Left Coast Writers Panel: Four Paths to Sanctuary đź—“

Cindy Rasicot
Veena Rao
Judith Teitelman
Anniqua Rana

Join us on February 10th at 4PM for A Panel of on Four Paths to Sanctuary

Featuring Cindy Rasicot, Veena Rao, Judith Teitelman, and Anniqua Rana, introduced by Linda Watanabe McFerrin

The search for sanctuary—safe haven—is not uncommon throughout time, history, and geography—most especially during uncertain times like ours when many people are feeling insecure. In this hour-long program, listen to four authors discuss the unique paths they chose for their characters to find sanctuary:
 

An immigrant woman who is trapped in a loveless abusive marriage realizes self-love is a powerful force

A baby abandoned and covered in flies is raised by two mothers 

A Northern California housewife is ordained in the Thai Buddhist tradition 

A woman had a glimpse, a taste of her ultimate destination, and was unwavering in her quest

Join us for a Zoom panel featuring these four authors published by She Writes Press, an award-winning, female-run hybrid publisher of novels, memoirs, and nonfiction work by female authors on February 10th at 4pm.

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LCW Literary Salon: Michael Shapiro, Author of The Creative Spark đź—“

Literary Salon:  Michael Shapiro, Author of The Creative Spark in Conversation with Linda Watanabe McFerrin 

 

Michael ShapiroMonday, December 2, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte

Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Madera || www.bookpassage.com

How about this for a stellar way to end they year! We are having an end-of-the-year Celebration and a close look at creativity with well-known Bay Area journalist, Michael Shapiro and LCW Founder, Linda Watanabe McFerrin. Please join us for wine, scintillating conversation, and a book that looks at creativity in conversations with some of the best in every business.

 

Creativity: how do we access it, nurture it, and sustain it? This question propelled journalist Michael Shapiro during more than a decade of interviewing many of the foremost creators of our time. In The Creative Spark: How musicians, writers, explorers, and other artists found their inner fire and followed their dreams, his just-published collection of conversations with Amy Tan, Smokey Robinson, Barbara Kingsolver, Lucinda Williams, Francis Ford Coppola, Lyle Lovett, David Sedaris and so many others, Shapiro reveals how these luminaries fire up their creativity and sustain it throughout their lives. Prefaced by short biographies, these interviews serve as guideposts for how each one of us can kindle our own creative sparks.

Shapiro will appear in conversation with Linda Watanabe-McFerrin, author of Navigating the Divide: Selected Poetry and Prose, a career-spanning, multi-genre collection. In profoundly personal poetry and prose, Watanabe-McFerrin’s multi-faceted collection spans spiritual and physical, thought and desire, identity and others. A renowned writing instructor, Linda will speak with Michael about the life-affirming force that is creativity.

Michael Shapiro writes about the performing arts, travel, food, books, and environmental issues for U.S. newspapers and magazines including National Geographic Traveler and American Way. For four years he wrote a column for the San Francisco Chronicle’s travel section and now covers music and the arts for The Press Democrat.

Linda  Watanabe McFerrin is a poet, travel writer, novelist and contributor to numerous newspapers, magazines and anthologies.She is the author of two poetry collections and a winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction. Her novel, Namako:  Sea Cucumber, was named Best Book for the Teen-Age by the New York Public Library. In addition to authoring an award-winning short story collection, The Hand of Buddha, she has co-edited twelve anthologies. Her latest novel, Dead Love (Stone Bridge Press, 2009), was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Novel.

Linda has judged the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kiriyama (more…)

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Literary Salon: Maxine Rose Schur Author of Brave with Beauty, A Story of Afghanistan 🗓

Literary Salon:  Maxine Rose Schur Author of Brave with Beauty, A Story of Afghanistan

Maxine Rose Schur

Monday, October 7, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Curtain Up! Using Theatre Techniques to Strengthen Your Children’s Story

Maxine Rose Schur is an award-winning children’s book author and travel writer. As a former professional actress. Maxine will share some surefire techniques from the theatre world to strengthen your story for young people. She’ll give you tips to create more believable characters, strengthen plot and enhance dialogue. You’ll gain down-to earth advice that you can easily use right away.

