WEALTH OF IDEAS

When March began, I lined up books, novels mostly, which centered on women. I was going to read them in honor of Women's History Month. I was going to be one of the presenters at a college event focusing of women characters in literature. It so happened that someone had given me a copy of a novel entitled A Short History of Women , and I had just received a review copy of The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson . Things were falling into place as finding characters was looking easy and interesting. There were three of us at the event, each talking about their favorite female characters, and reading from their own work. For some reason I showed up without any of my works, but I brought Paradise by Toni Morrison, Stone Virgins by Yvonne Vera, and Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. I was going to talk about how these books had influenced my own writing, then I would discuss some features relating to their main characters. This part worked well, worked so well that I ran out of ...

This year's SPC Annual Writing Conference features Joseph Lease, Toni Mirosevich, Donna de la Perriere, Flatman Crooked, Indigo Moor, Peter Grandbois and Foshang with Lawrence Dinkins and Ross Hammond 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 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...

Harare North and An Elegy for Easterly are among the books selected for the Orwell Prize longlist. Zinofadza zvomene . Good job Petina and Brian; you are challenging us (most of us), to write setasutswa . So straight to the source, here is a link to the full list: http://www.theorwellprize.co.uk/the-award/long-books.aspx Here are the synopses of the two lovely books: Harare North by Brian Chikwava When he lands in Harare North, our unnamed protagonist carries nothing but a cardboard suitcase full of memories and an email address for his childhood friend, Shingi.Finessing his way through immigration, he spends a few restless weeks as the very unwelcome guest in his cousin’s home before tracking down Shingi in a Brixton squat. In this astonishing, revelatory original debut, Caine Prize winner Brian Chikwava tackles head-on the realities of life as a refugee.This is the story of a stranger in a strange land – one of the thousands of illegal Zimbabwean immigrants seeking a better life ...

I just realized that I have made 626 posts on this blog--that's a wealth of ideas--and I thought of revisiting some of them to recapture the ideas and give them new expression, where necessary. I am going to share the first entry, which I made on August 10, 2007. It is entitled " Capture Ideas before They Escape ". I really didn't know that I would take blogging seriously, but I like the seriousness in the post: "Capture these ideas before they escape. Even those that sprout in dreams, catch them before they jump over the fence. Keep them in the kraal, tamed. The experience of remembering one or two dreams forces us to record them in the journal of our memory." Well, 626 posts later, I have done more than recording ideas, I have captured more than ideas; this has become a source of inspiration for me and for others, and I have developed a system of keeping track of literary trends, and through this blog I have watched writers emerge, have recorded news about...

Since I haven't blogged for a while, let me mention something about meeting word limits when submitting fiction. I have discovered that I am not eligible to enter many short story competitions because my short stories lurk in the 8000+ word heights, something I love because there are moments when I just keep writing until the story exhausts itself, but I am never afraid to delete unnecessary details later. I can easily trim a 7000-word story down to 3000 or 4000, and the process usually feels good, but now I am thinking that if one is in the short story market, one should write stories that fit in different length categories. Keep a folder of stories in different word ranges: 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 4-5000 (the sweetest range), 6000, and so on. When the season for contest entries arrives, you could just go to these different folders to select and spruce up a story for a specific contest. I am assuming that every writer realizes that contests are a great way to stay active in the ge...

Shevonna Blackshire, Munyori Literary Journal's poetry editor The poetry editor for Munyori Literary Journal , Shevonna Blackshire , will be one of the features at the Sacramento Poetry Center's reading in celebration of Women's History Month. Shevonna has been a creative writer/poet since the age of 8. She watched the 1990's movie about spoken word poetry called "Love Jones" and was inspired to start her own open mic at Touch a' Class nightclub in Sacramento in the late 1990's. Her motto is "Say What You Feel and Feel What You Say!". In this great line-up, the other features are as follows: JoAnn Anglin grew up in South Sacramento, attended local schools, then worked for the State of California, writing copy for exhibits, newsletters and brochures. JoAnn has written poetry her whole life, and she has also written numerous articles on the arts and poetry. JoAnn coaches students in the national Poetry Out Loud program, and when she works wi...

