JOIN US ON NOVEMBER 2
FOR
READINGS, SIGNINGS AND SALES !
ABLE , MARGOT, OLIVER CHARLES, FRANCISCO
AND MORE
WILL BE THERE!
Friday, October 11, 2024
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
UPCOMING SRWA CLASSES AND EVENTS WITH GINI AND SHERYL
CALLING ALL WRITERS AND POETS AND THOSE WHO ARE WORKING ON IT
SAN RAFAEL WRITERS AND ARTISTS (SRWA)
HAS TWO CLASSES/EVENTS COMING UP!
FIRST: ON AUGUST 31, 2024
A FREE 90 MINUTE INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP
ON
THE CHALLENGE OF WRITING THE SEQUEL
WITH PUBLISHED AUTHORS OF SEQUELS AND SERIES
GINI GROSSENBACHER AND SHERYL J. BIZE-BOUTTE
ONLINE VIA ZOOM
AUGUST 31, 2024
3:00 PM-4:30 PM PDT
SEE MORE INFORMATION AND HOW TO REGISTER HERE:
********
SECOND: ON WEDNESDAY EVENINGS FROM 6 PM-8 PM
SEPTEMBER 11, 18 AND 25
THREE KEYS TO POETRY: SOUND, SENSE AND TWIST
interactive workshop infused with poetic inspirations from Sheryl ,Gini, and Dr. Jeanne, and participant poetry readings
WITH GUEST SPEAKER
JEANNE POWELL, PhD
$30.00 PER WEEK + TEXTBOOK, PAY AS YOU GO
ENROLLMENT OPEN SOON VIA EVENTBRITE
********
Wednesday, August 7, 2024
Monday, August 5, 2024
THE CHALLENGE OF WRITING THE SEQUEL
SAN RAFAEL WRITERS AND ARTISTS
PRESENTS
A FREE 90 MINUTE INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP
ON
THE CHALLENGE OF WRITING THE SEQUEL
WITH PUBLISHED AUTHORS OF SEQUELS AND SERIES
GINI GROSSENBACHER AND SHERYL J. BIZE-BOUTTE
ONLINE VIA ZOOM
AUGUST 31, 2024
3:00 PM-4:30 PM PDT
SEE MORE INFORMATION AND HOW TO REGISTER HERE:
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
WRITERS LUNCH AT THE MECHANICS INSTITUTE-MY LAST ONE FOR 2024
JOIN ME AND A WONDERFUL PANEL OF WRITERS
AT THE MECHANICS INSTITUTE
VIA ZOOM
ON JUNE 21, 2024
FROM 12:00 PM -1:00 PM
FOR THE WRITERS LUNCH
WRITING A GREAT ESSAY
Dr. NIGEL HATTON, Associate Professor at UC Merced, specializes in literature, philosophy, and human rights. His research and teaching span the areas of literature and philosophy, human rights and literature, critical refugee studies, and narrative medicine. Dr. Hatton received the dual Ph.D. in Modern Thought & Literature and The Humanities with a PhD minor in Political Theory from Stanford University, and master’s degrees from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Jesuit University of San Francisco. He has volunteered as an instructor, tutor, and consultant in California prisons since 2003 and occasionally lectures in the Narrative Medicine program at Columbia University. Dr. Hatton teaches undergraduate courses such as "Human Rights & Literature," "Toni Morrison & James Baldwin," and "Literature & Philosophy." This coming fall, Dr. Hatton will lead a five-part seminar on James Baldwin at Mechanics' Institute, starting with James Baldwin's life and essays before moving into Baldwin's novels.
A California born, granddaughter of immigrants, documented and undocumented, devorah major was San Francisco’s Third Poet Laureate. She is a poet, novelist, short story writer and essayist. She has seven books of poetry, four poetry chapbooks, two novels, two biographies for young adults, and a host of short stories, essays, and individual poems published in anthologies and periodicals. Most recently, seven essays by her have been published in the Legion of Honor’s 100th Anniversary Catalogue released this year and the De Young Museum’s 125th anniversary catalog released in 2022. A baker of pies and lover of jazz her poetry has carried her to many countries where she has performed with and without musicians. In 2022 she received Italy’s Regina Coppola International Literary Award. A Willow Press Editor’s Choice, her seventh book of poetry, Califia’s Daughter, was published by Willow Press. She will put down her pen to march, act, and call for justice.
