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WNBA-SF News
An Evening with WNBA-SF Authors
The March 29 WNBS-SF reading at our sponsoring book store, BookShop West Portal, was such a great
success that we're doing it again at 7pm on Thursday, June 7. It will be a diverse and
intriguing evening as several members of the Women's National Book Association San Francisco
Chapter will read from their recent works in various genres. They include:
| DIANA CHAMBERS, author of the acclaimed spy novels,
Stinger and The Company She Keeps. |
| ELAINE DALLMAN, whose poetry will appear in the forthcoming
Nevada: Literature of the Silver State. |
 JOAN GELFAND, winner of the Chaffin Fiction Award.
Gelfand, whose poems have been published in The New York Times
Magazine and Vanity Fair, will read from Seeking
Center. |
| DIANE LEBOW, president of the Bay Area Travel Writers, reading
from Greece: A Love Story: Women Write about the Greek Experience (Camille
Cusumano, ed.). |
| JENNIFER SWEENEY, winner of the Street Rag Poetry Book Award,
sharing poetry from Salt Memory. |
| DANNA WILBERG, author of The Red Chair, a novel about a
psychotherapist facing her own fears. |
BookShop West
Portal is located at 80 West Portal in San Francisco; open 10am-9pm daily;
415-564-8080.
Neal Sofman, owner BookShop West Portal, is promoting our WNBA-SF readings on his website as
well as through flyers and posters featuring author photos along with book covers. We hope to
have similar events in the future. If interested in participating, contact WNBA-SF's Writers Reading
Coordinator for more details. Published work is not a criteria; works in progress can
greatly benefit from a public reading during the writing process.
You're Invited to a
Gathering of
Readers & Writers
10am-4pm, Saturday, June 16, 2007
San Mateo Library, 55 W Third Ave, San Mateo
in the Oak Room, first floor (650-522-7800)Optional donations are much
appreciated to cover the costs of putting on this event, but admission is
free.
The intent of this workshop is to bring us together. The WNBA San Francisco
Chapter has close to 100 members, representing a wealth of ideas, knowledge and
experience. Presentations will include marketing and technical presentations on
everything from promoting and selling online to new computer software, insights
on speaking skills from a veteran Toastmaster and a panel discussion by WNBA-SF
board members, as well as sacred circle dancing and brain gym exercises for a bit
of fun that will spark our creativity.
Schedule
- 10am, Opening remarks by President Mary Knippel
- 10:30am, Sacred Circle Dancing
- 11am, Pam Swingley, Internet Marketing
- 12pm, Brain Gym® and Lunch Break
- 12:30pm, Writers Panel: Martha Alderson, Joan Gelfand, Teresa LeYung
Ryan
- 1:30pm, Linda Lee, Putting Your Book on the Web
- 2:30pm, Toastmasters Presentation by Brendan Murphy
- 3pm, Presentation on "Dragon Speaking” hands-free writing software
- 3:30pm, Audience Comments and Networking.
Bring your own lunch, dress casual and have a chance to share your views.
Each member is encouraged to bring a guest to this wonderful opportunity to gain
insights, ask questions and share experiences. Many thanks go to WNBA-SF
Membership Chair Mary Anne (Shyne) Lunning, for creating and coordinating this
exciting event. Join us at this Workshop/Forum and begin something new and
exciting for our burgeoning and blossoming organization!
To make reservations or for more informaiton, contact Shyne.
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Come Sell in Sonoma County
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Meet book-oriented folks, from readers to other writers, while
selling your books in the WNBA-SF booth at the Eighth Annual Sonoma County Book
Festival in downtown Santa Rosa on Saturday, Sept. 15. This event is growing
in attendance and popularity each year. In addition to the booth exhibitors, there
are always many speakers, readers and panel presentations. |
E-mail Teresa LeYung
Ryan as soon as possible if you're interested. The festival will be held in the
Old Courthouse Square in downtown Santa Rosa on Saturday, Sept. 15, from 10am-5pm. The cost is
$25 to participate in the WNBA-SF booth (which includes a canopy, one 8-foot table and two
chairs). The first eight members who email Teresa will have priority.
