Monday, July 18, 2011

Long time, no posts--but I'm back! Hot Poetry in the Park TONIGHT, Squaw Valley Benefit Reading recap; Napa Writers' Conference public events; & etc.

Hello Friends,

My apologies for not posting a note to let you know this in advance, but I have just been out of town for two weeks--and am now returned! So, back to our irregularly scheduled posting of interesting local writing event ephemera.

Enjoy!

Kate

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Squaw Valley Community of Writers Benefit Reading was SOLD OUT!
Kate's Miscellany's recap:

Did you miss Friday night's lovely poetry event at the Crocker Art Museum's Setzer Auditorium? I sure hope you didn't. The Sacramento poetry scene was graced for the evening by the bright poetic spirits of Sharon Olds, Major Jackson, Brenda Hillman, Cathy Park Hong and Robert Hass--what an evening! Highlights for me included Sharon Olds' reading of a lovely piece about a long relationship ending, from her forthcoming book; Major Jackson's great reading, nearly from memory, of his poem about a barber and his shop in a changing world; the "spoken bird" poetry of Brenda Hillman; Cathy Park Hong's lipograms (poems that use only one vowel) including "Balland in O" and "Balland in A;" and finally, Bob Hass' longer poem about writers at the Sqauw Valley Community, which ended with the brightness of the empty page, beckoning.

Thanks to Sacramento for supporting the Sqauw Valley Community of Writers poetry scholarship fund *and* for coming out to a packed house to hear these very fine poets. Let's hope they return soon!

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TONIGHT: Hot Poetry in the Park

Moira Magneson, Michael Gregg Paul, and Brigit Truex
Monday July 18, 2011 at 7:00 PM
Fremont Park
Between 15th and 16th and P and Q
Downtown SacramentoHost: Rebecca Moos

Moira Magneson has worked as a truck driver, television writer, substitute teacher, artist’s model, and river guide. She now teaches English composition at Sacramento City College and lives in Placerville, where she is a member of Red Fox Underground, a Sierra foothills poetry collective. Her work has appeared in Margie, Verse Daily, Runes, Rattlesnake Review, Hanging Loose, and elsewhere. He Drank Because is her first published collection of poems.

Michael Gregg Paul lives in Shingle Springs. He is the author of 6 chapbooks and is co-editor of two full sized poetry anthologies in national distribution. A sometime journalist, he is also an award winning visual artist in several media, and once upon a time was a garage band drummer. Michael Paul's poems have appeared in a number of literary journals including Spillway, Pearl, Blue Satellite and The Valley Contemporary Poets Anthology. Michael's latest volume of poetry, "Dog Whistle Politics," was released in 2010 from Lummox Press. For more information, visit his website at http://dogwhistlepolitics.blogspot.com/.

Brigit Truex lives on a ridgeline in Sierra foothills with 4 parakeets which she hasn't written about yet. Other topics have ranged from her basement, selkies, a mountain lion, and icebergs. Her work has appeared in Atlanta Review, Manzanita, Tule Review, Yellow Medicine Review and other journals as well as various anthologies. Beside three chapbooks, her latest collection is "A Counterpane Without" from Rattlesnake Press. She is currently working on a book based on the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony of Gold Hill, expected release of February, 2012.

NOTE: This event replaces the normal Monday night reading at SPC

Coming Events at SPC and Elsewhere:
All events are at Sacramento Poetry Center at 7:30 PM unless noted otherwise. Host name in brackets.
July21 [Mary Zeppa and Lawrence Dinkins] Poetry at the Central Library, 828 I Street, 12 noonJ
uly 25 [Tim Kahl]: Linda Collins and Alexandra Teague
Poets Gallery [July]: Art Institute with Paul Verke
August 1 [Trina Drotar]: Dave Boles, Bill Gainer, and Camille Roy
August 8 [Emmanuel]: George Keithley and A. P. Sweet
August 15 [Rebecca Moos]: Hot Poetry in the Park featuring Crawdad Nelson, Whitman McGowan, and Margery Snyder. At Fremont Park, 16th and P.
August 18 [Mary Zeppa and Lawrence Dinkins] Poetry at the Central Library, 828 I Street, 12 noon
August 22 [Tim Kahl]: Andrew Joron and Doug Blazek
August 29 [Frank Graham]: An Evening for Amnesty International: Al Rojas, Emmanuel Sigauke, and Brian Ang.
Poets Gallery [August]: Taña Marie Reed-Escalante

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The Sacramento Regional Community Foundation and Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commision have selected the winners of the Arts Innovation Fund,
and Sacrametno Poetry Center has been selected as a winner!