Dr. JEANNE POWELL is a published poet and essayist. Her books include Carousel from Regent Press, and Deeply Notched Leaves from Taurean Horn Press. She was the long-time host for "Celebration of the Word," a weekly open mic in San Francisco. Her small press has published 20 local authors in 20 years. Dr. Jeanne's film essays appear at starkinsider.com/author/jeannep. She has taught in the Upward Bound Project at University of San Francisco and in OLLI classes at San Francisco State University. She has been featured in the Quiet Lightning series at Museum of African Diaspora and in the Poetic Tuesdays series from Litquake. She is a graduate of the Rooted & Written program at SF Writers Grotto and the Anaphora Arts residency. Dr Jeanne holds degrees from Wayne State University and University of San Francisco.
This event will be conducted via Zoom. Register and you will be emailed the Zoom credentials.
About the Moderator
Award-winning author and Pushcart Prize nominee Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte is an Oakland multidisciplinary writer whose autobiographical and fictional short story collections, along with her lyrical and stunning poetry, artfully succeed in getting across deeper meanings about the politics of race and economics without breaking out of the narrative. Her writing has been variously described as “rich in vivid imagery,” “incredible,” and “great contributions to literature.” Her first novel, Betrayal on the Bayou, was published in June 2020 and a poetry collection she has written with her daughter Dr. Angela M. Boutte, titled No Poetry No Peace™, was published in August 2020 and is the namesake of the No Poetry No Peace™ series at the Mechanics Institute of San Francisco. Her in progress novel first chapter, “The Burden Keeper,” was the 2021 fiction category winner for the San Francisco Writers Conference writing contest anthology. An inaugural Oakland Poet Laureate runner-up, she is also a popular teacher, literary reader, presenter, storyteller, curator, and emcee/host for literary and poetry events. Find out more at www.sheryljbize-boutte.com/
Join us, share, and learn!
REGISTER HERE:
https://www.milibrary.org/events/writers-lunch-writing-great-essay-jun-21-2024
Special note to my friends and supporters:
Recently the Mechanics Institute decided to end the Writers Lunch after July 2024. However, my last Writer's Lunch will be June 21, 2024 and I hope you can join me. My work with M.I. has been a pleasure and a wonderful opportunity. I hope I helped some writers along the way. Watch this space for other places I will turn up and turn it up cause you know, she don't stop!
Saturday, May 4, 2024
MAY 11-AN EVENING WITH RUMI AT THE BEAT MUSEUM
AN EVENING WITH RUMI
MAY 11, 2024
AT THE BEAT MUSEUM
540 BROADWAY
SAN FRANCISCO
7:00 PM
WRITERS LUNCH ON MAY 17, 2024
JOIN US AT THE MECHANICS INSTITUTE
VIA ZOOM
ON
MAY 17 AT 12:00 PM
FOR THE WRITERS LUNCH
CRAFTING BOOKS AND STORIES FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH
MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTER HERE:
Saturday, April 13, 2024
NO POETRY NO PEACE AT THE MECHANICS INSTITUTE APRIL 29, 2024-ZOOM
COME AND CELEBRATE NATIONAL POETRY MONTH WITH US!
No Poetry No Peace™A Reading and Celebration of Human Poetic Expression, hosted by Sheryl J. Bize Boutte.
Monday, April 29, 2024 - 6:00 pm
Online via ZoomJoin us and a selection of poets – some local, some far flung - to explore how "poetry provides pathways for creative and cathartic human expression and peace." The No Poetry No Peace™ title comes from a collection written by Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte and her daughter Dr. Angela Boutte.
Poets' Biographies
Aileen Cassinetto is a Filipino American poet and 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. The author of two poetry collections, her work has appeared in American Poets, Anthropocene, Poetry magazine, and West Trestle Review, among others. She co-edited the award-winning anthology, Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States, a companion to the congressionally-mandated Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), and wrote the lyrics to “Wide American Earth” which premiered at Carnegie Hall in June 2023.
Lisa DeVuono is a poet living in Philadelphia. She was one of the founders of It Ain’t Pretty, a women’s writing collective that performed locally. She produced multi-media shows incorporating song, music, poetry, and dance, including Rumi in Song at the Sedgwick Theater; and Whole Heart Home, and Breaking Open Breaking Free, part of the IceHouse Tonight series in Bethlehem. She has led creativity and poetry workshops and has worked with teens in recovery and cancer patients. She wrote a peer-based curriculum Poetry as a Tool for Recovery: An Easy-to-Use Guide in Eight Sessions for facilitators working with persons living with mental health challenges. In addition to the full-length manuscript This Time Roots, Next Time Wings, her poetry has appeared in Mad Poets Review, Paterson Literary Review, and the anthology Grit Gravity & Grace: New Poems about Medicine and Healthcare. She is the author of the chapbook Poems from the Playground of Risk published by Pudding House Press and was the recipient of an honorable mention in Passaic County Community College’s annual Allen Ginsberg Contest. Recently retired, she enjoyed a career as a librarian.
