Fall Announcements
~ From My Writerly World ~
“It’s fire season in California. October, my birthday month. Fall was always my favorite. But that was before.” — from “Autumn Inferno,” published in Cagibi
writing workshops
I recently launched two new 8-week workshop series using the Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) method. Six prior participants returned for my Tuesday group while on Thursdays I welcomed 7 newcomers. As usual, I’m deeply moved by the depth, quality, and variety of writing shared, as well as the generosity of spirit in responding to one another’s work. Thanks to The Sitting Room, Sonoma County Literary Update, Creative Sonoma, The Write Spot, and others for help publicizing via online platforms. Don’t miss my “student spotlight” below!
Last weekend I attended another professional development conference for AWA-certified leaders. We began with a riveting keynote speech on mapping intersectional identities called ‘Living the Language of Poetry,’ delivered by Jennifer Elise Foerster, a San Francisco–based poet of German/Dutch and Mvskoke (Muscogee) descent who has worked with Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.
The annual 3-day event via Zoom included panel discussions and workshops along three tracks: social justice, writing craft, and business. Topics ranged from Varying Writing Prompts for Inclusion to How to Bring AWA Workshops to Public Schools. I loved Writing Family History with Barbara Krasner, who offers a 4-week series of 90-minute workshops via Zoom on Sundays, 2:00 – 3:30 pm ET, starting January 9 with a free, introductory workshop on Sunday, November 14 at 2 pm ET.
student spotlight
Kudos to Kim D. Hester Williams, a multi-workshop participant and Sonoma State University professor whose poem “Losing Count: A Re-Collection, by Numbers” appeared last month in The Goose: A Journal of Arts, Environment, and Culture in Canada. The Introduction to this special issue, entitled “e-Race-sures,” is led with an epigraph excerpted from Kim’s poem:
What will be cleansed? What new Parable lies ahead? Octavia is calling. Wildseed begets Earthseed. Don’t forget to read her instructions. And wear your mask. Because we are on this ever-tempestuous road—together. Traveling. Claiming. Re-claiming.
According to the editors, “Losing Count” “dismantles the obsession with statistics and data to provide a voice to the individual lives within those numbers.” Download the poem here.
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Congrats to Kathy Guthormsen, another workshopper, who completed The Story of Jazz and Vihar—due out in November. Based on Kathy’s volunteer work at The Bird Rescue Center, this educational yet entertaining book features Poe the Common Raven, a gifted storyteller who shares the tales of two Great Horned Owls. Children and adults alike will learn the important role that birds play in our ecology, and how to best help them when you find one lost or injured in the wild.
hot off the press!
After it was declined by Ploughshares, Sequestrum, Guernica, The Missouri Review, and Narrative Magazine with standard rejection letters stating “it’s not quite right for our current needs,” my essay “Autumn Inferno'' was accepted by Cagibi just one day after I submitted it. The piece will be published in the annual print issue in December, but it appeared online this week at Cagibi Express, “a space between issues,” in their special feature section On The Ground (OTG):
“Essays and other works in conversation with important issues unfolding in the world around us, whether literary, cultural, social, or political. Reactions, responses, and reporting, from a wide range of perspectives and angles.”
This braided essay opens in October 2020 and works backwards through several fire seasons in Northern California. Unfortunately, one year later, in the midst of multiple firestorms, the essay is still timely. In fact, the very day after its acceptance last month, there was a house fire a few properties away. Due to high winds and heat, it quickly spread to 15 acres via flying embers that set a random patchwork of fields on fire. My wife watched with a neighboring off-duty firefighter while a row of eucalyptus trees caught fire on a hillside and 900 homes, including ours, were evacuated. With nearly 200 firefighters on the scene, including air support, it was extinguished in a couple hours. Later we found charred leaves that had blown onto our doorstep.
Photo: Mt. Harkness Fire Lookout, Lassen Volcanic National Park, visited in July 2020 & destroyed in the Dixie Fire in August 2021
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“Feather Knoll Farm: then and now” was published in the October issue of the Sonoma County Gazette, where I was a Penngrove Station guest columnist by request. You can pick up a copy of the print edition at local newsstands or read it online (click to page A-30).
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Though “Destination Unknown” was declined for the Nature issue of Litro Magazine, the editors selected it as a #EssaySaturday piece for Litro Online, scheduled to appear tomorrow! Litro publishes world literature, with distribution centers throughout London and New York.
upcoming publication
“The Distance Between,” previously published by the Mason Street Literary Magazine of Newark Library, will appear as a reprint in Gathering: A Women Who Submit Anthology, created “in response to the current conditions of our world.” WWS recently celebrated 10 years of empowering women and nonbinary writers to submit work for publication by hosting quarterly workshops and panels to help demystify the process. Last month I took part in SUBMIT 1, an annual submission drive with a mission to fight for gender parity and wider representation of marginalized voices in literary publishing.
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Taking a break from wrangling another longform essay revision, I created a micro piece for Complete Sentence, a magazine of single-sentence prose:
“We champion punchy and poignant work that celebrates syntactical exploration—narratives that expand or contract within a single sentence.”
Along with “Mother Says,” I sent along a collage from an art journaling page I’d made at Unfold Studio (now closed, but continuing online as Creative Life Raft). Within three days I heard back: “We’d be thrilled to publish your work (& accompanying art)!” TBP by December.
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Finally, I’ve got a short roundup of artisan markets and maker festivals appearing in the Locavortex section of Made Local Magazine’s Nov/Dec issue, online and on store shelves soon!
