Parties - Left Coast Writers

Ferry Plaza Book Party: National Poetry Month Celebration with Rebecca Foust 🗓

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK EVENT: National Poetry Month Celebration with Rebecca Foust

Rebecca Foust

Monday, April 8th, 2019 || 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

Poetry offers sanctuary and solace and a special kind of clear seeing, sometimes of beauty. And, songwriter Phil Ochs has called beauty the last form of protest in a brutal world. Celebrate National Poetry Month with a reading by poets from Left Coast Writers, a writing guild founded by poet and novelist Linda Watanabe McFerrin that has been operating out of Book Passage’s bookstore for the last 17 years. This event will be hosted by Marin County Poet Laureate Rebecca Foust.

Rebecca Foust’s most recent book is Paradise Drive (2015 Press 53 Award for Poetry), reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Georgia, Harvard, and Hudson Reviews. Recent recognitions include the Cavafy Prize, the James Hearst (more…)

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Linda Watanabe McFerrin in Conversation with David Downie, Author of The Gardener of Eden 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK EVENT: Linda Watanabe McFerrin in Conversation with David Downie, Author of The Gardener of Eden

David Downie

Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Monday, March 11th, 2019 || 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

A mysterious beachcomber appears one day on the coastal bluffs near the small town of Carverville, a place whose best days are long behind it. Who is he, and why has he returned after nearly forty years? Carverville’s prodigal son, James, serendipitously finds work at a gentrified motel, but his homecoming soon takes a sinister turn when he and a local teenager make a gruesome discovery on the beach. It forces him to reckon with the ghosts of his past—and the dangers of the present. Rumors, distrust, and conspiracies spread among the townsfolk, all of them seemingly trapped in their claustrophobic and isolated world. But is there something more sinister at work here than the mere fear of outsiders? In The Gardener of Eden, David Downie weaves an intricate and compelling narrative of redemption, revenge, justice, love, and the price of secrecy—as a community grapples with its tortured past and frightening future.Come and hear LCW founder Linda Watanabe McFerrin in conversation with David Downie, author of the critically acclaimed A Taste of Paris, as well as the newly released The Gardener of Eden. Below are a few snippets about The Gardener of Eden.

“Original, lively, engaging, unexpected, sharp, and poetic. Downie is a master of the eerie and bizarre.”
— Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen

“A mystery pitch-perfect for the time and place. Compelling and more than a little ominous.”
—Patricia Bracewell, best-selling author of the Emma of Normandy Trilogy

“Downie’s poetic, evocative, lyrical style sweeps you up and his characters live on long after you’ve finished reading.”
—Ellen Crosby, author of Harvest of Secrets

David Downie has called Paris and the Marais home since 1986. He has written for over 50 publications worldwide (more…)

Ferry Plaza Book Party: The Devil’s Pipeline by Michael J. Fitzgerald 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK EVENT: The Devil’s Pipeline by Michael J. Fitzgerald

Michael J. Fitzgerald

Monday, February 11th, 2019 || 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

Join the San Francisco celebration for journalist and columnist Michael J. Fitzgerald’s novel,The Devil’s Pipeline, the newest installment in his anti-fracking series, .

The Devil’s Pipeline is the third eco-thriller novel in the series. It follows The Fracking War (2014) and Fracking Justice (2015). In the novel, a mega-energy conglomerate collides with a pacifist farm community in a quiet corner of Iowa where the community’s founder and his family have been seeking solitude and tranquility since witnessing the famous Kent State University massacre in 1970. As the company pushes a huge pipeline directly through their farm, the pacifists eventually push back. A tragic skirmish kicks off a rollercoaster of explosive confrontations at the farm, in courtrooms and across a wide political and industrial landscape from Washington D.C. to California. Chronicling the tragedy and misdeeds is Jack Stafford, editor of The Clarion Newspaper Syndicate and his staff of ardent environmentalists with a long history of uncovering misdeeds by energy companies, secrets it want to keep hidden from the public. Eventually the investigative journalists discover the pipeline is not what it seems, opening the door on a closet of nasty secrets buried for decades by the CEO of the energy corporation. (more…)

