WEALTH OF IDEAS

January 22- February 28 Meet Michael and Linda, two happily married writers, whose successful lives begin to unravel after they agree to read one another's diaries. A mysterious woman emerges and the boundaries between past and present, fact and fiction, trust and betrayal begin to blur, No life, it turns out, is an open book, and the tension between trust and suspicion is at the heart of this gripping and provocative drama. Capital Stage Performing aboard the Riverboat Delta King 1000 Front Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 | Box Office: (916) 995-5464 Stephanie Gularte, Producing Artistic Director Cap Stage is offering $4 off the regular price of admission for writer groups of 10 or more. Click here to learn more about Sacramento's Cap Stage on the Delta King!

Entering the compound, I was supposed to walk with the confidence of someone returning home, but there was no telling what would happen when Mukoma saw me. He sat in the sunlight behind his bedroom hut, carving his wooden stools, so I was going to try to sneak to the kitchen hut before he saw me. Too late: he was already looking at me as if he had seen me walk all the way from Mai Ranga’s home. The stare was calm, as if he did not care about what I was planning to do. But as soon as I reached the chicken coup, he sat up and coughed. I turned and walked toward him like a surrendering soldier. “Where were you last night?” he asked, licking his lips. “In a drum,” I said. “Mai Ranga hid me.” His eyes opened wider, but narrowed as if he had just remembered something. “You are lucky she did,” he said; then he raised his big hand and sent it flying towards my face. Read the rest of the story on Sentinel Lit Quartely.

I try to visit my local book store daily, even if I just walk in and walk out; it's the feel of new books, the sweet smell from the bargain tables, and the allure of the literary and political magazine sections that keep calling me back. But I am used to seeing things in this order: the lobby area is stuffed with bargain classics (buy one get one free or fifty percent off; the same usual classics, books by Edgar Allan Poe, Hawthorne, Melville--some special editions published by the bookstore's publishing wing; so of course they are inexpensive, and, unfortunately, I already own most of them, but I always find myself attempting to browse them.) Next, I enter the second set of doors, and suddenly, I am lost, like how some people enter a casino and the sight of slot machines drains all rationality, and suddenly, they feel lucky. Once I am in this wide world of books, I could stay here without any sense of time. I am used to seeing new fiction and bestselling non-fiction titles on ...

W o r k s h o p D e s c r i p t i o n s Poetry Julia Connor So many of our life experiences, the good and the 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. 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 the beginnings of short stories and novels. Writing From Memory – how point...

Below is a Faber Academy announcement of a four-day course to be facilitated by Petina Gappah and Christopher Hope in Geneva. It looks like a course that would inspire participants to whip out that award-winning novel or collection of short stories they have been sitting on for years. The focus on our writing selves and the things we write about, the places, the contexts, most often as hyphenated beings in an increasingly hyphenated worldview, are some of the attractive features of the workshop. And who wouldn't want to attend a writing workshop facilitated by Petina Gappah and Christopher Hope, some of Africa's (by which I also mean the world's) important writers. Here are the details: Writing Other Lives with Petina Gappah and Christopher Hope : Thursday 25 to Sunday 28 March 2010, 10-5pm Société de Lecture, 11, Grand'Rue 1204 Geneva Course fees: £500 / 830 CHF Writing Other Lives: This course is about finding inspiration in the other, it is about writing across...

The second half of 2009 saw the publication of several landmark texts. The word text will suffice, elevated above the usual categories of novel, short story collection, poetry volume, etc. The publications I am going to talk about in the next few months, one per month, were exercises in textualizing , by publishers who were seeking to affirm and extend the longevity of the texts; they were prompted by some customer demand, some opportunity, or by the death of the author, to publish a major work that would put in the spotlight some of the key works that had brought fame to that author. Some of these books have found their way to me, seeking to be reviewed, or simply to be talked about. Today I am going to talk about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's In the First Circle: The first Uncensored Edition , published by HarperPerennial and translated from the Russian by Harry T Willets. I have already reviewed it in 200 words for the San Franciso Book Review , where I gave it 5 stars for the fact t...

PRESENTS STORIES ON STAGE with the work of Jodi Angel and Naomi Williams performed by William Kay and Cynthia Mitchell Speakman, filmed by Kirk Parker Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 7:30PM (doors open 7PM) Sacramento Poetry Center 1719 25th Street (Between Q & R) suggested donation: $5 Host: Valerie Fioravanti Jodi Angel Jodi Angel’s collection of short stories, The History of Vegas , was published by Chronicle Books. The collection was named as a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book as well as a LA Times Book Review Discovery. Her short story “Portions” was selected for Special Mention for the 2007 Pushcart Prize and h...

