Word lovers unite! Join us June 9, 2016, at Studio 333 on 333 Caledonia Street in Sausalito to hear the following acclaimed authors read from their works on the theme of “Solidarity.” Doors open at 7pm; readings begin at 7:15. $10.
Jayne Benjulian’s careers have been as varied and many as places she has lived: she served as chief speechwriter at Apple, investigator for the public defender in King County, Washington, and director of new play development at Magic Theater. She was an Ossabaw Island Project Fellow; a teaching fellow at Emory University, where she earned an MA; a lecturer in the Graduate Program in Theater at San Francisco State University; and a Fulbright Teaching Fellow in Lyon, France. She holds an MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers. She lives in Massachusetts and hikes the Berkshire Hills with her long-haired German shepherd, Ophelia, but she misses her big, brash Pacific Ocean. Five Sextillion Atoms is her first collection.
Mark Ciabattari is the author of Dreams of an Imaginary New Yorker Named Rizzoli, The Literal Truth: Rizzoli Eats the Apple of Earthly Delights (which Kirkus Reviews calls “a delightful postmodern romp, more Calvino than Kafka”), and Clay Creatures, which matches two stories—Ciabattari’s “The Urn” and a new translation of Luigi Pirandello’s “The Jar” by Maria Enrico. Montana-born and raised, he long resided in New York City; he and his wife Jane, also a writer, now live in Sonoma County. His new collection, Preludes to History, is just out.
Joe Clifford is acquisitions editor for Gutter Books and and producer of Lip Service West, a “gritty, real, raw” reading series in Oakland, CA. He is the author of several books, including Junkie Love and Lamentation, as well as editor of Trouble in the Heartland: Crime Stories Based on the Songs of Bruce Springsteen. His latest novel, December Boys, the second in the Lamentation series (Oceanview Publishing), is out June 2016.
Leora Fridman is the author of My Fault, out this spring from Cleveland State University Press and winner of the 2015 CSU First Book Poetry Competition. She is also the author of the chapbooks Precious Coast (H_ngm_n Books), Obvious Metals (Projective Industries), On the Architecture and Essential Nature (The New Megaphone), and Eduardo Milán: Poems, a chapbook of translations from Toad Press. She attended Brown University, where she was awarded the Pembroke Poetry Prize, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst MFA Program for Poets and Writers, where she was awarded a Graduate Fellowship and MFA Thesis Grant, taught College Writing and Poetry Writing, served as Assistant Director of the Juniper Summer Writing Institute, and curated the jubilat/Jones Reading Series. She is a recipient of multiple grants and honors including a 2015 Vermont Studio Center fellowship, grants from the Center for Cultural Innovation, and a Dorot Fellowship.
Alyssa Oursler is a freelance writer from Maryland, currently living in San Francisco. Her creative non-fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Luna Luna Magazine, The East Bay Review, Thought Catalog and others, on top of placing second in Litquake’s 2015 writing contest. Alyssa also writes regularly about tech, travel, gender, money and more; her articles have been published on USA Today, Forbes, Business Insider, The Bold Italic, 7×7 and many others. She is currently working on her debut essay collection, “Fool’s Paradise.”
Karen Terrey earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College in 2007. She loves to collaborate with visual artists in critique groups and art salons on her creative process and use of image and form. Her poems have appeared in RHINO, Edge, West Trestle Review, Sierra Nevada Review, The Meadow, Squaw Valley Review and Puerto Del Sol, among others. Her poetry chapbook, Bite and Blood, published by Finishing Line Press, is available in local bookstores. As a builder of literary community, she is the co-organizer for the Literary Arts & Wine Reading Series, a monthly event in downtown Truckee. She is a writing coach and editor, offering workshops, manuscript review, and coaching through her business, Tangled Roots Writing. She’s taught writing at Sierra Nevada College, Lake Tahoe Community College and Sierra College. To see her poems and info on other events and workshops check out her blog.
Ruth Thompson is the author of three books of poetry: Crazing, Woman With Crows, and Here Along Cazenovia Creek. Poems from Crazing have appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, Poetry Flash, and elsewhere. Woman With Crows was a finalist for AROHO’s To The Lighthouse Prize; it included poems that won the New Millennium Writings, Harpur Palate, and other prizes. Here Along Cazenovia Creek was choreographed and performed as Dancing the Seasons by the great Japanese dancer Shizuno Nasu. She received a BA from Stanford and a doctorate in English from Indiana University. She now lives in Hilo, Hawai’i, where she teaches writing, meditation, and yoga and is currently absorbed in creating poetry and dance videos with dancer Jenn Eng and videographer Don Mitchell. Ruth travels often to read and to teach workshops on writing from the body. She owns and operates Saddle Road Press, which has published such authors as Jayne Benjulian, Stefan Kiesbye, Tania Pryputniewicz, and Jessamyn Smyth.
Why There Are Words takes place every second Thursday of the month, when people come from San Francisco, the North Bay, the East Bay, the South Bay–everywhere–to crowd the house. The brainchild of Peg Alford Pursell, this literary goodness has been going strong for six years.
