Community Writers Festival
Join us for the Sonoma State Community Writers Festival!
Thursday, April 4, 2024 4pm-9pm
The Sonoma Community Writers Festival is a collaboration between English and Creative Writing faculty and students at Sonoma State University, the Zaum literary magazine staff, and various local independent literary organizations. The mission of the festival is to offer more opportunities for the Bay Area literary community to assemble, network and celebrate diverse voices. The festival programming will occur in the Student Center and other locations on the SSU campus, with scheduled readings and panels in both ballroom and classroom environments, as well as workshop spaces devoted to collaborative writing. There will also be a table bazaar for organizations and publishers to promote their services and products.
No registration is required. The festival is free and open to the public.
Sonoma State University is located at 1801 E. Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park. General Parking is $5.00, Reserved Parking in Lot D is $8.00. The passes can be purchased in the lots or at the Parking & Information Center at the entry to campus.
The festival program is here!
Download the pdf
Schedule
Readings
4-4:50 PM
Alexander Valley Room
Readings from the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference and Noyo Review—Pamela Bordisso, antmen pimentel mendoza, Rashaan Meneses, Virgie Tovar, Ebony Haight, Frej Barty, Eliana Yoneda
Sonoma Valley Room
SSU's Department of Modern Languages and Literatures presents a Bilingual Reading of the Poetry of German Poet Max Sessner—Francesca Bell, Angelika Quirk, Max Sessner
5-5:50PM
Sonoma Valley Room
Sixteen Rivers Press: Voices of the San Francisco Bay Area Watershed—Matthew M. Monte, Rosa Lane, Christina Lloyd, Murray Silverstein, Alice Templeton, Terry Ehret
Bennett Valley Room
Feather Press Presents Birds of Paradise—Jennifer Barone, Cassandra Dallett, Ingrid Keir, Kalechi Ubozoh
Alexander Valley Room
BAQWA Presents: Readings by Bay Area Queer Writers—Liz Faraim, Wayne Goodman, Richard May, R.L. Merrill
Russian River Valley Room
Wet Cement Press Reading—Thoreau Lovell, Michelle Murphy
6-6:50PM
Stevenson 1301
Bay Area Poets—Peter Kline, Brittany Perham, Randall Mann
Bennett Valley Room
Reed Magazine Reading—Sophie Aust, Allegra Balbuena, Ian Meadows, Dylan Mueller, Ryan Steel
Sonoma Valley Room
Blue Light Press Poets—Diane Frank, Emilie Lygren, Prartho Sereno, Mark Tate, Ellery Akers, Steve Trenam
Russian River Valley Room
South Asian American Read—Amna Ali, Moazzam Sheikh
7-7:50PM
Stevenson 1301
Red Light Lit: The Poetics of Seduction-Love, Power, and the Erotic Imagination—Michael Foulk, Yume Kim, Loria Mendoza, Christine No, Noah Sanders
Russian River Valley Room
Take Place: SFSU Creative Writing Program—Laird Harrison, Elodie Townsend, Evan Burkin, Michaela Chairez, Christopher Jones
Sonoma Valley Room
WTAW Press & Betty—Anita Felicelli, Michelle Cruz Gonzales, Lillian Howan, Joanna Choi Kalbus, Julian Mithra, Marianne Villanueva, Olga Zilberbourg
Alexander Valley Room
Bazaar Writers Salon—Kim Addonizio, Kirstin Valdez Quade, and Kathleen Winter
Bennett Valley Room
Dominican MFA Students and Alumni Reading—Brennen Belogorsky, Bonnie Carasso, Deidre Cavazzi, Caitlin Howery, Matthew Kline, Meg Neville, Dave Seter, Nichole Turnbloom
Stevenson 1201
A Reading of the Napa Valley Writers Conference Staff—Andrea Bewick, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Caroline Goodwin, Angela Pneuman
Panels and Workshops
4-4:50 PM
Russian River Valley Room
Sebastopol Center for the Arts: Writing Salon—Create & Critique
Linda Loveland Reid
4-5:10 PM
Dry Creek Valley Room
The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story
Grant Faulkner
Stevenson 1206
Feasts, Fasts, Fights: Prompts for Writing Stories of Memorable Meals
Marianne Rogoff
Knights Valley Room
Historical Fiction for Beginners
Carla D. Williams
Stevenson 1207
Writing @ Sex and Love
Joey Garcia
Darwin 102
Sitting Room: Our Panoply of PoetsPanelists:
Iris Dunkle, Kim Hester-Williams, Maya Khosla, Patti Trimble, Terry Ehret
Stevenson 1102
Demystifying Small Press Publishing
Peg Alford Pursell, Diane Frank, Bianca Hernandez-Knight, Jennifer Joseph, Sarah Alvarez
5:20-6:30 PM
Darwin 102
Apogee Press Poetry Procedural and Prompts: Channeling, Erasure, Ekphrasis, Collaboration
Panelists: Susanne Dyckman, Elizabeth Robinson, Barbara Tomash, Laura Walker
Stevenson 1101
From a Reader to a Critic: A Journey to Becoming a Book Reviewer
Panelists: Jane Ciabatteri, Anita Felicelli, Joan Frank, Olga Zilberbourg, Peg Alford Pursell
Dry Creek Valley Room
Writing to Discover Ourselves—in School?
Panelists: John Creger, Dan Zhou, Ishya Bahl
Stevenson 1102
Chicanofuturism Now!
Panelists: Rocio Anica, Scott Russell Duncan, Patrick Fontes, R. Ch. Garcia, Jenny Irizary, Luis Valderas
Darwin 103
Tabletop Storytelling: Gaming as Emergent Narratives
Panelists: Johnny Nolen, Dr. Roberto Faller, Jesse Ragozzino, Dr. Derek Blechinger, David Zeeman
Knights Valley Room
Conjuring Characters in Fiction Writing
Claudia Morales
Stevenson 1201
Applying to Writing Conferences and Residencies: Tips and Advice
Marcy Gordon, Joey Garcia, Iris Dunkle, Chingling Wo, Eliana Yoneda
6:40-7:50 PM
Stevenson 1102
The Joys of Translating and Being Translated—Hosted by the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, SSU
Panelists: Petr Hruška, Ági Bori, Francesca Bell
Darwin 102
Prophet/Profit: On Being a Writer in the 21st Century
Panelist: Josh Fernandez, Joey Garcia, Karlee Vincent
Stevenson 1101
Pathway to Publication for Queer Writers
Panelists: Liz Faraim, Wayne Goodman, Richard May, R.L. Merrill
Knights Valley Room
Seven Lessons I Learned from Writing a Memoir
Meredith Pike-Baky
Dry Creek Valley Room
Visuals and Narratives: An Ekphrastic Flash Workshop
Lita Kurth and Tania Martin
Darwin 103
The Writer and The Literary Citizen
MK Chavez, Gillian Conoley, Alex Mattraw, Michael J. O’Connor, giovanni singleton
Keynote Discussion
Stevenson Hall 1400, 8:00-9:00 PM
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Contact Us
Any questions? Email Miah Jeffra at jeffraj@sonoma.edu or contact us through: Instagram, Facebook or Twitter
Hosted by Sonoma State University’s English Department and Zaum Literary Magazine
Sponsors
Instructionally Related Activities, SSU
Zaum, SSU's Literary Magazine