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
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
Sonoma County Youth Poet Laureate and Poetry Ambassador
It was a book,
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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: 
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. 
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.”
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. 
We spent some holiday time watching movies: old favorites like Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory, Dylan Thomas’s Child’s Christmas in Wales, The Holiday, Joyeaux Noël, and (new to us) Love, Actually; and some newer releases like Barbie, Maestro, American Symphony. We also introduced our grandson Connor to How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original, narrated by Boris Karloff). None of us could name the uncredited vocalist who sings “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Ginch,” so I looked it up. His name is Thurl Ravenscroft, also known as the booming voice behind Tony the Tiger, among many other credits. It seems a shame that he remains unknown to most of us, so I’m doing my part here to make sure we all know his name.
Never tried your hand at flash fiction? Here’s your chance to explore new ways of writing. Guy has been leading workshops for many years on the power of flash and micro fiction. “Strive for sinewy sentences,” Guy says, “and stories that charge the moment. We’ll practice the art of expressing more with less as we explore flash and micro fiction. Using writing seeds, time limits, and story samples, we’ll pursue the creativity of limitation, the pleasure of discovery, and the earnest work of craft.”
Mark Tate Wins Blue Light Book Award
Book Launch for Claire Drucker’s New Collection The Life You Gave Me
Saturday, January 20, 2024, 5:00-7:00 pm
Exact right life
Our incredible engine behind the Sonoma County Literary Update, Jo-Anne Rosen, will be briefly on hiatus from January 17 through February 4. Jo-Anne is off on a cruise to Antarctica with her sisters! I’ve asked her to send us photos and notes about her journey, and she has promised a write-up for the February post. During Jo-Anne’s time away, she will not be available to update the blogsite, and the February Literary Update will be delayed… unless a volunteer steps up to cover her absence. (Knowledge of WordPress and MailChimp needed.) If you can help out, please contact Jo-Anne at 
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors will adopt the Gold Resolution honoring Elizabeth Herron as our 12th poet laureate at their meeting on December 12, 2023, 1:30 pm. Elizabeth and her guests will arrive around 1:15 pm. I hope some of you can join us in person!
Here’s a great opportunity to join in a state-wide conversation about living in California. Our state poet laureate Lee Herrick and the California Arts Council invite all Californians to write a poem about their city, town, or state, exploring what they love about it, what joy they find in it, what they would change about it, or what they hope for.
Kick off your holiday season with a Petaluma tradition, Petaluma Readers Theatre’s annual Christmas show: Two holiday classics, Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory and Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales.
Sixteen Rivers Press invites Northern California authors to submit book-length poetry manuscripts between November 1, 2023 and February 1, 2024. 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 2026.
Today and tonight mark the Day of the Dead/el Día de los Muertos, a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2. Although related to the simultaneous Christian remembrances for All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day, it has a much less solemn tone and is portrayed as a holiday of joyful celebration rather than mourning.
I am also remembering today the poet Louise Glück, who passed away on October 13. In 2020 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” (
On Saturday, October 21, from 6:00 to 8:30 PM, members of the community are invited to attend the annual El 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.
The benefit will be held on Sunday, October 22 from 2-5 PM at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, Berkeley. Please join us for a delightful afternoon of wine, hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, poetry, good company and conversation. The event is free and open to all. We ask that you use the link below to visit our EventBrite page. Once there, click on “get tickets” to let us know you’re coming. This will help us plan food and beverages for our guests. You can also use the EventBrite page to make a donation, if you’re so inclined. 
When I was first starting out as a writer, I remember discovering Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees. What inspired me in Kingsolver’s novel was the breadth of its scope, and the author daring to engage the politics of single motherhood, adoption, and families that find themselves unexpectedly. I liked the way the novel wove in elements of nonwhite mythology and traditions in which women have power. This kind of writing can seem heavy-handed, yet I didn’t find Kinsolver’s writing to be didactic. It helped me imagine a female-centric narrative.
Another author whose struggle to discover her hero’s story inspired me is Hilda Doolittle, better known as HD. She began as an Imagist—the first Imagist, actually—and protégé of Ezra Pound. But she resisted the expectation to become the male poet’s muse, and eventually came to define herself apart from the powerful and patriarchal literary world of post WWI England and Europe. On Saturday, October 14, 2:00 p.m. at the Sitting Room Library. Barbara Beatie, an M.A. student at Sonoma State University will share with participants some of her paper that was presented at the American Literature Association Conference in May 2023. All are welcome and it is free, but please rsvp to Barbara at 
The Petaluma Poetry Walk is back! Last September, we bravely ventured to outdoor venues after COVID’s interruption of the Walk for two years. And then, of all things, it RAINED! A first for the Poetry Walk. We scuttled to move readings indoors and held umbrellas for each other as we moved from venue to venue. Who know what the weather (and fire season) will bring? But rain or shine, here is the spectacular line-up of venues and readers:
Long Poems at Café Frida
Many of you know that I’ve been working with a team of writers and artists to bring out a remarkable collection of poems by Maggie Tuteur. Maggie has been struggling for many years with hearing loss, chronic fatigue, and dementia, but seeing her poems make their way into print has been a source of deep pleasure for her. And these are amazing poems!
Sonoma County Literary Update 
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