Rosa, Senior Wing Room 5. Tickets available April 20: redwoodwriters.org

Remembering Stephen Fowler
A mighty tree in our West County community, whose solid trunk supported our community, whose deep roots spread far and wide, and whose protective branches provided shade for all, Stephen Cartwright Fowler(b. Jan 24, 1940) left us unexpectedly on Thursday, April 11. He died as he lived, (his timing uncanny, sharing his death day with Luther Burbank, April 11, 1926) in mid-stride of a vital life, playing golf with a close friend, on a beautiful sunny day. Steve was a humble Steward of Life, a man of open generosity of spirit, unerring principle, and a fierce advocacy for social justice. He was a passionate and grateful lover of nature, community, family, the arts, philosophy, and the soul. As a friend remarked, he was a warm hearth on a cold day. A keen and kind listener, he was also witty, playful, and erudite, always a twinkle in his eye. He combined wisdom and tact, in a manner and voice almost stately, a true gentleman. Though we will sorely miss hugging this tree of a being, he is within us now, showing us by example and few words, how to live a superlative life of the heart. We are better people for having known him.

Steve was a Steward of the Arts. He co-founded OCA and was the first President of our Board of Directors, working hard to grow a home for all the Arts, accessible to all people. His theater career spanned many decades, first in Berkeley and then with Monte Rio-based Pegasus Theater (performing often with his partner Andrea Van Dyke), Sebastopol Cemetery Walk/Graveside plays (with collaborator, Guy Biederman), many OCA plays and shows over 14 years, and leading member of Readers Theater with Judith Reimuller. He was preparing for OCA’s Talent Show just days away. He, and his wife Rene, were founding members of the Occidental Community Choir in 1978, and he was in rehearsals for the Choir’s Spring Concert in May.

Steve was a Steward of the Earth, a Digger and a Druid, landscape designer, Master Gardener and organic horticulturist. He became the first curator and head gardener of the Luther Burbank Experimental Garden when it was wild and untended (and continued to volunteer faithfully at the farm every Wednesday morning, right up to his last full day on Earth). He was the co-creator and caretaker of the Peace Garden at Ragle Ranch, gatherer and purveyor of soil samples across the country to Washington DC for the American Peace Garden Project, was an Earth Elder and member of the Western Sonoma County Historical Society. You could find him either quietly tending a plant in a neighbor’s garden or on a high ladder, pruning a fruit tree for a friend or community member. He had just planted a new wisteria for his love, Andrea Van Dyke, two days before he died. He loved the ocean and our coast and went there often.

Steve was a Steward of the Soul. A poet and philosopher, he wrote and presented in 2017, a collection he called 50Cent Poems. Hand-bound and printed in 3-ring binders, they instantly sold out. A Taoist, Steve thought deeply about life, did not want to draw attention to himself, and knew actions spoke louder than words. When using words, he wanted them to speak directly to and from the heart. And they do.

Steve was a Steward of his Family and Community. He loved and revered his wife Irene (Rene) and they had three children, Caitlin, Sarah and Gabriel. He lost beloved Rene to cancer in 1987 and remained an active and devoted father. He was a friend to many, whose friendships he nurtured, always showing up when needed. As he did for years, he had just helped produce the annual Fools Day Parade through Occidental (founded by his longtime friend Ramon Sender Barayon), directing traffic, cavorting with all the parade/party goers.

And Steve was a Steward of Love. Both in his life and his writing, he was a lover. He cherished and honored his partner of 25 years, Andrea Van Dyke, with whom he co-collaborated in all things artful and playful. He held bonfires, invited visions, entertained the Muses.

Though we can no longer enjoy his physical heartful hugs, he is everywhere now. As a Readers Theater member remarked, “Steve’s presence will be here to sense…if we pay attention.”
 
There will be a Celebration of Life for Steve on Sunday, June 9, at 3 PM at OCA. All are welcome to come and remember him with us. He lives forever in our hearts and in our stories. A poem by Steve Fowler is included at the end of the post as the poem for May.

(Thanks to Suze Cohen for providing this feature and Steve’s poem below.)

Poem for May
This month, we’re honoring Steve Fowler with the poem for May. Next month, I will continue the new feature of selecting a poem or short prose piece by a Sonoma County writer. I so appreciate those of you who have sent me your submissions, and invite all of you to participate. You can check the previous posts in the archives for submission guidelines.