1st place Verge Center for the Arts
2nd place B Street Theater
2nd place Center for Contemporary Art Sacramento (CCAS)
3rd place Sacramento Poetry Center

SPC President and Sacramento Poet Laureate Bob Stanley says:

"To all Board members and all SPC volunteers who have helped over the past few years:
Thanks to you – you have done so much work to share the art of poetry in Sacramento, and this has helped to make SPC worthy of this prestigious award.

We’re honored to be listed among such fine arts organizations!

More poetry to more people!"

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Napa Valley Writers' Conference - Events Open to the Public

Friends, check out this great lineup of events open to the public at the Napa conference later this month. And students with a valid ID card get in free! Enjoy!

The Napa Valley Writers’ Conference Reading & Lecture Series - July 24-29, 2011

Join our internationally acclaimed faculty of poets and fiction writers for a series of public lectures and readings during the 31st Napa Valley Writers' Conference, which is hosted and sponsored by Napa Valley College.

The eight poets and fiction writers who serve as conference faculty are united by critical acclaim for their work. In fiction, Adam Haslett’s Union Atlantic has been called “the first great novel of the new century,” while Michelle Huneven’s novel Blame was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics’ Circle Award. Daniel Alarcón’s novel Lost City Radio prompted Granta magazine to name him one of America’s top young novelists, while Lan Samantha Chang, director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, recently published All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost, which National Public Radio called “a full and resonant story of the pains and perils, falsehoods and truths of trying to be an American artist . . . unforgettable.”

The poetry faculty includes Jane Hirshfield, whose collection After was shortlisted for England’s T.S. Eliot Prize and selected as one of the top books of 2006 by the Washington Post. D.A. Powell’s Chronic and Major Jackson’s Leaving Saturn were both finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award, while David St. John, author of nine volumes of poetry, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Study for the World’s Body: New and Selected Poems.

Morning and afternoon lectures on the art and craft of writing will be held at the Napa Valley College Upper Valley Campus in St. Helena. Evening readings are scheduled for various venues throughout the Napa Valley. The full schedule of readings and lectures is as follows:

Sunday, July 24
7:30 p.m.: Wine reception and reading with poet D. A. Powell and fiction writer Daniel Alarcón at the Upper Valley Campus, 1088 College Ave., St. Helena

Monday, July 25
9 a.m.: Poetry lecture by Jane Hirshfield, Upper Valley Campus
1:30 p.m.: Fiction lecture by Adam Haslett, Upper Valley Campus
7:30 p.m.: Wine reception and reading with poet David St. John and fiction writer Lan Samantha Chang, Rubicon Estate, 1991 St. Helena Highway, Rutherford

Tuesday, July 26
9 a.m.: Poetry lecture by D.A. Powell, Upper Valley Campus
1:30 p.m.: Fiction lecture by Daniel Alarcón, Upper Valley Campus
7:30 p.m.: Wine reception and reading with poet Major Jackson and fiction writer Michelle Huneven, Robert Mondavi Winery, 7801 St. Helena Highway, Oakville

Wednesday, July 27
9 a.m.: Poetry lecture by David St. John, Upper Valley Campus
1:30 p.m.: Fiction lecture by Lan Samantha Chang, Upper Valley Campus
6:30 p.m.: Wine reception and reading with poet Jane Hirshfield and fiction writer Adam Haslett, Educational Center for the Performing Arts, Napa Valley College, 2277 Napa-Vallejo Highway (Highway 221), Napa

Thursday, July 28
9 a.m.: Poetry lecture by Major Jackson, Upper Valley Campus
1:30 p.m.: Fiction lecture by Michelle Huneven, Upper Valley Campus

Tickets
Admission to evening readings costs $10. Admission to the daytime lectures is $25 apiece, $90 for the four-lecture series in either poetry or fiction, or $175 for all eight lectures. Tickets for all public events may be purchased at the door by cash or check. Students with valid student IDs will be admitted free of charge to all lectures and evening readings, along with conference supporters and community housing hosts.For more information about the conference and the reading and lecture series, visit napawritersconf.org or facebook.com/napawritersconference.

---Napa Valley Writers' Conference * 1088 College Ave. * St. Helena, CA 94574 * (707) 967-2900 x1611

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