… and rejection
In addition to my successes, I’ve faced plenty of rejection, including a group of poems recently declined by Tinderbox Poetry Journal, The Ilanot Review, and Typishly Literary Magazine. The founding editor of the latter, by the way, will respond within 24 hours with a personalized note:
“Well chosen symbols: 'the tennis courts empty, his Lexus in permanent park.' Delightful phrase: 'this pastel town.' Lovely writing: 'ethereal spirits unfurling lace-like tendrils…'”
And, just as I was writing this (!), I received notice from the California Arts Council (CAC) that I was not granted an Individual Artist Fellowship for which I applied 6 months ago:
“We received thousands of applications from throughout the state, and while yours was excellent, I regret to inform you that it was not among those selected. Our peer review panel carefully evaluated applications according to the review criteria stated in the program guidelines… yours did not rank at a level supported by Council funds this year.”
I knew it was a long shot to be one of approximately 50 artists selected—especially as an Established Artist Fellow. By most standards in the literary world, I am still considered to be “Emerging” since I have not yet published a book, but the grant defines “Established” as having between four and 10 years of artistic practice. The extensive application included an artist’s narrative; personal/community/social impact statements; six work samples; additional support materials; CV; and a letter of support (Thanks to J.J. Wilson of The Sitting Room!). You can check out the incredible talent CAC supports by reading the premier issue of DREAM magazine: “introducing artists and culture bearers from communities throughout the state.”
This year I also applied for an Elizabeth George Foundation grant. Denied! One silver lining: I received an email from a prior grant recipient I’d previously contacted for advice on the application process and had told of my rejection. Her generous reply:
“I'm so sorry to hear that! I was pulling for you. A few friends I thought were dead shoe-ins were rejected, too. I think EGF just had so much talent on the table.”
Certainly, each time I articulate my artistic goals, practices, and body of work, it helps me to recommit to moving my creative work forward. As Cecilia Caballero wrote in a WWS blog post, “Asking ‘What If’: A Love Letter to Fellow Emerging Writers”:
“Rejection letters became ‘motivation letters’. . . I learned that everything matters, no matter how small, and it opened up something new in me. I had something to say. I filled multiple journals. I started scribbling poems on the backs of receipts again. I began to remember my childhood dream of being a published author. What if?”
got lit? submit!
Curious about the process of sending out your work? Develop your own publishing journey with AWA workshop leader Emily Stoddard of Voice & Vessel. Her online workshop, Tending the Work, starts October 21, and includes five modules over four weeks. Only 2 spots left!
Another option is Submitit, which “takes the guesswork out of submitting to literary journals; we handle every step of the submission process: from formatting and optional editing, to creating cover letters and a bio, to the final submission of your story.”
writing residencies
In September I had the pleasure of staying for six nights at In Cahoots Residency in Petaluma, Ca. Although it’s located close to home, being away from daily distractions and responsibilities helped me to immerse myself in serene surroundings infused with creativity. I loved inhabiting the Hen House, a cozy cottage with my own writing studio just steps away. I soaked up the sunshine and solitude while enjoying the occasional company of Macy and four artist residents as well as the cat often napping on my doorstep. Although I felt a bit anxious and unfocused—exacerbated by disrupted sleep and the aforementioned fire—I was still pretty darn productive, including finishing an application for Storyknife, a women’s writing residency in Homer, Alaska.
As it so happens, my late mother-in-law’s parents, four grandparents, and several siblings are buried in Liberty Cemetery across the street. So I spent some time there experimenting with grave rubbings (my first!), using wax crayon on Japanese papers, and began to envision a prose chapbook on my wife’s family to include several written pieces in progress.
The time away reignited my commitment to writing, but it also helped me face my own resistance (hello, self!). Time and again, I realize that willpower alone isn’t enough to write; I need a schedule. How about you? Tell me what you’re working on, and what you’d like to accomplish.
disrupting art histories
This week Kristen and I went to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco to see the special exhibition “I am Speaking, Can You Hear Me?” by Wangechi Mutu, an artist who calls both Nairobi and New York home. Mutu’s works, dispersed throughout the galleries—built for the showcase of European art from antiquity through Impressionism—“challenge colonialist, racist, and sexist worldviews with her visionary projection of an alternate universe informed by Afrofuturism, post-humanism, and feminism.”
“Disrupting [Auguste Rodin's] The Thinker’s splendid isolation in the Legion’s neoclassical Court of Honor are two bronze Shavasana figures, limp blanketed bodies with polished nails and bright colored stilettos… they both question and reframe the historical context of his creation… in terms of ‘the violence and bloodshed of colonial invasion and exploitation’…”
On exhibit through November 7, 2021.
litquake & lit crawl
Litquake runs October 7 – 23 with 80+ events featuring 300 authors both virtually and in-person at San Francisco venues like the Contemporary Jewish Museum and Yerba Buena Gardens. I registered for FREE tickets for two sessions:
Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am with author Julia Cooke:
“They were college-educated, spoke two languages and would come to play important roles on the world stage while breaking down barriers to gender equality.”
Escaping into Books with Lauren Hough and Julia Scheeres:
“Lauren Hough to discuss her new book Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing. In it, she describes memorable parts of her remarkable life— from her life as a “don’t ask” gay person in the military, to her childhood spent in the violent Children of God religious cult. To shed those memories and adjust to life, Hough says ‘I read everything I could get my hands on. I hid in books.’ Sharing both her writing passion and her childhood in a cult, author Julia Scheeres (author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Jesus Land) will be in conversation with Hough.”
As I have a brother who has been in a religious cult for 35 years, I read and loved both books. (Jesus Land: A Memoir is one of my all-time favorites!)
I’ve already planned to visit cousins in San Francisco's Mission District (my old stomping grounds), so we're heading to Lit Crawl, described as “a one-night literary pub crawl… in venues usual (bars, cafes, galleries, and bookstores) and unusual (police stations, tattoo parlors, barbershops, and laundromats).” Saturday, October 23, 5 – 9 PM. See you there!
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