The Love Song of S. Cartwright Fowler
by Steve Fowler

“Only thou, O, river of delight,”
I sang, as the sun’s orange disc
Skirted the rim of night.
Not I, who weeps against this
Lichen-softened beachside stone;
Not she, whose unforgettable kiss
Has marked me to the bone;
Not they, by whom I think I mean
All others, both the living and the gone—

But only thou, O, breathing firmament
Whose sentient dust it seems we are;
By physics framed, by metaphysics bent.

______

Terry Ehret
Co-editor, f Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

As most of you know, my co-editor and technical genius of the Literary Update has been recovering from pneumonia these past few weeks, and consequently we were unable to provide a March edition. Jo-Anne and I will get this April post to you just as soon as we can.

Dana Gioia at Santa Rosa Junior College
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending SRJC’s presentation of Sonoma County poet Dana Gioia at Burbank Auditorium. Among Dana’s many accomplishments, in addition to his writing, editing, and translating, are his eleven years as chair if the NEA, two years as California State Poet Laureate, and lead administrator for community literary arts programs The Big Read and Poetry Out Loud. In fact, Dana had invited two high school student participants in Sonoma County’s Poetry Out Loud program: Lily Morgan from Santa Rosa High, and Sophia Cortez Torres from Roseland University Preparatory. Each recited two poems they had prepared for this year’s county-wide competition.

Dana was introduced by Steve Trenam, who teaches through SRJC’s Older Adults Program, and also leads Poetic License, which hosts quarterly online readings through Sebastopol Center for the Arts. (Some of you might remember that Steve invited and hosted U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon in the fall of 2022). Dana read and recited poems from his new collection Meet Me at the Lighthouse, as well as poems from his previous books, then took questions from the audience in conversation.

Sometimes while attending one of our many literary events in Sonoma County, I am overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude and good fortune to be living in such a literary community. Dana and I have known each other for almost 50 years, having met at Stanford in the 70s. Certainly neither of us could have known how poetry would guide our lives, nor how our paths would eventually cross. It’s part of the serendipity and synchronicity of life.

The First Sonoma Community Writers Festival April 4
On Thursday, April 4, 2024, Sonoma State University will host the first Sonoma Community Writers Festival from 4 to 9 PM.

The Sonoma Community Writers Festival is a collaboration between English and Creative Writing faculty and students at Sonoma State University, the Zaum literary magazine staff, and various local independent literary organizations. The mission of the festival is to offer more opportunities for the Bay Area literary community to assemble, network and celebrate diverse voices. The festival programming will occur in the Student Center and other locations on the SSU campus, with scheduled readings and panels in both ballroom and classroom environments, as well as workshop spaces devoted to collaborative writing. There will also be a table bazaar for organizations and publishers to promote their services and products.

No registration is required. The festival is free and open to the public.

Sonoma State University is located at 1801 E. Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park. General Parking is $5.00, Reserved Parking in Lot D is $8.00. The passes can be purchased in the lots or at the Parking & Information Center at the entry to campus.

Use this link to see a list of panels, speakers, and readings: https://english.sonoma.edu/community-writers-festival

LitCrawl Sebastopol on April 13th
You’ve heard of pub crawls, both musical and literary. Well, something like that will be happening in downtown Sebastopol on Saturday, April 13, 2024: this year’s LitCrawl Sebastopol, a project of SebArts and the Litquake Foundation. For this one Saturday afternoon, over 119 authors from around the Bay Area will be reading at various locations. Join the fun! Hundreds of readers, writers, and revelers will “crawl” through downtown Sebastopol, listening to readings and celebrating Sonoma County’s spirited and diverse literary community.

LitCrawl is FREE to all.

To check the lineup of readers and schedule of times and venues, use this link: https://litcrawlsebastopol2024.sched.com/

Lit Crawl will conclude with An Evening with Alka Joshi
“10 Years to Overnight Success!”, a benefit for SebArts
6:30pm, 282 S. HIGH ST, SEBASTOPOL, Tickets $25

Alka Joshi is the internationally bestselling author of the Jaipur Trilogy: The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Perfumist of Paris. Her debut novel, The Henna Artist, was a New York Times/ LA Times/Publishers Weekly/Toronto Star Bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Pick, an Indigo 10 Best books of 2020, and was long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

Congratulations to Poetry Out Loud State Winner!
Riley O’Hara of Sonoma County is this year’s California Poetry Out Loud state champion. A high-school sophomore from Sonoma Valley High School, the 16-year-old O’Hara took first place in the statewide recitation competition held March 17 and 18 in Sacramento. He will go on to represent the state of California at the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest beginning April 29 in Washington, D.C.

