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...