Book Reading: And Then They Were Gone with Judy Bebelaar and Ron Cabral 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK EVENT: And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown by Judy Bebelaar and Ron Cabral

Saturday, January, 12th, 2018 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

In 1976, Jim Jones enrolled all church teenagers at Opportunity High. Within a year, most had been sent to the Temple’s agricultural mission. The minister had drawn a picture of Jonestown as a tropical paradise, where the young people would help create a model society. But by the time most of the Opportunity students had arrived, Jonestown was a jungle prison camp with hard labor and harsh punishments.

On November 18, 1978, 918 people—one third of them under eighteen, half in their twenties or younger—perished in the murder/suicides.

Part I introduces the 15 Temple students the teachers knew best: those in Cabral’s classes and on the Cobras baseball team, made possible by Temple athletes; and in classes Bebelaar taught, including Creative Writing. Student writing appears throughout the book, including stories by Stephan, Jones’s son, who describes vividly his experiences in his family and in Jonestown.

Part II follows the students to Guyana and draws from research and interviews (many stories told for the first time). Specific incidents illustrate the young people’s resilience and their ability to resist Jonestown’s cruel strictures. The book ends with the final days—both in Jonestown and in Georgetown, Guyana, where the basketball team (including members of the Cobras) plays in a tournament with the Guyanese National Team. Excerpts from the recording of the final night are followed by excerpts of student poems appearing in the first chapters. “Aftermath” describes, much of the telling in their own words, the effect of the tragedy on survivors.

Judy Bebelaar taught English and creative writing in San Francisco public high schools for 37 years. She has received national recognition for her success in helping students find joy in writing their lives. Her poetry has been published widely. Her chapbook, Walking Across the Pacific, was published in 2014 by Finishing Line Press. Her poems appear in three anthologies: Turning a Train of Thought Upside Down (Scarlet Tanager Press, 2012); The Widows’ Handbook (Kent State U. Press 2014); and in River of Earth and Sky (Blue Light Press, 2015). And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown, is available on Amazon.

Ron Cabral entered teaching in the San Francisco Unified School District in1965 and became a Middle School principal in 1992. He retired in 2002. He and Judy Bebelaar met at Opportunity High, where they came to know the teenagers of Peoples Temple. His book about his friendship with rock star Joe McDonald, Country Joe and Me, was published in 2003 by AuthorHouse and is available on Amazon

(more…)

Ferry Plaza Book Party: Wandering in Cuba: Revolution and Beyond 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK EVENT: Wandering in Cuba: Revolution and Beyond

Wednesday, December 12th, 2018 || 6pm Book Passage || San Francisco 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

Wanderland Writers introduces WANDERING IN CUBA: Revolution and Beyond … the 6^th anthology in the prize-winning Wandering series …

Once again workshop leaders Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar take Wanderland Writers and head south to explore—this time to Cuba, an island country that has paid a high price for self-determination: revolution, isolation and hardship. But somehow this nation and its amazing people continue to reinvent themselves and fascinate visitors with their marvelous creativity and vitality.

Contributors include Tania Romanov Amochaev, Adrienne Amundsen, Christine Berardo, Joanna Biggar, Sandra Bracken, Cyndi, Goddard, Douglas Hale, Thomas Harrell, Donna Hemmila, Linda Jue, Carol J. Kelly, Laurie McAndish King, Robert Markowitz, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Mary Jean Pramik, Anne Sigmon, Jonathan A. Taylor and Anne Woods.

Wander with the contributors from city to countryside, enjoying the history, the rhythms, the tastes, the sights, and the soul of this intriguing island nation. Everywhere, of course, they encountered its Revolution and recorded their understanding of its triumphs and failures. They met and wrote about traditional Cuba: its heroes—José Martí, Fidel, Che, Hemingway—and its enduring culture as found in food, music and its African-based religion, Santería. But they also experienced Cuba in its present reality, beyond the Revolution. They found poets, artists, filmmakers and a whole generation of young people who embrace and are shaping Cuba’s future.

