Len Germinara is author of 6 collections of poetry. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. He was the 2003 winner of the Cambridge Poetry Award for best narrative poem. Founding member of Spoken Word Nantucket and the Moors Poetry Collective. Len ran a Spoken Word venue on Nantucket for 12 years and one in Southern Massachusetts for 4 years. In addition he has provided literacy workshops on poetry and bookbinding for a host of schools in Massachusetts and Colorado for over 15 years
Sarah Oktay works for the John Muir Institute of the Environment’s Natural Reserve System at University of California Davis as a Reserve Director for Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve and as the Director of Strategic Engagement. She received her B.S. in Marine Science and a Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from Texas A&M University – Galveston. From 2003-2016 she was the Executive Director of the University of Massachusetts-Boston Nantucket Field Station, a biological field station on Nantucket Island. Her research focuses on climate change, carbon transport and harbor processes. After 9-11, she mapped the chemical signature of the World Trade Center ash and tracked it in the Hudson River. She currently is the President of the Society of Women Geographers. Her nine years of service on the Nantucket Conservation Commission has been featured in Vanity Fair, Yankee Magazine, Cape Cod Times, ABC.com, CNN, the movie “Rising Tides”, and many other news outlets. She also was a science adviser for actor Mark Ruffalo, advising on topics such as climate change, fracking, and water quality monitoring for the non-profits he founded. She is working on three books, two non-fiction compilations of eight years of science essays from the weekly publication Yesterday’s Island on Nantucket and a memoir on finding her family in Turkey. Along with her husband, the poet Len Germinara, she funded and served as co-host for Spoken Word Nantucket for 12 years. She has dabbled a bit in poetry along the way, this will be her first public cofeature. More about Sarah can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-oktay-ba84869/
Zoom June 29th, 2020- Len Germinara and Sarah Oktay
Michele Drier Michele Drier was born in Santa Cruz and is a fifth generation Californian. During her career in journalism—as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers—she won awards for producing investigative series. She is the past president of Capitol Crimes, the Sacramento chapter of Sisters in Crime and co-chair for Bouchercon 2020 the world’s oldest and largest convention for mystery writers and fans.
Her Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries are Edited for Death, (called
“Riveting and much recommended” by the Midwest Book Review), Labeled
for Death and Delta for Death and a stand-alone, Ashes
of Memories.
Her paranormal romance series, SNAP: The Kandesky
Vampire Chronicles, was named the best paranormal vampire series of
2014 by PRG. The series is SNAP: The World Unfolds, SNAP: New Talent,
Plague:
A Love Story, Danube: A Tale of Murder , SNAP: Love for Blood, SNAP:
Happily Ever After?, SNAP: White Nights,
SNAP: All That Jazz, SNAP: I, Vampire and SNAP:
Red Bear Rising .
The first book in the Stained Glass Mysteries, Stain on the Soul, was published in summer 2019. You can reach her at mjdrier@gmail.com or micheledrier@att.net
Writing for Open Mic Readers-Andy Laufer, Rose Ann Goodwin, Todd Boyd
Andy Laufer-Andrew is currently a gentleman farmer, writer, and storyteller. The lion’s share of his career was with the California Department of Education. Prior to that, he was a Registered Dietitian, a butcher’s helper, a janitor, a food service worker, construction laborer, firefighter, research lab technician, phlebotomist, a soldier in the US Army, and a salesman. He’s hitchhiked throughout the western United States and had coast to coast adventures too. All of these, and many more experiences, have prepared him well to tell stories about life in America.
In 2014 he began
writing his stories down for his kids. His stories are a written record of his
legacy for them and theirs to remember him by. The stories will make you laugh
and make you cry. They will make you think about life and elicit similar memories
of your own. A few are sad, most are humorous, all are thought provoking to
either lighten your heart, or to move you to deeper conversations. All are told
from the truth as he saw it and it is his deepest hope that you will derive
pleasure from them and remember him fondly.
His first attempt at oral storytelling was at a slam competition at the Sierra Storytelling Festival back in 2016. Although he didn’t win, he began to understand what it would take to become a proficient storyteller on stage. Practice, and he’s been practicing ever since. He participates in open telling whenever the opportunity arises. He told again at the Sierra Storytelling Festival and at the Auburn Winter Festival. Last October he told to a mixed audience at the Wilton Community Fair. Locally, he tells at the Sacramento Storytellers Guild, the Avid Reader, and at Writers on the Air.
Andy Laufer
Todd Boyd-I survived as a carpenter, railroad worker, and a social studies teacher before I retired for good, so I am no longer tied down to the wage industrial complex tracks, like Sweet Sue, like sweet sue used to.
I define myself as an agnostically oriented spiritual
believer in Hope and second, third, and fourth chances because there’s no
future in believing only in your own fallibility, no matter how much attention/notoriety
you get nor how smart you are.
I’ve been taken on some long rides down life’s road and I’ve
driven some too.
Nowadays I write
illogical, mythological realism and continue to try my literary hand as
a self-published author, internet radio host, blogging, making some visual art,
hosting both writing and open mic events, working on another novel, and
enjoying whatever sports my body will let me do.