The African Trilogy This publication contains three novels by Chinua Achebe, all in one volume. Here is some information about The African Trilogy, with an introduction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Amazon Product Description Here, collected for the first time in Everyman’s Library, are the three internationally acclaimed classic novels that comprise what has come to be known as Chinua Achebe’s “African Trilogy.” Beginning with the best-selling Things Fall Apart—on the heels of its fiftieth anniversary—The African Trilogy captures a society caught between its traditional roots and the demands of a rapidly changing world. Achebe’s most famous novel introduces us to Okonkwo, an important member of the Igbo people, who fails to adjust as his village is colonized by the British. In No Longer at Ease we meet his grandson, Obi Okonkwo, a young man who was sent to a university in England and has returned, only to clash with the ruling elite to which he now believes he belongs. Arrow of God te...

I am part of the editorial team for Cosumnes River Journal and would like to take this opportunity to call on all of you readers of this blog to consider contributing your creative work to the fourth annual edition of Cosumnes River College’s fast-growing literary publication. We want your: • short stories • essays, including autobiographical narrative, criticism, interviews, + mini-essays (250 words) on LUCK – good or bad • poems • art: photos, drawings, etc. We are committed to publishing emerging + established writers, including Cosumnes River College students, faculty, staff, + the rest of the world. Submissions : Please forward your contributions to Heather at hutcheh@crc.losrios.edu Include: No more than 5 poems or photos per entry; limit your short stories + essays to 2 contributions per year Format: Please send MS Word attachments for writing + jpeg files for the art Deadline : For the Spring 10 issue, e-mail by March 22, 2010

Below is a message from Ethel Kabwato, a writer/activist based in Zimbabwe: HUMAN RIGHTS FILM SCREENING ‘Promoting Social Responsibility through Film’ Profile The Creative Writing Africa Trust (CWA) and the Movies That Matter Foundation facilitated by the Pamberi Trust and the Zimbabwe-German Society are holding a Human Rights film-screening and discussion at the Zimbabwe- German Society (51 Lawson Avenue, Milton Park, Harare) on Friday 22 January 2010 at 17.30 hours and at the Mannenberg on Fife Avenue Shopping Centre on Saturday January 23 at 11.00 hours The Creative Writing Africa (CWA) Trust aims at developing the literary arts and associated fields on the continent. Towards this end, the Trust is instituting an annual Human Rights Film Festival for the benefit of the less-privileged of various communities of Zimbabwe. Activities to date The CWA Trust on 16 June 2009 (The Day of the African Child) used the Mai Musodzi Commun...

This is an author I recently discovered. I am reviewing his latest book Map of the Invisible World , published in the United States on January 5. Lately, I have been reading books that take me to the 60s and 70s, and I always walk away from the experience a better...person...reader. No, a more informed individual. That aside, this new book has already been read in Europe and elsewhere for over a year, and there are mixed reviews, but I am excited about reading about a place I know little about . The premise of Aw's writings (this is his second novel), seems interesting. In Map , for instance, he will take me to 1964 Indonesia, expose me to some aspects of Dutch colonialism as the novel takes a historical dive and bounces back in post-colonial turmoil. The book has been described with words like "exotic", "lyrical", "breathtaking", and in the words of the Toronto Star , the novel drops readers on the streets of Jakarta and "floods your senses wi...

Sacramento Poetry Center Presents Jeff Knorr and Keith Ratzlaff Monday, January 18, 2010 at 7:30 PM HQ for the Arts at 1719 25th Street Keith Ratzlaff Keith Ratzlaff's books of poetry are Then, A Thousand Crows (Anhinga, 2009) Dubious Angels: Poems after Paul Klee (Anhinga 2005); Man Under A Pear Tree (winner of the Anhinga Prize in 1996); and Across The Known World (Mid-Prairie, 1998). His awards include the 1996 Anhinga Prize for Poetry, the Theodore Roethke Award, and a Pushcart Prize. His poems and reviews have appeared in Poetry Northwest, The Georgia Review, New England Review, The Threepenny Review, Colorado Review and North American Review. His recent poems also appear in "Poets of the New Century"(David R. Godine, 2001); "A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry"(University of Iowa Press, 2003); "Snakebird: Thirty Years of Anhinga Poets" (Anhinga Press, 2004) and The Best American Poetry 2009 ed. By David Lehman. He is Professor of English at ...