We need four members to staff the booth from 10am-1:30pm, and four members from 1:30-5pm. Your
book will be displayed all day; table space will be equally divided to accommodate all eight
members who pay $25 each. For more information about the festival, visit the Sonoma County Book Festival web
site.
Planning Together July 15
Come to the Coast! Everyone is invited and encouraged to come and give your thoughts to help
shape the future of WNBA-SF. Mark your calendar for a Summer Board Retreat from 10am-4pm on
July 15 in Half Moon Bay. It will be a board meeting, get acquainted session,
mini-retreat, strategy session and long-range planning all rolled into one day. We'll do creative
brainstorming at the home of WNBA-SF President Mary E. Knippel. Lots of tea and good things to
eat. Contact Mary
by July 10 with agenda items and to let her know you will be attending.
WNBA-SF board meetings are generally held on the first Thursday of the month from 6-8pm at the
Café at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. However, the June meeting will be pre-empted
by our reading night at Bookshop West Portal, so be sure to join the WNBA-SF board for its
planning session on July 15.
Auction Postponed
Good News! If you were among the many who responded positively to the plans for a social event
combined with a fundraiser and had a conflict on our May 20 date, you are in luck. The Sunset
Social and Silent Auction planned for May 20 has been postponed until the fall. So you'll have a
chance to get acquainted with your fellow WNBA-SF members, sample some great food, toast to our
good health with a glass of wine and bid on incredibly enticing items.
We have some fantastic auction items aimed to please a wide audience. Several items in
particular would be especially appreciated by the aspiring author, or an accomplished author who
wants to become more polished. Who wouldn't want a chance to take a fiction writing class with
Tom Parker, have their short story accessed by Ellen Sussman, take up residence in a Paris
apartment, or meet with non-fiction agent Robert Shepard? And raise funds to support WNBA-SF
programs! See you next fall!
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In This Issue
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Welcome
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Welcome to the June 2007 edition of Bookworm, with news and events highlighting San Francisco
WNBA members!
"I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork."—Peter De Vries
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From Our Chapter President
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Dear WNBA-SF Friends,
As I write this I am preparing to go to the WNBA National Board meeting in
Boston, which means I'm writing a status report about our accomplishments this
past year. The WNBA-SF Board has worked hard to bring our members programs of
interest to them filled with professionalism and delivered with enthusiasm.
Geography and our busy lives keep many of our members from attending these
programs. As much as technology enhances our lives, I believe personal contact,
face-to-face gatherings, are the key to consistent relationships. Laughing
together about a current malady, pats on the back over one another's
accomplishments, offering smiles of encouragement, exchanging loud and boisterous
ideas, learning subtle professional nuances by observing body language—these are
things you cannot obtain through a computer cable.
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Mary E. Knippel
Sharie Cohen Photography |
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It is a complicated challenge to address the needs of such a diverse group as the
many members of this chapter. It is a task I shall do my best to satisfy. Please
join me on July 15 for the Summer Board Retreat at my home in Half Moon Bay to
plan the future of WNBA-SF.
Be well,
Mary
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Member Profile: Bookworm talks to Ellen Sussman, editor of Bad Girls
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 WNBA-SF member Ellen Sussman's anthology, Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave,
a collection of literary essays by 26 women writers, will be published by W.W. Norton in
July, 2007. "I behave badly to set myself apart. To test myself. To push myself. To prove
something. To shock someone...I behave badly because I can." That's how Ellen Sussman
describes her deviant endeavors. To better understand them, she's invited 25 other bad girls
together to share their stories. Ann Hood lies, Mary Roach confesses. Erica Jong, the
original bad girl, challenges her own claim to that fame. Susan Cheever almost flunks out of
prep school and then flunks her chance at redemption. Caroline Leavitt marries and cheats.