Benjamin Gucciardi was born and raised in San Francisco, California. His first book, West Portal (University of Utah Press, 2021), was selected by Gabrielle Calvocoressi for the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry and was named a finalist for the Northern California Book Award and the Julie Suk Award. He is also the author of the chapbooks Timeless Tips for Simple Sabotage (Quarterly West, 2021) and I Ask My Sister’s Ghost (DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press, 2020). His poems appear in 32 Poems, AGNI, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, POETRY Magazine, and elsewhere, and have been featured in On Being’s Poetry Unbound, Poetry Daily, and Verse Daily. He has received the James Dickey Poetry Prize from Five Points, the Booth Prize for Unexpected Literature, the Milton Kessler Memorial Prize from Harpur Palate, the Long Story Prize from Iron Horse Literary Review, and a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg prize, as well as awards from the Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Jentel Foundation, PLAYA, and Artsmith. In addition to writing, he works with newcomer youth in Oakland, California through Soccer Without Borders, an organization he founded in 2006.
Lucille Lang Day is the author of four poetry chapbooks and seven full-length collections, including Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place and Becoming an Ancestor. She has also edited Poetry and Science: Writing Our Way to Discovery, coedited Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California, and Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California, and authored two children’s books and a memoir, Married at Fourteen: A True Story. Her many honors include the Blue Light Poetry Prize, two PEN Oakland – Josephine Miles Literary Awards, the Joseph Henry Jackson Award, and eleven Pushcart Prize nominations. The publisher of Scarlet Tanager Books, she lives in Oakland, California.
O'Cyrus is an award-winning author and independent book publisher, writing/publishing poetry books such as Sacred and childrens' books such as Goodbye John. In 2023, he launched his podcast Ocyrus Ink. O'Cyrus' goal is to utilize his platform to tell stories that will positively impact people's lives, help them identify their own gifts, and live in their purpose to add true value into the world. He is actively serving in the military.
Noah Warren is the author of The Complete Stories (Copper Canyon, 2021) and The Destroyer in the Glass (2016), winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets. His poems appear in The Nation, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, POETRY, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. A PhD candidate at UC Berkeley, he teaches at Claremont McKenna College and lives in Los Angeles.
About the Host
Award-winning author and Pushcart Prize nominee Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte is an Oakland multidisciplinary writer whose autobiographical and fictional short story collections, along with her lyrical and stunning poetry, artfully succeed in getting across deeper meanings about the politics of race and economics without breaking out of the narrative. Her writing has been variously described as “rich in vivid imagery,” “incredible,” and “great contributions to literature.” Her first novel, Betrayal on the Bayou, was published in June 2020 and a poetry collection she has written with her daughter Dr. Angela M. Boutte, titled No Poetry No Peace™, was published in August 2020 and is the namesake of the No Poetry No Peace™ series at the Mechanics Institute of San Francisco. Her in progress novel first chapter, “The Burden Keeper,” was the 2021 fiction category winner for the San Francisco Writers Conference writing contest anthology. An inaugural Oakland Poet Laureate runner-up, she is also a popular teacher, literary reader, presenter, storyteller, curator, and emcee/host for literary and poetry events.
REGISTER HERE:
https://www.milibrary.org/events/no-poetry-no-peace%E2%84%A2-apr-29-2024#tickets
Saturday, April 6, 2024
JUST PUBLISHED! WRITE QUICKS: SHORT STORIES
JUST PUBLISHED!
WRITE QUICKS: SHORT STORIES
ABOUT A 20 MINUTE READ THAT YOU CAN DO "WRITE QUICK"
DOWNLOAD AND DIVE IN!
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
DO YOU KNOW WHAT CONNIE SAID?
THIS IS WHAT CONNIE D. SAID
ABOUT
BACK TO THE BAYOU: THE TASSIN VALLEY SAGA CONTINUES
"I just finished it and was captivated throughout. It is a great Summer read filled with familiar points of interest, plot twists, and interesting surprises. "
GET YOUR COPY AT THE LINK BELOW
ALONG WITH THE FIRST INSTALLMENT
BETRAYAL ON THE BAYOU
Thursday, March 21, 2024
MECHANICS INSTITUTE WRITERS LUNCH APRIL 19, 2024
Friday, April 19, 2024 - 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
VIA ZOOM
Join Mechanics' Institute for a discussion on the topic "Ecological Awareness in Writing" with Viola Buitoni, Kevin Hobbs, and Obi Kaufmann. This event will be moderated by Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte.