The 2024 State Finals marked the 19th year of California Poetry Out Loud, which encourages youth to learn about poetry through memorization and performance. This year also marked the first time in four years that the program returned from its modified virtual format during the COVID-19 pandemic to a live, in-person, two-day event. Students representing 51 counties competed for the state title. A program listing of all 2024 county champions is available here.

O’Hara recited “We Are Not Responsible” by Harryette Mullen, “Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” by William Shakespeare and “1969” by Alex Dimitrov. His English teacher is Travis Beall.

Nominations for Sonoma County Poet Laureate Close on April 29, 2024
Hard to believe, but it’s been almost two years since Elizabeth Herron was selected as our Sonoma County Poet Laureate. In that time, her Being Brave workshops have tapped the power of poetry to open the heart. And she continues to offer these unique workshops—one is coming up at Sebastopol Center for the Arts on April 14, 1-3 PM.

Now it’s time to think about who might be our next Poet Laureate. Nominations will be opening soon for Sonoma County’s 13th Poet Laureate. The Poet Laureate is a Sonoma County resident who has demonstrated a commitment to the literary arts in the County. The Poet Laureate often participates in official ceremonies and readings and receives a $2,000 stipend payable in yearly $1,000 increments.

Nominations for Poet Laureate require that the poet be a resident of Sonoma County whose poetry manifests a high degree of excellence and who has produced a critically acclaimed body of work. The nominee must also have demonstrated an active commitment to the literary arts in Sonoma County, must propose and perform a project of their own creation, and must agree to participate in official ceremonies and poetry events.

The public is invited to nominate qualified poets. Information about requirements and application instructions can be found on the Sebastopol Center for the Arts website at www.sebarts.org/poet-laureate.

Napa Valley Writers’ Conference Sign Ups are open until April 22
The deadline to sign up to apply to the 2024 Napa Valley Writers’ Conference Sunday, (July 21 to Friday, July 26, 2024) is April 22, 2024!  Don’t miss your opportunity to study with our amazing 2024 faculty:

Poetry:
Jan Beatty – Jane Hirshfield – Bruce Snider – C. Dale Young

Fiction:
Lan Samantha Chang – Peter Ho Davies – Jamil Jan Kochai – Lysley Tenorio

Poetry & Prose Translation:
Emily Wilson

To apply visit: http://www.napawritersconference.org/attend-the-conference/apply/

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections for 2024
In last December’s Literary Update, I announced that starting in January, I wanted to feature more Sonoma County writers in my choice of Poem for the Month. The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ll repeat the guidelines here for those who missed the previous posts. 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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The Poem for April,
in honor of the glorious and plentiful rain we have recently enjoyed, is “Pantoum for Rain Dog.”

Pantoum* for Rain Dog
by Susan Rose Pareto

Dog is bored and restless.
Rain is pouring down.
I’m loath to leave this comfy bed,
but walk we must, says she.

Rain is pouring down,
the road is sodden and feckless.
But walk we must, says she,
up to the woods we go.

The road is sodden and feckless.
The hills are wet and slick.
Up to the woods we go,
Dog barks in great delight.

The hills are wet and slick,
rain drips from leaf and stick.
Dog barks in great delight,
“Water slithering, sliding everywhere!”

Rain drips from leaf and stick.
The gullies run fast and wild,
water slithering, sliding everywhere,
it’s like the earth has burst.

The gullies run fast and wild,
Dog nips at water’s tumble.
It’s like the earth has burst,
she frolics and romps quite madly.

Dog nips at water’s tumble,
gamboling down the hill.
She frolics and romps quite madly,
there’s never been a better day.

Gamboling down the hill,
a whirling dervish made of mud,
there’s never been a better day.
As rain keeps pouring down.

A whirling dervish made of mud.
It’s time to end our walk,
as rain keeps pouring down
my soles and hat are sogged.

It’s time to end our walk.
I whistle loud and firm.
My soles and hat are sogged,
but never has my heart
felt so lithe and light.

*A pantoum is a poetic form derived from a Malaysian verse form in which the 2nd and 4th line of every verse becomes the 1st and 3rd line of the following verse creating interwoven quatrains.

