Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Checking in...and then checking out!

Friends, I am going to give you all a bunch of updates right here, and then you most likely won't hear from me for a few weeks...I am headed out of town (and out of the country, in fact) for vacation. If I can, I will blog whilst on the road, but otherwise, plan to hear from me again in late April.

Okay, on to the news:

April 8: Book Lauch Party!

I recently heard about a great party! You are cordially invited to the Book Launch Party for our own Judith Horstman's "Scientific American Brave New Brain" at Revolution Wines on Thursday, April 8. Join us as we celebrate this literary force in the community, the power of mind over matter and the spirit of small urban wineries.

Who: Judith Horstman is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in hundreds of publications worldwide and on the Internet, from USA Today to The Primer on the Rheumatic Diseases to Comstock’s Business Magazine. She has also been a Washington correspondent, a journalism professor, and was the recipient of a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT and two Fulbright awards in Budapest, Hungary. She is the author of six books, including "The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain" (2009). We'll celebrate the publication of her latest book, "The Scientific American Brave New Brain", published by Jossey- Bass this April 2010. Visit her website at www.judithhorstman.com

What: Book Launch for Judith Horstman's "Scientific American Brave New Brain."

When: April 8 from 6 pm to 8 pm

Where: Revolution Wines 2116 P Street (Enter through the gate to the patio and tasting room in the back). The best place to park is on P Street, 22nd Street or 21st Street. Please do not park in parking lots on the south side of P Street. 916-444-7711

Why: Because it's free with no-host wine tasting, refreshments and everyone will be talking about this book.

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April 16 & 17: SPC Spring Conference
Check out these workshops! For facilitator and reader bios, head to www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org.

Friday April 16, 2010
7:30 PM
Saturday April 17, 2010
10:00 AM to 6:30 PM
@R25 at 1719 25th Street, Sacramento, California

All readings and workshops are FREE!
-- For registration, contact Tim Kahl at tnklbnny@frontiernet.net --

Friday April 16, 2010 at 7:30 PM
Reading: Indigo Moor and Peter Grandbois

Saturday April 17, 2010 at 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
1st Workshop Session

Choose one of the following three:

Indigo Moor“Writing to History and Culture” In this workshop participants will discuss examples of poetry and prose to discover: How does a writer handle emotionally charged events in a professional manner? How does a writer maintain objectivity without obscuring the heart of the past? How do we uncover the passion in dry facts, accounts, testimonials, and interviews? [lecture, discussion, writing exercise, and take home materials]

Peter Grandbois • “Leaping Prose: How to Create Story Between Your Sentences.” With a title that pays homage to Robert Bly, participants will examine the bridge between poetry and fiction with parataxis. Parataxis — n. the justaposition of phrases and sentences without coordinating or subordinating conjunctions.

Tim Kahl • “InDesign, Photoshop and POD: A Step-by-step Introduction to Bringing Your Literary Publication into the World” This workshop will be a brief overview of bringing a literary publication into the world using InDesign, Photoshop and print-on-demand technologies (such as Lulu). The workshop will focus on practical resolution of production hang-ups and keeping one’s costs down as a part of production. Screenshots of the various different crucial steps in using these software programs will guide you through from the moment of conception to the moment of realization in the world. [lecture, demonstration, take home materials]

Saturday April 17, 2010 at 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
2nd Workshop Session

Choose one of the following four:

Joseph Lease • “Images and Voice” In this hands-on workshop participants will explore images and voice. We will write and read poems in which each word makes the story and the music clear, when there is nothing in the way. When the music is right, that's when a poem reaches people, lets people in. Participants will explore how poems animated by powerful images and voices can also become acts of resistance. Participants will write poems that open the possibilities of image. Participants will also move between verse and prose to explore narrative and imaginative shifts.

Toni Mirosevich • “In Through The Small Door: Using the random, the Inconsequential, and the Discarded, to Find Entry into New Poetic Material.” In this workshop participants will turn their attention away from attempting to write ‘the big poem’ to find other approaches that can yield the important poem. Along the way participants will utilize oblique strategies, such as “Honor thy error as hidden intention” (Brian Eno/Peter Schmidt) to help us find the small key that fits the small lock.

Donna de la Perriere • “Writing Place, Family, and Identity.” This workshop will explore the ways in which poets write about family, place, and identity. Just as a poem is a space where the poet can construct a version of “self,” family and place also function as a spaces in which people build identity/-ies; thus, not so surprisingly, the story of identity is often the story of how a person, in this case a writer, understands and translates her/his place of birth and family of origin. We'll explore the ways in which various poets and writers write about their families and places of origin, their various identities, the often-conflicting demands those identities make, the difficulty (perhaps the impossibility) of being accountable to one aspect of one’s identity without potentially betraying another--then through a series of writing prompts, we'll begin to write into our own versions of place, family, and self.

