Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "creative nonfiction"

Book Talk: SummerWords 2013 kicks off summer writing

2013-06-06T21:23:16Z

SummerWords 2013 was a whirl of readings, lectures, workshops and collaboration between writers of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction, held at American River College. The keynote speaker was T.C. Boyle, who entertained attendees and others at the Crest Theatre last Friday evening, May 31.

This event is important to the writing community in the greater Sacramento area, but it also serves as a kickstarter of sorts to summer writing and reading. Those who attended workshops, and readings, and heard Traci Gourdine’s closing message urging people to go home and write, as well as those who heard the calls of others seeking to form new writing groups and communities, may be looking for more events or suggested reading - we have both this week.

For those who want more conferences, look no further than the University of the Pacific, where the 1st Annual Creative Writing Conference will be held June 14 through 16. It’s about an hour outside of Sacramento and will feature many local poets and writers, including the keynote address by local favorite, John Lescroart.

Other local writers include Karen Levy, whose memoir, “My Father’s Gardens,” was recently released, and Sam Shane, a familiar face on channel 13 news. Local poets of interest include Cynthia Linville, whose book, “The Lost Thing,” was published by local Cold River Press, and the multitalented Indigo Moor. Moor’s book, “The Stonecutter’s Window,” received the Northwestern University Press’s Cave Canem Poetry Prize.

Another relatively local conference taking place this summer is the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. The prose writers will gather in July in Squaw Valley, and the poets will gather in June. A benefit reading to support scholarships will be held June 21 at the Crocker Art Museum, and will feature three Pulitzer Prize-winning poets, including Sharon Olds, who received the award this year. Joining her will be Forrest Gander, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman and Evie Shockley.

If you’ve been bitten by the conference bug and want to work in some beautiful country, you might consider the Surprise Valley Writers’ Conference, which is held in Cedarville in September. This year, the conference will run from September 12 through 15. This year's staff includes Sacramento poet, Julia Connor, and Sacramento favorite, Judy Halebsky. Other workshops in creative nonfiction with Michelle Herman and fiction with Christopher Coake will also be offered.

If reading is more your style this summer, then you might want to consider one of the award-winning titles from the 2013 Northern California Book Awards. And you might want to consider some of the titles that were finalists. Each book was written by a Northern California writer or poet in the areas of young adult, children, works in translation, nonfiction, fiction and poetry.

Or, look at some of the books by presenters at one or more of these colloquiums and conferences.

Next week, we’ll review several books by local and not-so-local authors.

Book Talk can be reached at SacramentoBookTalk@gmail.com.

Teen creative writing workshop

2012-12-01T05:30:10Z

Attend the free creative writing workshop this Saturday, Dec.1 from 1-3pm at the South Natomas library branch located at 2901 Truxel Road . This workshop is an introduction to the genres of creative writing (creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry). All materials will be supplied and snacks available. Teens (13-18) will be eligible to submit their writing to the "Heroes" anthology.

This workshop is taught by Trina L. Drotar, local poet, writer, editor, and artist. She is the former editor "Poetry Now" and "Calaveras Station." She is active in the Sacramento literary and arts community and received her MA from CSUS. Registration is requested. To register, please click here.

New digital magazine features creative nonfiction

2011-08-16T00:56:40Z

“Telling stories without shame” is the goal of a new digital magazine published by Sacramento writer and editor Janna Marlies Santoro.

The premiere issue of Under the Gum Tree was released this month, and Santoro said she asked contributors to write creative nonfiction that showcases important moments in people’s lives, as told by them.

One writer, Sarah Heffron, wrote about her own unplanned pregnancy.

“It’s a snapshot of the days just before and the moments after finding out I was pregnant,” she said.

While the “creative nonfiction” genre leaves some question as to how much is true, Santoro said all of the stories are true, but sometimes dialogue is written from memory and timelines are compressed to make the stories more compelling and readable.

The first issue includes the work of 11 contributors in more than 80 pages, and the writers come from places including Sacramento, Oakland, Seattle and Ohio. Some are professional writers while others are people with a story to tell.

“These are stories people often try to hide because they are embarrassing or uncomfortable, and they’re hard parts of life,” Santoro said.

