Monday, January 11, 2010 || 5:30pm ||
Left Coast Writers at the Ferry Plaza
Book Passage – Ferry Plaza, San Francisco
Colette Obrien hosts: NEVER AGAIN!
Join us at Book Passage in the Ferry Plaza in San Francisco when some of our favorite writers make their resolutions! We definitely think there are some things that do not need to be repeated. Come to listen in and find out just what they are.
LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Wendy Nelson Tokunaga, author of Love in Translation
Saturday, December 12, 2009 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com
Wendy Nelson Tokunaga is back … with an new novel. Wendy is the author of the novels, MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT (St. Martin’s, available now) and the newly released LOVE IN TRANSLATION (St. Martin’s, November 2009). Japan and Japanese culture have been major influences on her life and this is reflected in much of her writing. Her novel, NO KIDDING, won the Literary/Mainstream Fiction category in Writer’s Digest’s Best Self-Published Book Awards in 2002. She is also the author of two children’s non-fiction books, and has had short stories published in various literary journals. Wendy signed her two-book deal with St. Martin’s just as she was beginning the MFA in Writing program at the University of San Francisco in 2006. Along with her MFA, she also holds a BA in Psychology from San Francisco State University. Wendy is also a jazz vocalist and a Japanese karaoke singer.
The San Francisco Chronicle called Wendy’s debut novel a “terrific rist novel.” Now she’s back with her second book, which again explores the themes of being a a stranger in a strange land.
Wendy lives with her surfer-dude/musician husband Manabu and their cat Meow in the San Francisco Bay Area, a short walk from the Pacific Ocean.
LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Mary Lou Peters Schram, author of Pursuing Happiness … One More Time
Saturday, November 14, 2009 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com
LOOKING FOR LOVE AND HAPPINESS
Four women, a dead husband, a not-so-great boyfriend, a little extra weight and lots of money—is this a recipe for joy or disaster?
If a good book and a glass of wine is your idea of happiness, please grab a friend and join us for a delightful evening with local author Mary Lou Peters Schram.
“Although the pursuit of happiness is one of our inalienable rights, nowhere is it guaranteed that we shall catch it. Mary Lou Peters Schram’s witty new novel chronicles the lives of four women, all residents of Shady Acres, an adult community in California’s wine country, as each pursues her own particular vision of happiness. (more…)
LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Stan Goldberg, author of Lessons for the Living, an evening of laughter, tears, music and wine
Saturday, October 10, 2009 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com
Lessons for the Living by Stan Goldberg is that rare self-help book that actually lives up to its title. Goldberg was living a high-stress academic life in the Bay Area when he was found to have prostate cancer. While not immediately life threatening, the cancer diagnosis and treatment threw him completely off his game physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Following various failed attempts to regain his equilibrium, Goldberg found himself volunteering for hospice where by simply being present, listening, and doing whatever needed to be done, he helped others come to terms with the lives they would soon be leaving. In so doing, he also found himself coming back to life.
Engaging and enlightening, but never pedantic, Goldberg imparts basic life lessons on the importance of giving, communicating, loving, and forgiving. It took a lethal disease and time spent as a hospice volunteer caring for persons he came to know and love for Goldberg to learn these important truths. Unfortunately, many other persons do not learn them until the end of life approaches, if at all. Readers of Lessons for the Living are fortunate that Goldberg has learned and lived these lessons and can share them so ably.
LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Bill Keener, author of Gold Leaf on Granite and Kathryn Ridall, author of The Way of Stones
Saturday, August 8, 2009 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com
Celebrating the new work of two poets …
William Keener has been writing and publishing poetry for the past ten years. He is also an environmental lawyer, and the former director of the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands. His first chapbook, titled Three Crows Yelling, was co-authored with Marin County poets Bill Noble and Michael Day in 2000. Tonight we celebrate the launch of his first solo collection of poetry Gold Leaf on Granite, which recently won the annual Anabiosis Press contest.
Kathryn Ridall came to poetry after a long career as a psychotherapist and unviversity instructor at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill. Her poetry has been published widely in journals such as Kalliope, The Texas Observer, The Chrisysalis Reader, and Pearl. She is the editor of the forthcoming anthology When The Muse Calls: Poems For The Creative Life. This evening she will read from The Way Of Stones, a chapbook released this summer by Finishing Line Press. She also will be reading new, unpublished work.
LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Rebecca Foust, Mom’s Canoe
Saturday, June 13, 2009 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com
Left Coast Writer Rebecca Foust will read from her new book, Mom’s Canoe, at Book Passage on Saturday, June 13, at 7:00 pm, with champagne and Ruli’s cookies to follow during the book signing. Mom’s Canoe, winner of the 2008 Rpbbert Phillips Chapbook Prize, collects poetry about the author’s childhood in western Pennsylvania, an area devestated by the decline of the coal mining and railroading industries of the last century. Foust’s first book, Dark Card, sold out of its first print run and was reviewed in more than 20 journals including American Book Review, Hudson Review and Rattle; the reviews are posted at www.rebeccafoust.com .
LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Patricia Ljutic. Laura Shumaker and other Contributors to A Cup of Comfort® for Parents of Children with Special Needs.
Saturday, July 11, 2009 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com
Patricia Ljutic is joined by four other Bay Area writers: Jennifer Gunter, Jolie Kanat, Harriet Heydemann Cellini and Laura Shumaker, who will read from A Cup of Comfort® for Parents of Children with Special Needs ($9.95). The anthology contains fifty stories by parents who have struggled with a child’s diagnosis only to embrace and celebrate the differences that make their children that much more special—and even more loved. Edited by Colleen Sell this unique story collection offers inspiration for parents of children with cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, seizure disorder and autism.
LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2009 (Travelers’ Tales)
Saturday, March 14 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com
Here’s the exciting line-up for The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2009 party on Saturday evening: Laurie McAndish King—tracking lions on foot in Botswana, Natalie Galli—enjoying the delicious spectacle of Easter in Sicily, Ginny Horton—finding her inner Coco at the Paris Ritz, Marybeth Bond—learning more than Spanish in Mexico, Nicole Zimmerman—adventuring to the extreme in New Zealand, Kathryn Kefauver—guarded by monks in Laos, Pamela Alma Bass—developing perspective on “Angels” in Mexico. Publisher Larry Habegger will be on hand to answer questions about the anthology and upcoming Travelers’ Tales titles.
ABOUT THE BEST WOMEN’S TRAVEL WRITING 2009:
Reading the stories in these books is like getting to eavesdrop on other women’s conversations and stowing away on their adventures. From the rhapsodic to the humorous to the harrowing, these tales will take you on a wild and wonderful ride around the globe.
LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Roccie Hill, Author of Three Minutes on Love.
Saturday, January 10 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera || 51 Tamal Vista Dr.
Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com
Roccie Hill talks about Three Minutes on Love. Rosie leaves her desert town to chase her dreams in 1960s S.F. She has a chance encounter with an illegal immigrant who publishes a music magazine. He gives Rosie her first job, photographing a legendary blues guitarist, catapulting Rosie into a hot career on the scene.
ABOUT ROCCIE HILL:
Roccie Hill is an American writer living currently in California. Roccie studied Philosophy at UCLA, and Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, where her short stories appeared in the literary quarterly. She worked as a journalist and teacher of Creative Writing while living in Paris, France. She produced a variety of short films and celebrity/royal events during her years working in the UK and Paris. Roccie has one daughter, a pilot and Captain in the United States Air Force.
Monday, August 10, 2009 || 5:30pm ||
Reading: Wipe Outs
Book Passage – Ferry Plaza
Ferry Plaza, San Francisco
On the second Monday of every month Left Coast Writers read from their favorite work. Colette Obrien hosts.
This month: Wipe Outs
Special Guests:
Paul McHugh
Paul McHugh has been one of California’s leading outdoor writers for three decades. For 22 years, he was outdoor feature writer and editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. During that time, he covered the dramatic big-wave surf break called Maverick’s at Half Moon Bay in features, interviews and reports on the annual contest there. After taking a buy-out from the Chronicle in ’07, he continued providing Maverick’s stories and coverage to the New York Times. He has put all he knows about big-wave adventures in the piece he will read Monday night at the Ferry Building, a short piece of new journalism called, “Mav’s”.
McHugh is the author of a novel, “The Search for Goodbye-to-Rains,” editor and writer of a non-fiction book, “Wild Places,” and has a new novel coming out soon, a mystery based in San Francisco called, “Deadlines.”
Also: Well known journalist and past contributor to the Washington Post, Joanna Biggar.
Please contact us (leftcoastwriters@aol.com) to sign up to read.
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