Susan Rose:
Susan Rose writes and lives in rural Sonoma Country after decades of living abroad. She has published in Creative Nonfiction, Geneva Writers Offshoots, Bern Writers Anthologies, Sparks blog, The Persimmon Tree and others. Her upcoming chapbook looks at themes of aging in society. She worked as a professional translator for many years, has two wonderful dogs and a cat that thinks she’s half-dog, and loves her gardening.

______

Terry Ehret
Sonoma County Literary Update Co-editor

Dear Literary Folk,

Fin del Mundo
Jo-Anne Rosen, who handles all things technical when it comes to the Literary Update, has been off on an Antarctic adventure, so the Update is coming to you a few days late. I’ve asked Jo-Anne to share with us some of her experiences and photos.

I sailed beyond the “end of the world” with my two sisters on a ship housing about 2500 passengers and at least 300 crew and staff, a small floating city, 16 decks tall and as long as the Eifel tower is high. My youngest sister Louise, who lives in Santa Rosa, and I were traveling with a group of retired Florida teachers that included our middle sister Ava. This was the only time since childhood we three sisters have traveled together.

After 14 exhausting hours on airplanes, we rested in Buenos Aries two days, enjoying a tour of the colorful Boca neighborhood that was settled by Italian immigrants and the largest and most splendid bookstore I’ve ever seen (El Ateneo Grand Splendid), housed in a beautiful old opera house, five stories high.

We boarded the ship on 20 January and were at sea three days, our first port of call being the southernmost city in Argentina, Ushuaia, where we had booked an excursion to see a penguin colony in Tiera del Fuego. It never happened because that day workers were on strike protesting the new government’s policies. Instead, we came across an exciting protest march, consisting of many left-leaning factions, we learned, that normally do not get along, everything from Peronistas to Socialists. As it turned out, there were more penguins to be seen elsewhere.

We reached Cape Horn on day 5 where luckily visibility was excellent, so we could sail close to the coast and see the Chilean lighthouse at the southernmost point on the continent. The Drake Passage, dreaded by many a navigator of yore, was unusually calm. On day 6 we were elated to spot our first floating iceberg from our stateroom (we had a balcony). Although we’d been warned a dense fog might prohibit entering the Schollart Channel, the sun broke through and we sailed into Paradise Bay. We sisters ran all over the boat taking photos and videos.  

That’s when I started sneezing. The next morning, I had a fever and tested positive for Covid. Ava and Louise remained negative, though we shared one stateroom.

I was actually relieved to be quarantined for five days; there were too many people and too much activity on the ship for my taste. Also, the cruise line provided me with free room service and phone calls and, best of all, a notification that I will be refunded for those five days. On day 1 of Covid-jail, I could see all of Elephant Island from our cabin, since the ship rotated slowly, as if to give me a view of everything. The sun literally sparkled on the water.  

My only regret was not being able to visit Port Stanley and take the excursion via tour bus and jeep to see the Gentoo penguins. But my sisters took great photos and videos. And they had fish n’ chips for lunch (the comfort food of our Canadian childhood). I also missed out on Puerto Madryn, which had been founded in 1865 by Welsh settlers. However, I didn’t miss much, as that is now a small, rundown city with a beachfront that looks like Miami Beach did in the ‘50s. Our final port of call was Montevideo, Uruguay, whose old town near the port reminded us of Paris or New Orleans. We celebrated my 80th birthday that night on the ship.

The only time I experienced motion sickness was on the flight back from Houston to San Francisco, attempting to finish this report on my tablet and descending in 60 mph winds into the atmospheric river. I have never been happier to land at SFO. Everyone on the plane applauded the captain when we touched down at last.  

Nominations for Sonoma County Poet Laureate Open on February 10, 2024
Hard to believe, but it’s been almost two years since Elizabeth Herron was selected as our Sonoma County Poet Laureate. In that time, her Being Brave workshops have tapped the power of poetry to open the heart. And she continues to offer these unique workshops—one is coming up at Sebastopol Center for the Arts in April.

Now it’s time to think about who might be our next Poet Laureate. Nominations will be opening soon for Sonoma County’s 13th Poet Laureate. The Poet Laureate is a Sonoma County resident who has demonstrated a commitment to the literary arts in the County. The Poet Laureate often participates in official ceremonies and readings and receives a $2,000 stipend payable in yearly $1,000 increments.