James DenBoer and Cynthia Broshi, at the SPC. It's been months since I hosted an event at Sacramento Poetry Center, but I am back. I started tonight with two powerful poets, Sacramento's James DenBoer and his friend Cynthia Broshi (and did I mention that Jim is my Facebook friend too?). I loved the reading, and the attendance was great, a good sprinkle of some of Sacramento's best poets in the crowd, Susan Kelly-Dewett, Dennis Hock, William Daly (the famous Neruda translator), Quinton Duval, Mary Zeppa, Tim Kahl, and others. So here are some photos and a few highlights: The structure was simple: Jim and Cynthia started by reading a poem together, a poem that echoes Beowulf, setting a grand tone. Then Cynthia sat down and Jim read alone. Having worked with fiction from Summer 2009 until the end of Fall, I had to retrain my ear to hear the sounds of poetry. So I caught some very impressive phrases from Jim's reading: "ache of wholeness", "exploitation of ...

I always knew it, that those chickens along Mukuvisi river were up to no good. Now having read Wonder Guchu's "The Black Hen", a little, mysterious story about 1990s Harare high density life, I can't help revisiting all those sightings of Mukuvisi chicken. It didn't matter where you were along Mukuvisi when you saw them--whether you were crossing from High Field to Waterfalls, or you were taking a nature-admiring stroll into Bonongwe forest, just outside of Glen View, or you had left maFlats in Glen Norah and were taking pictures of maLizards because you had to use your camera somehow, imagining that one day you would be a popular photo journalist, because then you had just started A-Level, and did not know that you would become, first, a temporary teacher, then, a university student, before life took you thousands of miles away, to become, first, many things, then a teacher again, a teacher with a camera, when by then everyone around you also had a camera, before...

Deborah Ahenkorah is the co-founder of the fast-growing Baobab Prize, which is now in its second year. The inaugural award drew participation from nine African countries. The winners were Lauri Kubuitsile from Botswana with "Lorato and her Wire Car", the best story written for readers aged 8-11 years; Ivor W. Hartmann from Zimbabwe with "Mr. Goop", the best story written for readers aged 12-15 years and Aisha Kibwana from Kenya, the most promising young writer with "Strange Visitors that took her Life Away". Based on what Debbie says in this interview, this award will revolutionize African writing and reading. 1. What can you tell us about yourself? My name is Deborah Ahenkorah and I’m Ghanaian. Lately, I have come to be given the name ‘Debbie from Ghana!’ Now let me tell you that story: My South African friend Ntshadi, before I met her, once stopped to eat in a restaurant at a random location somewhere in mid-USA. When the waitress discovered she was fro...

Bob Stanley © SMAC Sacramento poet laureate, Bob Stanley, runs the website County Lines, which is part of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. When I talked with Bob earlier today, he said he hopes the website will inform readers about the poetic richness of Sacramento. The website features a different poet every week, and has so far displayed information about eighteen poets. The first post on July 20, 2009 featured Bob Stanely, who describes the function of the website as follows: You may not know this, but Sacramento is full of poets. From Elk Grove to South Natomas, from Folsom to downtown, there are hundreds of people who write, read, and share their poems. Teenagers in Oak Park, retirees in Citrus Heights, college students, state workers, people young and old share this ancient art form. If you know where to look, you can find them, working on their craft, because Sacramento is full of poets. As the new Poet Laureate of the city and county of Sacramento, my goal is to h...

I am going to be a bit prescriptive today because, as my sister NoViolet would say, this is my blog, and as I would add, you are my readers. How about this as a way to deal with writer's block: When you find yourself staring at a blank screen, or when each word you type comes out painfully, and as long as we are on pain, look at yourself and try to see if you have scars. I have quite a few of those--growing up in Mazvihwa came with many scars (of adventure, let's say). Try to remember the orgin of each scar, and tell the story. Those used to writing fiction already know that there is almost nothing called autobiographical fiction because the moment you write that first sentence about the origins of your scar, the story is likely to take a direction you had no idea you wanted to go. Remember to look at the scar frequently as you write, but allow the story to determine its course. Populate it with characters and a point of view. You must also remember that even if you use the fir...

Maryann Miller, a writer and freelance editor, writes, "I’ve been editing for a long time and am still amazed at how often I see common mistakes repeated over and over again. For instance: Fred walked out, taking the file with him. You don’t need ‘with him’. If he took the file, it’s with him, DUH!! Or the sentence could be rewritten to make it a little more visual. Fred grabbed the file and walked out." Read more on The Blood-Red Pencil.

