All of us at the Community of Writers want to express our gratitude to all of you who were a part of our summer workshops. It was a fantastic season of summer programs! Participants and staff (our seasonal community) gathered in workshop groups, craft talks, panels, staff readings, softball, and a picnic at Lake Tahoe. We were joined by participants from all over the country and the world including Mexico, Canada, Germany, Kenya, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Our teaching staff of poets and authors as well as publishing professionals joined us from far and wide to work with talented participants. These summer days brought us snow, wind, rain, lightning strikes, mist, heat, as well as perfect evenings under the stars. More than anything, a remarkable community of writers came together.
In June, on the first day of Poetry week, wild winds and snow met our participants on the valley floor as they arrived with suitcases. Higher up the collecting snow brought contrast to the dramatic granite rock face that looks over our summer gathering. As the week proceeded and the weather warmed, participants and staff poets had the space and the time to write new poems—and some remarkable poems were written.
Our photocopier rattled and rocked away each morning, printing out the new poem copies in time for the morning sessions. Our annual Benefit Poetry Reading was a hybrid event – both online and in-person under the stars. We heard readings by our teaching Staff Poets along with special guest Robert Hass. Indeed, several read draft poems they had written earlier that week. (You can watch the recording of the Benefit Reading here.) We hiked to the waterfalls and plunged into the icy waters of Lake Tahoe; we played a riotous game of Poet Softball, and, as is tradition, on the final night, poets recited beloved poems from memory.
Our Writers’ Workshop week was packed with literary events: workshops, individual conferences, craft talks and panels, as well as three special afternoon workshops (Adaptation, Open Workshop, and Samuel Freedman’s “The Book Proposal” Seminar). We hosted two published alumni: Tara Dorabji and Eugenie Montague. It is always a joy to celebrate the successes of our alums here in the Valley.
And again this year, we featured most of these events on our podcast feed where listeners could keep up with the afternoon events from afar. On the final evening, we presented the Invitational Follies in which The Elves debuted a day-in-the-life-of-an-elf from a 10 foot-long scroll, Amy Tan played a cardboard fiddle, and some ankles were sprained during a raucous guided dance.
It was a beautiful summer, full of joy, friendship, craft and community. Naturally, we have some essential people to thank for helping us with this complex undertaking.
The greatest debt of gratitude we owe is always to our generous teaching staff members in Poetry, Fiction and Nonfiction who make the summer workshops an unforgettable and productive experience. Thanks to our program directors: Lisa Alvarez, Julia Flynn Siler, Sands Hall, Brenda Hillman, and Louis B. Jones. Thank you as well to Michael Carlisle whose leadership, friendship and generosity sustain us. And thanks in particular to Sands for organizing the fabulous Follies!
A big thank you to Patricia K. Meyer and Mel Storm Bloomer who joined us again this summer to teach their special adaptation class, and especially to Diana Fuller, who founded and shepherded our screenwriting program. She has been with this organization from the very beginning, and we missed her tremendously this summer.
Andrew Tonkovich (our A&R man) was essential every step of the way: from the management of all the manuscripts during registration, to moderating panels, he was central to it all. Year round, Andrew edits the OGQ, hosts the Bibliocracy radio show on our podcast feed, and assists with the planning of the workshops, among many other roles.
Also, we were proud to host esteemed Columbia Journalism School Professor Emeritus Sam Freedman, who led a new special afternoon workshop based on his popular course: The Book Proposal Seminar. It was a resounding success and we have heard nothing but positive things from those who participated.
Our brilliant Elves (and all-around helpers) were Rong Pan, Alex Dawson, Rishona Michael, Anna Carter, Hannah Ross, Claire McNerney, Livia Blum, and Nicolle Delgado. With high energy and good spirits, they all made things happen seamlessly. They baked muffins, boiled eggs, wrapped sound cables (a lot), and even carried a fridge. The eggs peeled so well this year!
Thank you also to Graham Knibb, Lindsey Jones, Dashiell Jones, and ZYZZYVA’s Laura Howard, for their good humor, friendship, and hard work. Thanks also to Caridwen Spatz for helping out in so many ways including building Amy Tan a golden fiddle to play in the Follies!