Nominations for Poet Laureate require that the poet be a resident of Sonoma County whose poetry manifests a high degree of excellence and who has produced a critically acclaimed body of work. The nominee must also have demonstrated an active commitment to the literary arts in Sonoma County, must propose and perform a project of their own creation, and must agree to participate in official ceremonies and poetry events.

The public is invited to nominate qualified poets. Information about requirements and application instructions may be found HERE. The deadline for nominations is April 29, 2024.

Sonoma County Poetry Out Loud
Sandra Anfang, host of Rivertown Poets, sends this news from the realm of youth poetry, so important to our literary community:
 
On Sunday, January 28th, eight students representing different high school competed in the Sonoma County Poetry Out Loud competition at Sonoma State University. Poetry Out Loud is a national recitation competition that involves high school students from all U.S. states and territories. Students compete at the class, school, county, and state levels and each state’s winner moves on to the national event. The program provides an opportunity for students to sample, enjoy, and interpret many different poetic voices from a wide range of poets.
 
The eight students who participated this year were, in no particular order, Ashely Morales, Ella Wen, Estefany Cal Mojica, Eva Smith, Lily Morgan, Riley O’Hara, Sabine Wolpert, and Sophia Cortez Torres. Riley O’Hara won the contest, with Lily Morgan in second place. Sophia Cortez Torres took third place. Riley will attend the state contest in Sacramento.
 
Congratulations to all participants and to runners-up Lily and Sohpia. Best of luck at the next level of competition, Riley!

A Few Upcoming February Events (many more in the calendar!)

A Benefit for SebArts: Rumi’s Caravan on Saturday, February 10, at 7 pm. An Evening of Poetry + Music in the Ecstatic Tradition, featuring Doug von Koss, Kay Crista, Barry Spector, Maya Spector, Rebecca Evert and Larry Robinson with musical accompaniment by Jason Parmar and Don Fontowitz.

Redwood Writers Club will be presenting Life in the Flames: A Five-Year Journey Bringing Inflamed to Publication on Saturday, February 17, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Just after midnight on October 9, 2017, as one of the nation’s deadliest and most destructive firestorms swept over California’s Wine Country, hundreds of elderly residents from two posh senior living facilities in Santa Rosa were caught in its path. The frailest were blind, in wheelchairs, or diagnosed with dementia, and their community quickly transformed from a palatial complex that pledged to care for them to one that threatened to entomb them. Investigative reporters Paul Gullixson and Anne Belden will share their five-year journey bringing this story to publication, at Finley Community Center, Cypress Room, 2060 W College Ave., Santa Rosa. For more information: redwoodwriters.org
 
Longtime Sonoma County teacher, artist, and poet Marylu Downing returns to celebrate the launch of her new book, Pink Paisley Scarf. The launch will be held on Saturday, February 17, 4:00-5:30 p.m at the Occidental Center for the Arts. After selected readings, the author will be in conversation with Patrick Fanning, author, publisher and President of the OCA Board. Q&A with the audience. Free admission, all donations gratefully accepted. Book sales and signing. 3850 Doris Murphy Way, Occidental.  

Saturday, February 17, 5:00-7:30 p.m. Napa Writers Salon, Author Readings & Talks, Meet & Greet, Book Signings, with Lenore Hirsch, Mary Holman Tuteur (reading by John Tuteur), Iris Jamahl Dunkel and Paul Wagner.. Jessel Gallery, 1019 Atlas Peak Road, Napa. $10 at the door (kids free). Limited seating, RSVP required: 707-257-2350. jesselgallery.com/writerssalon.html

Remembering N. Scott Momaday
Some of you may be familiar with N. Scott Momaday from his work with Ken Burns in documentaries over the years, often providing the historical perspective of the Native Plains people, most recently in The American Buffalo. More important, however, Scott Momaday was the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize for his 1968 debut novel House Made of Dawn. His narratives, poetry, and teaching inspired other Native American authors, such as James Welch, Sherman Alexie, Leslie Marmon Silko, Joy Harjo, and Louise Erdrich. According to Joy Harjo, “Momaday was the one we all looked up to. His works were transcendent. There was always a point where despite the challenges and losses … there was some moment that imparted beauty.”

One such moment of beauty can be found in his book The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969), which weaves Kiowa oral myths and legends with his own autobiography. Back in 1974, when I was just 18, Momaday’s narratives gave me my first taste for the lyrical prose poem. Later, when I taught writing, especially with students who struggled to find their way in the academic world, I liked to give them this piece, in which Momaday describes his grandmother Aho at prayer, and ask them who in their own lives has made a strong emotional impression on them. (For you grammar wonks out there, this passage also provides the best example I know of the use of the colon and semicolon.)
 