I recently found out that Majestic Lounge, popular for some West African food and African music, is hosting poetry on Wednesday nights. What's great is that I will be the featured poet on April 7, from at 7 pm. This new venue adds value to the Sacramento poetry scene as I hear that their approach is global, and they plan to feature international poets. It seems now that there is a poetry reading or performance every night in Sacramento (except--maybe--Sunday night). On Mondays, the Sacramento Poetry Center hosts readings (I am the second Monday host at this event). On Tuesdays there has to be a reading somewhere, but I know there is a Tuesday evening poetry Workshop on J Street. Poets bring their works and critique them. On Wednesdays there is the Mahogany Series at Queen Sheba restaurant, and now, the International Series at Majestic. On Thursdays Luna's Cafe host some performances, and on Fridays, numerous venues (the Poetry show, etc...). Of course, there are other reading s...

The Sunday Times (UK) received 1152 entries to its lucrative[£25,000] EFG Private Bank Short Story Award for a single short story. Six entries have been shortlisted, and Petina Gappah's "An Elegy for Easterly" is among them. It is a great story, and the dress-lifting, teeth-baring Martha Mupengo character is one of the saddest I have read in all of literature. It is important to note that on April 23, Petina will be attending the LA Times Book Award, where her story collection is shortlisted. She recently won The Guardian First Book Award...and what will be next...does The San Francisco Chronicle have an award? Washington Post ....? Good luck, Petina. You inspire us.

Christopher Mlalazi is coming to California for a Feuchtwanger Fellowship, a nine-month residency for a writer at the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades. The selection committee for the Hellman/Hammett grant programme, which is managed by Human Rights Watch, was asked to suggest a writer for the Fellowship and Christopher was selected. This is great news for Chris and Zimbabwean writing. Mlalazi is one of busiest writers of Zimbabwe, and this residency is well-deserved. The Villa Aurora is the former home of exiled German-Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta. It is now an international meeting place and artists residence that fosters exchange in the fields of literature, music, art, and film. It was set up as a living memorial to artists and intellectuals who found refuge from Nazi Germany in Southern California. It also commemorates the role that these exiles played in shaping art and culture in their new home. Mlalazi has published books with amaBooks in Zimbabwe and Lio...

Sacramento's Mary Zeppa has been awarded a fellowship by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA). She will be among the approximately 20 Fellows working on their own creative projects at this visual artists, writers and composers. A typical VCCA residency, ranging rom two weeks to two months, provides an artist with a private bedroom, a private studio and three prepared meals a day. Supported in large part by grants and private donations, the VCCA is one of America's largest year-round artists' communities, which has served more than 4,000 since its inception in 1971. The fellows have received worldwide attention through publications, exhibitions, compositions,performances, and major awards and accolades, including MacArthur grants, Pulitzer Prizes, Guggenheim fellowships, National Endowment for the Arts awards, Rome Prizes, Pollock-Krasner grants, National Book Awards, Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and Academy Award nominations. The VCCA is located near ...

On March 8, I am hosting a big event at the Sacramento Poetry Center, featuring award-winning poets Jim Powell (1993 MacArthur Fellow) and Heidy Steidlmayer ( winner of the J. Howard and Barbara M.J. Wood Prize). Come hear these great Northern CA poets. The event starts at 7:30 pm and there will be open mic afterwards. The Features Jim Powell is the author of two collections of poetry, Substrate , just published by Pantheon Books, and It Was Fever That Made The World (University of Chicago Press), and the translator of The Poetry Of Sappho (Oxford University Press) and Catullan Revenants (Booklyn). His poems and translations are included in the Paris Review Anthology , the Norton Introduction to Literature , the Oxford Anthology of Classical Verse In English Translation , California Poetry, From the Gold Rush To the Present , and the Addison Street Anthology . His honors include the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines Younger Poets Prize, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Associa...