Flatman Crooked [Elijah Jenkins/Deena Drewis] • “Intro to the Indie Publishing World”

Saturday April 17, 2010 at 3:15 to 5:00
Reading: Donna de la Perriere, Joseph Lease, Toni Mirosevich

Saturday April 17, 2010 at 5:00 to ??
Reading/Performance: Lawrence Dinkins and Ross Hammond

Sign up now!

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April 24: Our Life Stories: A Cross-Generational Writers' Conference by Hart Senior Center and Cosumnes River College

April 24, 2010--8:00 am to 4:30 pm--at Cosumnes River College (8401 Center Parkway, Sacramento)

Conference Fee - $30.00 (Includes lunch, workshops, and materials)Registration Deadline: April 17, 2009. Space is limited. Head to the conference website for registration form and instructions, schedule info, etc.

Workshop Descriptions

Poetry Julia Connor
So many of our life experiences, the good andthe bad, are stored in a split second of enhanced consciousness. Our memory of these indelible experiences, as well as our daily attentiveness to what floats before our eyes, are the raw materials of artistic mind from which the writing of poetry springs. Through the use of simple, hands-on, playful exercises, we will endeavor to discover anew the flavor of our lives and capture it in the potent language of the poem. Open to all levels of experience.

Writing From Memory – How Point of View Works Quinton Duval
The workshop will be a discussion of writing memoir or autobiographical fiction/poetry and how the use of different points of view affects the outcome. Examples of each genre will be discussed by the group. We will focus on quick exercises that give the group some practice at using various points of view to tell their story. Participants should bring a snapshot of an event that was important to them and that they would like to write about.

Writing About Your Own Experiences Tim Herrera
You are more interesting than you realize! Everyone has interesting personal stories to share with family and with friends. This workshop will help you dig through your personal experience gold mine and find those precious nuggets about you and your family to share.

A Certain Slant of Light – Looking at Our Lives Kathryn Hohlwein
This is a three hour workshop. It is recommended you sign up for both Part 1 and Part 2.
Part 1 – will be on intensive contemplative lyrical writing, with emphasis on personal perspective.We will begin with quick spontaneous exercises, move on to uncensored “automatic” writing, trust our first impulses, and honor both retrospection and introspection. We will then do a few exercises in remembering through specific senses.
Part 2 – we will do in-class writing and critiquing, and participants can draw from images revealed in the first workshop to intensify their work, whether in prose, or in first drafts of a poem.

The Pride in Self-Publishing Nan Mahon
This workshop will discuss self-publishing and the ways to go about it. If you need 10 copies or 1,000 there are methods to get it done. The satisfaction of a bound and finished product is a source of pride. Putting a story in print needn ot be an expensive venture but will keep the writer’s story preserved for generations to come. Find out how to get started and where to go. See examples of what others have done.

Showing Where the Story Happens (Morning Only) Dennis Schmitz
Orientation and focus are the ways the writer makes a place and keeps the reader inside the narrative. The workshop exercises will show you how to find your way back in your own memory and invite the reader along.

The Making of a Story Emmanuel Sigauke
This workshop looks at the process of telling stories through writing, first establishing the relationship between the story-telling tradition and the story-writing process. It will cover the basics of a story from idea to drafting and revision. In this interactive workshop, participants will do short exercises to spark theb eginnings of short stories and novels.

Balancing Creativity and Nonfictionin Memoir Writing David Weinshilboum
The very term “creative non-fiction” is almost a contradiction in terms. Some prominent writers have encountered problems when their “creativity” has led to fictitious, factually inaccurate pieces. This workshop encourages imagination while remaining true to thememoir genre. The workshop will offer specific techniques and philosophies that published authors have used to balance creativity and nonfiction.

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Also Saturday, April 24: NCPA Spring Conference 2010: A Publishing and Writing Odyssey

from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm at the Red Lion Hotel, 1401 Arden Way, Sacramento
cost: variable, dependind when you regsiter--head to the website for info

The NCPA conference website says:

"It's going to be an excellent event, with nationally-known publisher Dominique Raccah (SourceBooks) keynoting. She's the head of the nation's largest “small publisher.” She's a nationally recognized publisher and business leader. And she's not afraid of taking risks. She puts out the Fiske Guide to Colleges, publishes poetry and has resurrected Georgette Heyer!
This daylong conference is an opportunity for emerging and established authors and publishers to hear firsthand from experts. Lunch, which is included in the registration price, and several generous breaks will give you opportunities to network."

For more info and to register, head to the conference website.

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