Now that I can have her only in memory, I see my grandmother in the several postures that were peculiar to her: standing at the wood stove on a winter morning and turning meat in a great iron skillet, sitting at the south window, bent above her beadwork, and afterwards, when her vision failed, looking down for a long time into the fold of her hands; going out upon a cane, very slowly as she did when the weight of age came upon her; praying. I remember her most often at prayer. She made long, rambling prayers out of suffering and hope, having seen many things. I was never sure that I had the right to hear, so exclusive were they of all mere custom and company. The last time I saw her she prayed standing by the side of her bed at night, naked to the waist, the light of a kerosene lamp moving upon her dark skin. Her long, black hair, always drawn and braided in the day, lay upon her shoulders and against her breasts like a shawl. I do not speak Kiowa, and I never understood her prayers, but there was something inherently sad in the sound, some merest hesitation upon the syllables of sorrow. She began in a high and descending pitch, exhausting her breath to silence; then again and again—and always the same intensity of effort, of something that is, and is not, like urgency in the human voice. Transported so in the dancing light among the shadows of her room, she seemed beyond the reach of time. But that was illusion; I think I knew then that I should not see her again.

I was extraordinarily lucky when I was an undergraduate at Stanford in the mid-70’s to have Momaday as a teacher. I took three courses from him: American Indian Mythology, Legend, and Lore; The Phenomenological “I”; and Reading and Writing Poetry, my first writing workshop. Momaday taught me something I have never forgotten. After reading a fledgling poem I had turned in, he said “Something about this reminds me of Theodore Roethke. You should read some of his poetry.” Well, I hurried off to the library, took out Roethke’s collected poems, read them all, and proceeded to commit “The Waking” to memory. In high school, I had not been exposed to much contemporary poetry; Roethke became for me, through Momaday’s offhand (or maybe not so offhand) remark, a teacher of profound psychological depth, as well as grace and lyric form. Sometimes the best advice a teacher can give a student is to simply point them in the direction of a writer worth reading.  

On January 24, N. Scott Momaday died at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 89. If you’re interested in reading more about Momaday’s life and work, check out this link to the Academy of American Poets: https://poets.org/poet/n-scott-momaday.

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections for 2024
In last December’s Literary Update, I announced that I’d like to feature more Sonoma County writers in my choice of Poem for the Month. The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ll repeat the guidelines here for those who missed the December post. 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 the words “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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Prose Poem for February

GRATON
by Mark Tate

Up the steep hill, I turned right at Sullivan Road & continued past the orchard & entered the cemetery that looked over the Santa Rosa plain. Clouds sailed across the sky & I could see up the Dry Creek Valley or down to Valley Ford. Standing near the grave that read Saphomia Stout, Beloved Wife and Mother, 1830-1871, I bowed my head & murmured to her, placing a piece of soft sandstone at the foot of her grave near one of the head-sized stones that encircled her plot. Within the oval ring of stones were the smooth stones, small shells, & bits of driftwood I had left on previous visits as had become my ritual. When my wife was buried, my sisters & I planted some gladiolas in two hand-made baskets partially submerged in the earth, a little garden fashioned on the hill. Near her grave, in a small plot enclosed by an iron fence, was the grave of our two-year old daughter—gone fifteen years. The thin wood marker was split & her name had faded into the weathered wood. A valley oak not more than two feet high had sprouted in the corner of the iron fencing. Unable to bring myself to pull the oak from the grave, I walked toward the dirt road that turned around the orchard & headed home. Fog edged through the trees & down the road before me, making the signs on the town buildings unreadable.

About Mark
Sonoma County poet Mark Tate’s collection Walking Scarecrow was selected for the 2023 Blue Light Book Award. Mark is the author of three previous books of poetry Pommes de Terre (2001), Sur lie* (2002), and Rooms and Doorways (2003), and three novels, Beside the River, and its sequel River’s End (McCaa Books, 2021), and Butterfly on the Wheel (McCaa Books, 2022). He served for ten years on the Sonoma County Poet Selection Committee for the poets laureate of our county. He is a long-time resident of Northern California where he lives with his wife, Lori.  

Walking Scarecrow, The Poems of Pineshadow from Blue Light Press is available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 
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Terry Ehret
Co-editor, Sonoma County Literary Update