“I hope that, as you read the stories in this collection, a sense of that infinite potential inspires you to make that very short flight to our very misunderstood neighbor. You’ll find nothing intimidating (except, maybe, some of the salsa dancers) and much that is pure magic.

—Jeff Greenwald, Author of The Size of the World and Snake Lake

Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar have floated down the Canal du Midi in France, danced in the sunlight of southern Greece, toasted the best of times in Ireland, devoured the culture and countryside of southern (more…)

Ferry Plaza Book Party: And Then They Were Gone with Judy Bebelaar and Ron Cabral 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK EVENT: And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown by Judy Bebelaar and Ron Cabral

Monday, December 10th, 2018 || 6pm Book Passage || San Francisco 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

In 1976, Jim Jones enrolled all church teenagers at Opportunity High. Within a year, most had been sent to the Temple’s agricultural mission. The minister had drawn a picture of Jonestown as a tropical paradise, where the young people would help create a model society. But by the time most of the Opportunity students had arrived, Jonestown was a jungle prison camp with hard labor and harsh punishments.

On November 18, 1978, 918 people—one third of them under eighteen, half in their twenties or younger—perished in the murder/suicides.

Part I introduces the 15 Temple students the teachers knew best: those in Cabral’s classes and on the Cobras baseball team, made possible by Temple athletes; and in classes Bebelaar taught, including Creative Writing. Student writing appears throughout the book, including stories by Stephan, Jones’s son, who describes vividly his experiences in his family and in Jonestown.

Part II follows the students to Guyana and draws from research and interviews (many stories told for the first time). Specific incidents illustrate the young people’s resilience and their ability to resist Jonestown’s cruel strictures. The book ends with the final days—both in Jonestown and in Georgetown, Guyana, where the basketball team (including members of the Cobras) plays in a tournament with the Guyanese National Team. Excerpts from the recording of the final night are followed by excerpts of student poems appearing in the first chapters. “Aftermath” describes, much of the telling in their own words, the effect of the tragedy on survivors.

Judy Bebelaar taught English and creative writing in San Francisco public high schools for 37 years. She has received national recognition for her success in helping students find joy in writing their lives. Her poetry has been published widely. Her chapbook, Walking Across the Pacific, was published in 2014 by Finishing Line Press. Her poems appear in three anthologies: Turning a Train of Thought Upside Down (Scarlet Tanager Press, 2012); The Widows’ Handbook (Kent State U. Press 2014); and in River of Earth and Sky (Blue Light Press, 2015). And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown, is available on Amazon.

Ron Cabral entered teaching in the San Francisco Unified School District in1965 and became a Middle School principal in 1992. He retired in 2002. He and Judy Bebelaar met at Opportunity High, where they came to know the teenagers of Peoples Temple. His book about his friendship with rock star Joe McDonald, Country Joe and Me, was published in 2003 by AuthorHouse and is available on Amazon

(more…)

Ferry Plaza Book Party: God Sex and Psychosis by Todd Crawshaw and other Dark Tales 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK EVENT: God Sex and Psychosis by Todd Crawshaw and other Dark Tales

Todd Crawshaw

Monday, October 8th, 2018 || 6pm Book Passage || San Francisco 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

You won’t want to miss this: another entertaining and provocative work by author and artist Todd Crawshaw and other authors of dark tales.

About God, Sex & Psychosis: When criminal psychologist Mira Skyles is assigned by a court order to evaluate Egon Norwood, a person of interest in a serial murder investigation, she recognizes both a man with a dissociative identity disorder and the boy who once saved her life, with whom she shares a secret history.