My letter of resignation from the Authors Guild The author, Ursula K. Le Guin, has authorized quoting and/or copying of this letter. 18 December 2009 To Whom it may concern at the Authors Guild: I have been a member of the Authors Guild since 1972. At no time during those thirty-seven years was I able to attend the functions, parties, and so forth offered by the Guild to members who happen to live on the other side of the continent. I have naturally resented this geographical discrimination, reflected also in the officership of the Guild, always almost all Easterners. But it was a petty gripe when I compared it to my gratitude to the Guild for the work you were doing in defending writers’ rights. I went on paying top dues and thought it worth it. And now you have sold us down the river. I am not going to rehearse any arguments pro and anti the “Google settlement.” You decided to deal with the devil, as it were, and have presented your arguments for doing so. I wish I could accept the...

SPC presents Seven poets – winners from The Sacramento Bee’s poetry contest: Bill Gainer, JoAnn Anglin, Jim DenBoer, Arthur Butler, Roberta Alexander, Judy Brim, Katrina Hays Monday, Jan. 4, 2010 at 7:30 PM HQ for the Arts at 1719 25th Street Host: Bob Stanley (Sacramento Poet Laureate/president of the SPC) Bill Gainer is known for the openness of his confessional poetry and is recognized as one of the founding contributors to the modern movement of "After Hours Poetry." He has contributed to the literary scene as a writer, editor, promoter, publicist and poet. Gainer considers himself forever influenced by an odd mix of outsiders. Gainer is nationally published and remains a sought after reader. JoAnn Anglin is formerly a poet-teacher in the schools, she is a long-time member of the Escritores del Nuevo Sol (Writers of the New Sun). Besides the Escritores’ anthology, her poems have been in 100 Poems about Sacramento, Anthology of the Third Sunday Poets, The Pagan Muse, a...

A school teacher, a former money changer, and their wives. The economy of the country has collapsed with their dreams, both legal and illegal. Now a faint glimmer of hope has risen on the horizon, in the form of a newspaper report. With this newspaper report also comes a re-living of the long shadows of their dreams and fears for the future, for they have lost trust of the very essence of their positions on the footsteps of destiny, and also of each other. Chris Mlalazi, Zimbabwean writer WRITING AWARDS AND MENTIONS 1. Highly Recommended Citation -2004 Sable Lit (UK) short Story Competition 2. Shortlisted for the 2007 HSBC PEN SOUTH AFRICA WRITING COMPETITION 3. Winner of NAMA 2009 - Best First Creative Published Book. 4. 2009 OXFAM NOVIB PEN FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AWARD at the Hague 5. Honorable Mention in the 2009 NOMA AWARD FOR BOOK PUBLISHING IN AFRICA

Out of the pile of new books requiring my attention (fifteen or so), I have selected the following for my two-week winter break: The Bond by George Fletcher: Written by renowned Columbia University Law professor, The Bond has been described as "a must-read for all pre-law students, law students, and those who care to know about the law and how it works." It reveals the "inner workings of the law and American law school." I think I will read this one pronto . City of Refuge by Tom Piazza. Described by the Chicago Tribune as "as a furious, important novel", it deals with the Katrina Hurricane tragedy. Award-winning Tom Piazza is the author of the classic Why New Orleans Matters , and the short story collection Blues and Trouble . The Long Shot by Katie Kitamura: Booklist has said of this book, "Kitamura's descriptions of mixed-martial-arts fighting are brutal yet beautiful...Kitamura is a genuine discovery." I haven't checked if this i...

It's becoming habitual for me to begin a new year with a book on reading. I like reading, but sometimes I like to read about other people's love for reading. At the beginning of 2009, I entered a Barnes and Noble and started browsing the literary criticism section. I pulled out Harold Bloom's How to Read and Why ? I had always seen this book and avoided it, silently disputing the level of authority Bloom seemed to have given himself--telling people how to read, and giving them a reason for why they should read the way he was telling them to. I was judging the book by its title. But when I started browsing it, I found out that it was rich, providing a map with which to navigate the works of such writers as Chekhov, Kafka, and others. I started annotating the book, which then meant that I had to buy it. It would turn out to be one of the greatest book purchases of 2009. Bloom connects the authors, and for the short story, he groups the writers into the Chekhovian and Borgesi...