Pam Houston behaves badly at her father's funeral. Daphne Merkin measures the penis. There's
a kind of energy that gets generated when bad girls get together. These pages bristle with
danger. The writers are digging deep—bad behavior lies in their souls. And what they bring to
the surface reveals truths about our psyches and our society.
Ellen is the author of the novel, On a Night Like This (Warner Books, 2004), which
became a San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller and has been translated into six languages. It
will soon be a Lifetime film. Ellen also has an essay, "Invite the Bitch to Dinner," in the
anthology, The Other Woman, (Grand Central Publishing, June, 2007) and an essay "What I
Gave Up" in the upcoming anthology For Keeps (Seal Press, December 2007). Her short
stories have appeared in literary and commercial magazines. She teaches private classes in the
San Francisco Bay area, and will be on a book tour this summer. For information about her tour,
and more about her work, visit Ellen's web site.
- When did you start writing?
- I've been writing since I was six! My older sister collected my short stories for a
college project—I had written a dozen (very short) stories by the time I was eight. I've
always wanted to be a writer and though I needed day jobs along the way, I was pretty
singularly focused on writing. I sold short stories to literary magazines in my twenties. My
first big break came at 30 when I won the Redbook Short Story Contest. But I didn't publish
my first novel until my 40's.
- Why did you choose your particular genre?
- I've always been a fiction writer—until a couple of years ago. I wrote an essay for
Newsweek's My Turn column, and became interested in the personal essay. I was then
asked to contribute to a few anthologies. I wrote an essay about middle aged sex for Kiss
Tomorrow Hello: Notes from the Midlife Underground which got a lot of attention. Now I
write both fiction and personal essays; I like moving back and forth between the genres.
- What inspired you to choose your subject matter?
- I was driving over Route17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains to give a reading in Capitola for
another anthology. I thought about all the essays I had written and discovered a common
theme—they were all about my bad girl behavior. And so I thought: what if I gathered essays
from other writers about their bad girl behavior. Wouldn't it be interesting to discover what
lies beneath our deviant acts?
- How difficult / easy has your experience been as a published author?
- I was very lucky with my novel, On A Night Like This. It was sold very quickly, to
Warner Books and then sold in six other countries and to Lifetime Films. Bad Girls had
an even better start—my agent sold it in a pre-empt in 14 minutes. WW Norton bought it based
on a proposal and sample essay. I was in Nantucket when I got the news—I headed right to the
liquor store and then to the beach for a champagne celebration at sunset.
- What advice would you give other aspiring authors?
- I think that success takes talent, but it also takes stubbornness and cockiness. Somehow,
through many rejection letters, you have to keep believing in your work. And if one book
doesn't sell, you have to write the next. Find a supportive writers group or class. Find
supportive friends. Read as much good literature as you can—we can always learn from the
masters.
Are you a WNBA-SF member and published author? Would you like to share your story with
WNBA-SF? Contact newsletter editor Patricia Lynn
Henley about being featured in the Member Profile section of the
BookWorm.
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Member News
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Chance Meetings that Tied the Knot: Finding Love When Least Expected (The Newman
Group, Ltd., 2006, ISBN 0977385302, $17.95) by WNBA-SF member Jan Newman was awarded a
bronze medal in the sexuality/relationship category of the 11th Annual Independent Publisher
National and Regional Book Awards on June 1. Entries for this award come from independently
published books with 2006 copyrights or that were released in 2006. A total of 2,690 national
entries came from all 50 U.S. states, eight Canadian provinces, and 17 countries overseas. Jan
was in New York to attend Book Expo as well as personally receiving this award. Jan's book is
based upon a chance meeting that occurred in 1968. She met her husband unexpectedly and has been
truly, madly, deeply in love with him ever since. Contact her via email or visit her web site.
Similar congratulations go to WNBA-SF member Amy Gorman, whose book Artfully
Aging: 12 Profiles of Visual and Performing Women Artists 85-105 also garnered a bronze medal
from the Independent Publisher National and Regional Book Awards. Amy's book won its honors in
the category of Women's Issues. Amy's book and web site chronicle her journey
with older women artists whom she met and conversed with over a period of four years. Whether you
call it healthy aging, creative aging, successful aging or just plain aging well, the women in
Amy's book, exemplify the process.