God, Sex & Psychosis is divided into three sections. Part One is the thematic overture. It highlights the formative years of Egon and his twin sister, Faye, both traumatized by an abusive father. Part Two illustrates the fragmented points of view of both siblings, now adults, being analyzed by Mira, a court-appointed psychotherapist struggling with her own inner demons. The suspected serial killer assigned to her is mysterious and charming. Against her better judgment, she finds herself falling in love. Part Three is Mira’s story, told as a confessional: how she was gang-raped at age twelve and scarred by her attackers; how her rage manifested into a quest for revenge, which caused two deaths at the college she had attended; and how these incidents are connected to murders taking place in San Francisco. (more…)

Book Party: Psychosocial Care of Cancer Survivors by Cheryl Krauter-Leonard 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS FERRY PLAZA BOOK PARTY: Psychosocial Care of Cancer Survivors: A Clinician’s Guide and Workbook for Providing Wholehearted Care by Cheryl Krauter-Leonard

Cheryl Krauter

Monday, August 13th, 2018 || 6pm Book Passage || San Francisco 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

One of our favorite psychotherapists is speaking at the Ferry Plaza in August and sharing her new book.

Psychosocial Care of Cancer Survivors: A Clinician’s Guide and Workbook for Providing Wholehearted Care is a clinical resource for healthcare practitioners that presents person-centered care as an antidote to the distress both patients and clinicians face in cancer survivorship. It addresses questions of how to bring a humanistic approach and quality attention to the growing needs of patients in the post-treatment phase of a cancer diagnosis. As a workbook, it’s both a guide and an applicable resource for daily clinical practice. It provides a needed structure for clinicians to help them reconnect with the meaningful aspects of their work.

Written from the perspective of a clinician-survivor, Psychosocial Care of Cancer Survivors is about the healing power of relationship for both patient and practitioner as they negotiate the complex world of cancer survivorship. (more…)

Book Party: Readings on Summer Travels 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS FERRY PLAZA BOOK PARTY: Summer Travels

Monday, July 9th, 2018 || 6pm Book Passage || San Francisco 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

Summer’s here, the perfect time to hit the road and … write about it!

Join us for an evening with our writers sharing stories of trips taken, to be taken, and best forgotten.

We’ll be serving wine and snacks and excellent tales of adventure and misadventure. (more…)

Book Party: Mother Tongue by Tania Romanov 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS FERRY PLAZA BOOK PARTY: Mother Tongue: A Saga of Three Generations of Balkan Women by Tania Romanov

Monday, June 11th, 2018 || 6pm Book Passage || San Francisco 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

What is your mother tongue? Sometimes the simplest questions take a book to answer. Tania didn’t know why she spoke Serbian, rather than Croatian, with her mother, Zora. It never occurred to her to ask until she started writing Mother Tongue.

The unrelenting consequences of 100 years of Balkan wars have forced three generations of Croatian women—Katarina, Zora, and Tania—to flee their homelands multiple times. Eventually, Tania, a successfully integrated American, journeys back to her fractured homeland with her mother to unravel the secrets of their shared past and history as she looks for answers.

Mother Tongue is an exploration of lives lived in the chaos of the Balkans. It follows countries that dissolved, formed, and reformed; lands that were conquered and subjugated by Fascists and Nazis and nationalists; lives lived in exile, in refugee camps, in new worlds.

“Mother Tongue is a story about identity in the context of history. Romanov was born in just one place but the country she came from keeps changing as the tides of history keep sweeping over the Balkans. Framed as a journey to her parents’ hometown in what is now Croatia, Romanov’s story is really about tracking the improbable line that led to who she is, down through her own life, her parents’ lives and the lives of her ancestors. The Balkans are a tangle many of us tend to gloss over because we can’t get inside it. With this fascinating memoir, Tania Romanov takes us there.”
―Tamim Ansary, author of West of Kabul East of New York

“In Mother Tongue—a story for our times—writer, photographer and world traveler Tania Romanov follows the life journeys of three generations of women (Katerina, Zora, and herself) as she pieces together a complex picture of the fragmentation, war and upheaval that has tormented the people of the area known as ‘the Balkans’ for (more…)

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