Maxine will also share how her extensive travels have informed her books for children and inspire you to use your own life experiences to inform your writing.

And as an added bonus, popular travel writer and LCW member, Laurie McAndish King will be our guest emcee for this exciting LCW Salon night!

Maxine Rose Schur is an award-winning author of books for children. As the recipient of the Joan G. Sugarman Award given by the Washington Independent Writer’s Legal and Educational Fund, Ms Schur was the Baker-Nord Guest Lecturer on Writing for Children to the (more…)

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Robert Pimm

Robert Pimm is a lawyer and Chief Learning Officer and Director of Legal Services for California Lawyers for the Arts. He manages CLA’s State Bar Certified Lawyer Referral Service, CLA’s Modest Means Incubator Program, CLA’s Clinical and Educational Programs, as well as other duties. CLA provides lawyer referrals, dispute resolution services, educational programs, publications and a resource library to creative artists of all disciplines.

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Lara Perkins

Lara Perkins represents authors and illustrators of picture books, middle grade, and YA fiction. She has been with Andrea Brown since 2010 and is also the agency’s Digital Manager.

In picture books, Lara is actively seeking picture book author/illustrators who bring distinct perspectives to their work, particularly if that perspective has been underrepresented in children’s literature. She is drawn to bold and colorful art, a playful use of texture and media, and kid-appealing humor or heart.

In middle grade, Lara is drawn to fresh, unexpected fantasy and light fantasy, clever (more…)

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Aleta George

Aleta George is the author of the award-winning biography, Ina Coolbrith: The Bittersweet Song of California’s First Poet Laureate. She has written for Smithsonian, High Country News, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She is currently the open space reporter for the Bay Area Monitor, a publication of the League of Women Voters.

Ina Coolbrith: The Bittersweet Song of California’s First Poet Laureate is a new biography about a pioneer poet, Oakland’s first public librarian, and the most popular literary ambassador in the early American West.

California named Coolbrith its first poet laureate in 1915 during San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and 2015 marks her centennial of being named California’s beloved first lady of poetry and America’s first laureate.

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Andy Ross

Andy Ross has worked in the book business for 39 years, all of his working life. He was the owner and general manager of Cody’s Books in Berkeley, California from 1977-2006. Cody’s has been recognized as one of America’s great independent book stores.

During this period, Andy was the primary trade book buyer. This experience has given him a unique understanding of the retail book market, of publishing trends and, most important and uniquely, the hand-selling of books to book buyers.

Andy is past president of the Northern California Booksellers Association, a board member and officer of the American Booksellers Association and a national (more…)

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Brooke Warner

Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Green-Light Your Book (June 2016), What’s Your Book?, and How to Sell Your Memoir, and the co-author of Breaking Ground on Your Memoir. Brooke’s expertise is in traditional and new publishing, and she is an equal advocate for publishing with a traditional house and self-publishing. She sits on the board of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), the Bay Area Book Festival, and the National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW). She blogs actively on Huffington Post Books and SheWrites.com. She lives and works in Berkeley, California.

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Dick Jordan

Dick Jordan grew up in Seattle, Washington. At age 7, he donned a suit and tie, climbed aboard a United Airlines DC-6, and took his first big trip: Up to Vancouver, British Columbia, for the day, back to Seattle the same evening by train. As a teenager at the end of the heyday of U.S. passenger train travel, he rode the rails to and from Miami Beach. In between these two “Big City Trips”, he learned to appreciate the outdoor wonders of the West by joining the quintessential “F Troop” of the Boy Scouts and camping in the rain and mud of Western Washington.

His service in the U.S. Air Force took him to Texas, Indiana, and the Far East. Along the way he spent nine months studying Chinese in Monterey, California, (more…)

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Constance Hale

Constance Hale is a San Francisco based journalist and author. Her three books on language and writing, including her latest, Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch: Let Verbs Power Your Writing (W.W. Norton, 2012), have earned her the label “the sassy Safire.” Her eight-part series on writing sentences appeared in The New York Times Opinionator section. She has also written articles and essays for The Atlantic, Honolulu, Smithsonian, Afar, The Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and several anthologies of travel literature. More at www.sinandsyntax.com.

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