Taking July Off
The WNBA-SF chapter newsletter, the BookWorm, is published the first of every
month—except the newsletter will be on vacation for the month of July. Our next issue will
be emailed Aug. 1, 2007. We love to announce members' publications, articles, book-signings,
workshops, awards or other milestones. The deadline for submissions is the 20th of each
month; please send items to newsletter@wnba-sfchapter.org. (If you don't receive a "got it” response
within a few days of sending your e-mail, please try again.
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Announcements
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Transforming Grief into Potent Writing with authors Teresa LeYung Ryan and Lynn Scott
Sponsored by the California Writers Club-Redwood Branch
When: Sunday, June 3, 4-6pm
Where: at the Arts Council of Sonoma County Gallery, 529 5th St, Santa Rosa.
Cost: $3 donation CWC members and $5 non-members.
Click for registration or more information
Details: Wouldn't we all like to transform our grief (loss of identity, purpose, innocence, a
loved one) into inspiration for ourselves and others? How lucky that we as writers are able to
craft stories from inside out, breathing life into our characters that touches the reader's
heart. This is a hands-on workshop (for fiction and non-fiction) to elicit the creativity waiting
to emerge from the depths of pain. For more information about the instructors, visit Teresa's web site and
Lynn's web site.
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From Our Literacy Liaison
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Dear WNBA-SF Chapter Members,
What is Project Read's mission? To provide free instruction in basic reading and
writing thereby enabling adults to access greater opportunities in their lives. If you are
interested in the San Francisco chapter of Project Read, their training schedule is below. If
you're interested in other locations, please email me.
Those wishing to attend a training session must first call the Project Read office at
415-557-4388 so we may collect contact information and mail a welcome containing important
materials. The training is held in the Latino-Hispanic Meeting Room on the lower level of the
main library. 100 Larking St (except for the May training at the Bayview Library).
When training is completed, tutors are matched with one adult learner, primarily according to
when they can meet, and then the tutor/learner pair is expected to meet once a week for
approximately twohours. Most decide to meet at the main library where rooms are available and the
program's computer lab/office is located, but now and then they may meet at branch libraries as
well as other neutral locations.
July 2007 Tutor Training:
Tuesday, 7/10: Tutor Orientation – 6-7:30, L58A
Thursday, 7/12: Training Session #1 – 6–8:30, L58B
Tuesday, 7/17: Training Session #2 – 6–8:30, L58B
Thursday, 7/19: Training Session #3 – 6–8:30, L58B
Tuesday, 7/24: Training Session #4 – 6–8:30, L58B
Thursday, 7/26: Training Session #5 – 6–8:30, L58B
September 2007 Tutor Training:
Tuesday, 9/11: Tutor Orientation – 6–7:30, L58A
Thursday, 9/13: Training Session #1 – 6-8:30, L58B
Tuesday, 9/18: Training Session #2 – 6–8:30, L58B
Thursday, 9/20: Training Session #3 – 6-8:30, L58B
Tuesday, 9/25: Training Session #4 – 6–8:30, L58B
Thursday, 9/27: Training Session #5 – 6–8:30, L58B
November 2007 Tutor Training:
Saturday, 11/3: Tutor Orientation & Training Pt. 1 – 10-4, L58B
Saturday, 11/17: Tutor Training Pt. 2 – 10–4, L58B
Even if WNBA members can't commit to being tutors, we can support Project Read by talking
about the phenomenal work these folks do. Tell everyone about the wonderful services Project Read
provides to English-speaking adults—from their free one-to-one tutoring to their easy-to-use
computer lab to their Language Experience Technique (whereby an adult learner tells his/her
stories to the tutor who writes down what he/she hears; adult learner then learns to read his/her
own stories!) Details can be found here.
If you decide to get involved, I'd love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Teresa LeYung Ryan, LiteracyLiaison@wnba-sfchapter.org
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