Self-published author of one novel (Marat, Untrue Loves, working on a second novel, self-published four
chapbooks-(Shark Poems and Caroline’s
Adeline Street and Other Poems), one book of short stories, (Allred’s Short Stories), one journal of
personal history (The Election of 2012- A
Year of Living Inside the Definition of Insanity). Radio programmer
(KUBU-96.5LP-FM), blogger (saylavproductions.com), website manager
(writersontheair.com), and visual artist working with recycled materials.
Lois Ann Abraham is a retired ARC English professor, author of Circus Girl and Other Stories, and Tina Goes to Heaven, a novel. She is presently on the home stretch with her next novel, The Long Art
Anara Guard–anara@anaraguard.com– Here’s a bit about my published work: Remedies for Hunger, my collection of short stories, praised by Chicago Book Review and added to their best books of 2014 list. http://newwindpublishing.com/book/remedies-for-hunger/ Hand on My Heart, my brand new collection of poetry, praised by poet Jan Haag– http://newwindpublishing.com/book/hand/
Frederick Foote
todd boyd
andy, Charles, Cheryl, Donella, Jennifer,lynette
michelle, pat s, rose ann, Shannon, susan, vicki
Frederick
Foote
Since 2014 Frederick has published over
two- hundred stories and poems including literary, science fiction, fables, and
horror genres. Frederick has published two short story collections, For the
Sake of Soul, (2015) and, Crossroads Encounters, (2016). Frederick
hosts the Prose and Poetry Meet Up group and is a member of the INK writers
workshop and is currently preparing a short story collection manuscript
Todd Boyd
I survived as a carpenter, railroad
worker, and a social studies teacher before I retired for good, so I am no
longer tied down to the wage industrial complex tracks, like Sweet Sue, like
sweet sue used to.
I define myself as an agnostically
oriented spiritual believer in Hope and second, third, and fourth chances
because there’s no future in believing only in your own fallibility, no matter
how much attention/notoriety you get nor how smart you are.
I’ve been taken on some long rides
down life’s road and I’ve driven some too.
Nowadays I write, get to make things
up, and continue to try my literary hand as a self-published author, internet
radio host, blogging, making some visual art, hosting both writing and open mic
events, working on another novel, and enjoying whatever sports my body will let
me do.
Self-published author of one novel (Marat, Untrue Loves, four chapbooks-(Shark Poems and Caroline’s Adeline Street
and Other Poems), one book of short stories, (Allred’s Short Stories), one journal of personal history (The Election of 2012- A Year of Living
Inside the Definition of Insanity). Most of these titles can be found on
Amazon for practically nothing.
carol lynn Jennifer o pickering
taylor graham sue crisp
Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas
Carol Lynn Stevenson
Grellas lives in the Sierra Foothills. She is a nine-time Pushcart nominee and
a seven-time Best of the Net nominee. In 2012 she was the winner on the Red
Ochre Chapbook Contest, with her manuscript, ‘Before I Go to Sleep.’ She
is the author of numerous books and has had hundreds of poems published
in\print journals and online, including War, Literature and the Arts, and The
Yale Journal of Humanities and Medicine. In 2018 her poem ‘A Mall in
California’ took 2nd place for the Jack Kerouac Poetry Prize. Her
work has appeared in international publications as well as several anthologies
across the U.S. In 2019 her chapbook An Ode to Hope in the Midstof
Pandemonium was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. She was
recently the guest speaker at the California Writer’s Club, Sacramento chapter.
She is the Editor-in-Chief for The Orchards Poetry Journal and
Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Tule Review. She is a member of the Sacramento Poetry
Center Board of Directors, Saratoga Author’s Hall of Fame and according to
family lore, she is a direct descendant of Robert Louis Stevenson. www.clgrellaspoetry.com
Jennifer O’Neill Pickering is a literary and visual artist living in California who loves to paint with words. Find her poems and prose featured in publications, literary journals and podcasts. Some of these include Writer’s on the Air, Sacramento Voices, Earth’s Daughters, Yellow Silk, Paddock Review, Restore and Restory, The Dog With the Old Soul and Tiger’s Eye: AJournal of Poetry. ” Her poem, I Am the Creek” is included in the Sacramento site-specific sculpture, Open Circle. A collection of her poetry, Blooming In Winter is illustrated with ten color plates of her visual art and available on Amazon aNdelsewhere. She is editor of the Sable and Quill: writers who are also visual artists. Shepaintsandwrites.com
Taylor Graham
With her husband, Hatch, Taylor Graham has been a volunteer
search-and-rescue dog handler for many years. Retired now from callout, they
still train their dogs every week. Taylor served as El Dorado County’s first
poet laureate (2016-2018), and continues to help coordinate workshops and
readings. Her poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, New York
Quarterly, Poetry Now, Sacramento Voices,Tule Review,
and elsewhere. She’s included in the anthologies Villanelles (Everyman’s
Library) and California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Santa
Clara University/Heyday Books). Her latest book is Windows of Time and Place
(Cold River Press, 2019), a collection of poems written during her tenure
as Poet Laureate.
Sue Crisp
Sue Crisp is originally from Bakersfield, California, now a
resident of El Dorado County since 1951. Sue currently resides in
Shingle Springs, California. Sue retired from 25 years of customer
service and began writing at age 50, and is still writing.
A selection of recorded readings by Sacramento area writers
