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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

               Sam Sax                                                           

 

Hieu Minh Nguyen
          Hieu Minh Nguyen          

 

Kim D. Hester Williams
Moderated by Kim D. Hester Williams

 

 
 

Contact Us

Any questions? Email Miah Jeffra at jeffraj@sonoma.edu or contact us through: InstagramFacebook or Twitter

 

Hosted by Sonoma State University’s English Department and Zaum Literary Magazine

Sponsors
Instructionally Related Activities, SSU
Zaum, SSU's Literary Magazine