This special session of Writers' Lunch celebrates the intersection of National Garden Month (April) and Earth Day (April 22).
Friday, April 19 at 12:00 pm online via Zoom.
FREE - all are welcome!
REGISTER HERE:
https://www.milibrary.org/events/writers-lunch-ecological-awareness-writing-apr-19-2024#tickets
Questions?
Nico Chen - 415-393-0103
O'CYRUS INK PODCAST INTERVIEW!
HEAR MY INTERVIEW
WITH
AUTHOR, POET AND PUBLISHER
O'CYRUS
ON THE
O'CYRUS INK PODCAST
LISTEN HERE:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ocyrus-ink-podcast/id1708054522?i=1000649621722
Monday, March 11, 2024
BACK TO THE BAYOU: THE TASSIN VALLEY SAGA CONTINUES
IS IN THE TOP 100 (#52) ON AMAZON KINDLE TODAY
IN BLACK AND AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY!
- Best Sellers Rank: #157,494 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #52 in Black & African American History (Kindle Store)
- #116 in Black & African American Historical Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #236 in Black & African American Historical Fiction (Books)
Friday, March 8, 2024
JOIN US FOR THE WRITERS' LUNCH MARCH 15, 2024
JOIN US ON ZOOM
FOR
THE WRITERS' LUNCH
AT
THE MECHANICS INSTITUTE LIBRARY
Friday, March 15, 2024 - 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Writers' Lunch: Crossing Languages in Writing
moderated by Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte
Join Mechanics' Institute for a discussion on the topic "Crossing Languages in Writing" with Cristina GarcÃa, Grace Loh Prasad, and Saskia Vogel.
REGISTER HERE:
Admission:
Members - Free
Public - Free
Hope to see you there!
Sheryl
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
They're Baaaaaaack! Back to the Bayou!
THEY'RE BAAAAAAACK!
WHAT HAPPENED WITH 2020'S BETRAYAL ON THE BAYOU'S UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS IN THE "IN BETWEEN'S" AND THE "AFTERS?"
WHAT COULD HAPPEN NEXT?
FIND OUT IN MY NEW BOOK
BACK TO THE BAYOU:
THE TASSIN VALLEY SAGA CONTINUES
AVAILABLE HERE:
IF YOU HAVEN'T READ BETRAYAL ON THE BAYOU YET...
GET YOUR COPY OF BETRAYAL ON THE BAYOU HERE:
HAPPY READING!
SJBB
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
COMING SOON! BACK TO THE BAYOU:THE TASSIN VALLEY SAGA CONTINUES
COMING SOON
BACK TO THE BAYOU: THE TASSIN VALLEY SAGA CONTINUES
BETA READERS ARE ALREADY PRAISING
BACK TO THE BAYOU: THE TASSIN VALLEY SAGA CONTINUES
"I found reading about (the characters) intriguing, entertaining and couldn't wait for what would happen next."
"It kept me turning the page."
IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE FIRST INSTALLMENT: BETRAYAL ON THE BAYOU
ORDER YOUR COPY HERE:
AND WATCH THIS SPACE
FOR UPDATES
ON
BACK TO THE BAYOU:THE TASSIN VALLEY SAGA CONTINUES
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
HOW TO CRAFT A BIO:JANUARY 19-MECHANICS INSTITUTE WRITERS LUNCH
JOIN US
VIA ZOOM
JANUARY 19, 2024
12:00 PM-1:00 PM
FOR THE
MECHANICS INSTITUTE LIBRARY OF SAN FRANCISCO
WRITERS LUNCH
ON
HOW TO CRAFT A BIO
With
Joey Garcia, Gini Grossenbacher, and Gillian Hamel
This event will be moderated by Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte
REGISTER HERE FOR THIS FREE EVENT:
https://www.milibrary.org/events/writers-lunch-how-craft-bio-jan-19-2024#tickets
Friday, January 5, 2024
MOMMY AND ME
MOMMY (LOOK IN THE CAR WINDOW)
AND ME
LOVE LIVES FOREVER
HER GRAPEVINE, PLANTED IN MY BACKYARD BY MY DAD IN 1981,STILL PRODUCES CALIFORNIA WINE COUNTRY GRAPES EVERY YEAR
THIS GRAPEVINE IS
A REMINDER OF THE BOUNTY AND LEGACY OF MOM'S ALL TO SHORT TIME HERE WITH US, AND A LIVING MESSAGE OF THE EVERLASTING LOVE WE WILL ALWAYS SHARE
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