“But those stories are compelling. They make us who we are,” she added.

The reason for the magazine’s title is apparent after reading her own article in the issue, she said, adding that the title works as a metaphor that becomes evident after reading the story.

Another story is from Santoro’s fiancé, Jeremy Maron, who works with her to run the ThinkHouse Collective co-working space on 11th and Q streets.

Maron said he wrote about film, which is something that has always resonated with him.

“Even as a young kid, I looked at movies really differently,” he said, adding that he was raised by a single mother who took him to films from an early age.

In his article, he discusses the impacts the films “Being There” and “Top Gun” had on him, explaining that the individual scenes in “Top Gun” are well-done, but the movie doesn’t connect and flow well for him.

“Moviegoing is a communal experience,” he said. “(When I saw ‘Top Gun’), I really separated myself from the audience experience, and I found myself watching them watch it. It just didn’t work for me.”

Under the Gum Tree will be published quarterly, and it is free to view online, Santoro said. Those who want a hard copy can have it printed on demand through a link from the magazine’s website for about $24.

“The printing costs cover the costs of producing the magazine,” she said.

Santoro has two editors who help select articles for the magazine and work with the writers during the editing process. Design work is handled by an intern.

The contributors are not paid for their work, but that is something Santoro said she wants to change as the magazine goes forward.

“I’m going to be introducing a subscription service for 2012, which will be something like $40 for a year, including both printed and online copies,” she said, adding that the subscription rate works out to less than half the cost of the “newsstand” rate.

Santoro has worked in the publishing industry for both a small community newspaper in El Dorado Hills, The Village Life, and the Folsom-Based Style Media Group, but having her own magazine is more satisfying, she said.

“When I got the first issue, it really exceeded my expectations,” she said. “Just the look and feel of it is gorgeous. I was completely speechless.”

Heffron, who used to teach elementary school in the Natomas Unified School District but is now a full-time stay-at-home mom, said she had a similar reaction to seeing her article in print for the first time.

Santoro said she wants the readers to be able to be drawn into deeply personal stories through Under the Gum Tree, and she also wants to hear the stories of others.

While she does seek out writers she knows who have engaging personal stories, submissions are accepted through the website for a fee of a little more than $6.

Maron said he is also happy with the finished product.

“I think it’s compelling journalism to examine those parts of our lives,” he said. “Telling stories without shame is a great tagline. We, as writers, go back in time to find those moments that are the foundations of who we are.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Dave Eggers' "Zeitoun" enthralls Sacramentans

2010-10-22T04:31:43Z

Dave Eggers spoke about his book, “Zeitoun,” at the Crest Theatre Wednesday in the feature event of the sixth-annual One Book Sacramento: Connecting Our Communities.

In her opening remarks, Sacramento Public Library Director Rivkah Sass mentioned the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (Aug. 29) and the flood threat to the Sacramento region as reasons the library selected “Zeitoun.”

Eggers took the stage in hiking boots and a pinstripe jacket. He was joined by interviewer Joseph Palermo, associate professor of American history at Sacramento State. Palermo has written two books on Robert F. Kennedy and blogs at The Huffington Post.

“Zeitoun” narrates the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Muslim father of four and owner of a successful contracting business who stays behind in New Orleans helping people escape the flood waters only to be wrongfully arrested as suspected al-Qaida and jailed without due process for three weeks.

A national bestseller, “Zeitoun,” published in 2009, has garnered numerous accolades, including New York Times Notable Book. Eggers received the “Courage in Media” award from the Council on American-Islamic relations for the book.

After querying the crowd on the score of the Giants game, Eggers launched into describing how he found Zeitoun’s story.

He had sent interviewers to the southeast to capture stories of Hurricane Katrina victims as part of the research effort for the second book in his Voice of Witness series.

Eggers founded Voice of Witness with physician and human rights scholar Lola Vollen in 2004. The organization publishes books reporting on human rights crises around the world through firsthand oral accounts.

Eggers said he was hooked when he read Zeitoun’s story, transcribed from tapes of field interviews in New Orleans mailed back to San Francisco.

The image of Zeitoun in his canoe, eventually commanding the cover of the book, resonated with Eggers.