Thanks to Robert Hass, who directed the Poetry Program for decades, who continues to inspire us, and to Sharon Olds who has been so central to this program for so many years.
Thanks to Will Richardson for leading such informative Nature Walks during our Poetry week. Year-round, Will is the executive director of the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science, a nonprofit dedicated to science and research in the Tahoe Area.
Thank you to all involved with the Benefit Poetry Reading this year which raises important scholarship funds. Thank you to Hunter Jones who made real again our hopes to create a live-streamed event from this beautiful valley; and to Lisa Alvarez, who emceed the event, as well as the seven participating poets: Victoria Chang, Anthony Cody, Forrest Gander, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Jane Miller and Gregory Pardlo. A heartfelt thanks especially to Wildbound Media producing the event and immersing our virtual audience in our mountain community. To view the video, click here. Thank you to everyone who came to the event, in person or online, to support this project. Thank you to our Benefit Sponsors: Palisades Tahoe, North Tahoe Community Alliance, North Tahoe Chamber, Bomb Magazine, Alta Journal, ZYZZYVA, and Palisades Press. Thank you!
We would like to acknowledge our friends and board members, Eddy & Osvaldo Ancinas and Amy Tan & Lou Demattei, who have been so tremendously generous with their time and support over the years. We couldn’t ask for a more responsive, engaged, and wise Board of Directors, especially President Carlin Naify. Thanks as well to board members Katy Hover-Smoot, Jim Naify, Amy Tan, and Nancy Teichert for helping out during the weeks. Thanks also to Michael Carlisle, Dana Johnson, Michelle Latiolais, and Oscar Villalon. And gratitude to our friend and board member Steve Rempe, who has done so much for us this year and last.
Thanks also to Bob Austin for his generous wine donation and to our Valley angel, Alice Calhoun, of Alice’s Mountain Market, who along with her brother Mark, have created the only market in the world where if you tell someone you’re a poet, they’ll give you a discount.
I want to thank my year-round colleagues Hunter Jones and Leah Skoyles who did so much to make these programs shine. Along with her usual duties, Leah managed our pop-up bookshop as well as deftly organizing the lodging for all the participants and staff. Hunter took on a myriad of roles too numerous to name but included managing the sound system, creating the hybrid benefit event, recording, and producing podcasts, and so much more. They deserve a restful vacation soon!
We are also delighted to welcome a new administrative staff member, Catie Van Dyke, who will be serving as the Community of Writers’ Operations Manager. Catie is a brilliant administrator with years of experience in production, administration, and event coordination. Welcome aboard, Catie!
We are grateful to Palisades Tahoe, who has partnered with us to ensure that we can stay in our valley home for another fifty years, as well as providing scholarships for local writers. Christine Horvath, Mike DeGraff, Brad Barth on the administrative side, and in the day-to-day the entire food and beverage team who worked so hard to make our workshops work. Fernando, Justin, Harry, Charlotte – thanks to all of you. We also would like to thank Rocky and Katja who allowed us to use their premises at Le Chamois, where, only once, Oscar Villalon’s workshop was locked inside because, unaware of the workshop upstairs, a Palisades security guard found the door unlocked and secured it. (They were later released–all still in good humor!)
Thanks also to the North Tahoe Community Alliance and the North Tahoe Chamber, who facilitated an event- support grant that helped us to offset the cost of bringing our esteemed staff here to the North Tahoe region. This support was made possible through TOT-TBID Dollars At Work. Thank you!
And to our Donors: What a community this is! Your support is essential to this thing we do. There were many participants whose attendance was made possible specifically because of your support.
We are deeply grateful to our participants and staff, who, all together, bring the magic of the community. Our hope is that you’ve returned home inspired and with new friends who can be part of your writing journey. We at the Community of Writers can do only so much to create the circumstances of a good workshop session, but ultimately it is our teaching staff and participants who make the week so wonderful.
With love and gratitude,
-Brett Hall Jones
Executive Director