37 posts in category Member Spotlight

Our Featured Member program is now called “Member Spotlight.” At our monthly speaker series, we start by spending 15 minutes with one of our own, learning how they got to this point, hearing them read from their works, and asking questions. Each of them is interviewed for a blog post, and here they all are!

Meet Our Late-Blooming Ekphrastic Poet, Bob Stephens.

Our long-standing tradition of giving a member the mic before our keynote speaker helps us get to know what our colleagues are working on. Our 5+5+5 guidelines (5 minutes of backstory, 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes of Q&A) help emerging writers polish their professional skills. Bob Stephens will take the Member Spotlight before our February speaker, Gala Russ. Get tickets here. Bob Stephens is a late bloomer. A native of California, he has a Bachelor of Science in English ...

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Rocky Leplin Rhymes with Everything

Our long-standing tradition of giving a member the mic before our keynote speaker helps us get to know what our colleagues are working on. Our 5+5+5 guidelines (5 minutes of backstory, 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes of Q&A) help emerging writers polish their professional skills. Rocky Leplin will be in the Member Spotlight before our January speaker, Mel Lee Smith.  Author, poet, composer, and publisher Rocky Leplin is the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants, and comes from ...

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Gerry McDermott is Happiest at High Altitudes

Our long-standing tradition of giving a member the mic before our keynote speaker helps us get to know what our colleagues are working on. Our 5+5+5 guidelines (5 minutes of backstory, 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes of Q&A) help emerging writers polish their professional skills. Gerry McDermott was in the Member Spotlight before our November speaker, Lyzette Wanzer.  Gerry McDermott is Scottish by birth and American on purpose. He grew up in a small village called Holytown, ...

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John Byrne Barry Brings Sausalito History to Life

Our long-standing tradition of giving a member the mic before our keynote speaker helps us get to know what our colleagues are working on. Our 5+5+5 guidelines (5 minutes of backstory, 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes of Q&A) help emerging writers polish their professional skills. Celebrating California Writers Week, we are thrilled to feature a member who writes about California History! John Byrne Barry will be in the Member Spotlight before our October speaker, Isidra Mencos. ...

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Lenore Weiss Writes with Experience, Depth & Creativity

Our long-standing tradition of giving a member the mic before our keynote speaker helps us get to know what our colleagues are working on. Our 5+5+5 guidelines (5 minutes of backstory, 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes of Q&A) help emerging writers polish their professional skills. Lenore Weiss will take the Member Spotlight before our September speaker, Cheral Stivers. Get tickets here. Lenore Weiss is a passionate and accomplished writer with a diverse background in ...

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Ayodele Nzinga is Oakland’s First Poet Laureate

Our long-standing tradition of giving a member the mic before our keynote speaker helps us get to know what our colleagues are working on. Our 5+5+5 guidelines (5 minutes of backstory, 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes of Q&A) help emerging writers polish their professional skills. Ayodele Nzinga will take the Member Spotlight before our January speaker, Kevin Fisher-Paulson. Get tickets here. Oakland’s Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD, is a Transformative Artist Educator and ...

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Sarah Abbett is Uniquely Unique.

Our long-standing tradition of giving a member the mic before our keynote speaker helps us get to know what our colleagues are working on. Our 5+5+5 guidelines (5 minutes of backstory, 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes of Q&A) help emerging writers polish their professional skills. Sarah Abbett will take the Member Spotlight before our November speaker, Susan Neufeld Paul. Get tickets here. A second generation Bay Area native, Sarah Abbett grew up loving reading; writing ...

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Sandy Bliss’s motto was “Equanimity Through Adversity”

Our long-standing tradition of giving a member the mic before our keynote speaker helps us get to know what our colleagues are working on. Our 5+5+5 guidelines (5 minutes of backstory, 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes of Q&A) help emerging writers polish their professional skills. This month, three of her colleagues will bring Sandy Bliss to the Member Spotlight before our September speaker, Bronwyn Emery. Get tickets here. When community organizer Sandy Bredt joined the ...

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Meet Kazue Watanabe

Our long-standing tradition of giving a member the mic before our keynote speaker helps us get to know what our colleagues are working on. Our 5+5+5 guidelines (5 minutes of backstory, 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes of Q&A) help emerging writers polish their professional skills. Kazue Watanabe will take the Member Spotlight before our April speaker, John Curl. Get tickets here. I was born in Hokkaido, a northern island in Japan. I came to the United States by myself in 1994, to ...

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Kenneth Lipman author of health books

Kenneth Lipman is Writing about the Circumcision Decision

Our long-standing tradition of giving a member the mic before our keynote speaker helps us get to know what our colleagues are working on. Our 5+5+5 guidelines (5 minutes of backstory, 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes of Q&A) help emerging writers polish their professional skills. Kenneth Lipman will take the Member Spotlight before our March speaker, Ericka McIntyre. Get tickets here. Kenneth Lipman has been working on a memoir, Dancing with Chronic Fatigue (read a sample ...

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