Eggers traveled to New Orleans a couple of months later to meet the Zeitoun family.

“Immediately (the story) had a novelistic level of scope and depth,” he said.

“I knew that if I was going to take something on it needed to have so many compelling aspects because it was going to take years.”

Eggers’ prolific career thus far has included several other books beginning with “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” (2000), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.

At the end of a three-year interviewing process including trips to New Orleans and a trip to Syria, Eggers had uncovered Zeitoun’s story, which became not only the tale of a Hurricane Katrina victim and hero, but also the story of his wife, Kathy, who converted to Islam as well as the support of his extended family in Syria, his Syrian childhood, and the legacy of his dead father and brother.

Eggers had experience with interviewing victims of trauma. His prior book, “What is the What” (2006), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. It told the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee from the Sudanese civil war.

Eggers said victims open up and become comfortable telling their stories once they understand that someone truly is listening to their unique perspective and wanting to capture it authentically.

Worried that Zeitoun possibly could be the subject of hate crime, Eggers cautioned Zeitoun about using his real name and his real business in the book. Zeitoun told Eggers that he wanted to be correctly identified, though. For Zeitoun, the story, despite its humiliations, was a source of pride, a situation that was a calling from God for him.

Eggers learned about Islam and studied the Quran in order to accurately portray in the book Zeitoun’s deep spiritual belief.

Eggers said he thought it was “valuable and interesting for a lot of readers” to read portions of the Quran in the book.

Zeitoun’s wrongful incarceration ties in with Eggers’ previous work on that subject. The first Voice of Witness book published in 2005 was “Surviving Justice: America’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated.”

Zeitoun’s arrest, one of many in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in which citizens were not given due process, was “a moment in time when we (as a nation) could have done better on a lot of levels,” Eggers said. “Ideally, we learn from it.”

Since the events of the book, Zeitoun has bought a second canoe (his first had disappeared by the time he returned home) and he and his wife have had another child. He also has rebuilt almost 200 homes, Eggers said.

The Zeitoun family has filed a lawsuit relating to their ordeal but doesn’t except compensation from it.

Eggers said the encouraging letters and e-mails Zeitoun and his family have received since the book was published have been "restorative and healing” for them.

Eggers said he is not taking any book royalties for “Zeitoun.” When he receives author proceeds, he splits them into 13 chunks to distribute among nonprofits focused on rebuilding and interfaith dialog in New Orleans.

When asked during a brief question and answer period how Eggers’s experience of Zeitoun’s faith has affected him and any subsequent writing plans he said “my own sense of faith/spirituality is, I hope, irrelevant.

“My job here is as a storyteller,” he said.

Eggers studied journalism at the University of Illinois and said he put on his journalist’s hat in writing "Zeitoun."

He said he studied Norman Mailer’s “The Executioner’s Song” to assess how to “get out the way” of his story, admitting that “the humility involved is kind of burdensome.”

Eggers praised One Book Sacramento for keeping literary life and publishing alive.

He said he was “incredibly honored” that his book was selected. “It means the world to me.”

Starting in September, related One Book Sacramento events have included book club discussions, film screenings, art projects for school-aged children, writing workshops, a jazz concert, safety fairs, disaster preparedness information and emergency training.

Remaining One Book events are book club discussions on Oct. 28 at North Natomas Library from 7:30-8:30 p.m. and Oct. 30 at Rancho Cordova Library from 2 - 3 p.m.

Discussion questions are available for download from the Library’s website.

There will be a discussion of the audio book of “Zeitoun” on Nov. 13 at Carmichael Library at 10 a.m.

ArtWorks will facilitate Mardi Gras mask making on Oct. 27 at the Rio Linda Library at 4 p.m. and Oct. 28 at the Franklin Community Library in Elk Grove at 3:30 p.m.

Arthur Tricia Brown will discuss her book, “Salaam: A Muslim American Boy’s Story” on Oct. 23 at the Rancho Cordova Library at 1 p.m.

“Zeitoun” was selected for 2010 One Book Sacramento in March. Past books have included Steven Lopez’s “The Soloist,” Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin’s “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time” and John Lescroart’s “The Suspect.”