With our summer workshops behind us, we are delighted to report that this was a particularly wonderful summer of poetry and prose. We saw rain, lightning, wind, and thunder, June nights below freezing and 90+ degree days in July, and the smoke from a fire on Donner Summit. We also had skies of startling blue and pleasant evenings under the stars. And we saw great writing, hard work, new friendships, peace, respect, and understanding. We saw generosity, patience and kindness. We are so grateful to everyone who joined us.
Our Poetry Program in June provided participants and staff poets the space and the time to write new poems—and some remarkable poems were written. Our photocopy machine was busy printing copies for each morning session. Our annual Benefit Poetry Reading was a hybrid event – both online and in-person under the stars. (You can watch the recording here.) We hiked among waterfalls and plunged into the icy waters of Lake Tahoe, had a raucous tie-game of Poetry Softball this year that also featured a surprise visit from a coyote. As is the tradition, on the final night poets recited their favorite poems from memory.
Our Writers’ Workshop week was packed with literary events and community. Through workshops, individual conferences, craft talks and panels, as well as three special workshops (Finding the Story, Adaptation, and Open Workshop), our “You Must Read This” event, and a brilliant nonfiction evening on the deck of the Paul Radin Memorial Dream Wagon, participants benefited from packed days of literary opportunities. And for the first time, we created a podcast feed where anyone could keep up with the afternoon events. We were proud to celebrate published alums and enjoyed listening to readings from their newly published works and their memories of their time at the Community of Writers.
As such, we need to acknowledge people who made it possible.
We are grateful to Palisades Tahoe, who has partnered with us to ensure that we can stay in our valley home of more than fifty years. Christine Horvath, Mike DeGraff, Dee Burne, and Brad Barth on the administrative side, and in the day-to-day the whole food and beverage team who worked so hard to make our workshops work. We also would like to thank Rocky and Katja who allowed us to use their premises at Le Chamois.
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 Jones. And thanks in particular to Sands for her leadership and for organizing the fabulous Follies! Thank you as well to Michael Carlisle whose friendship and generosity makes all the difference. And of course, we must thank the incredible Nicholas Nichols (@maruneboy), who captured so many gorgeous photos this summer.
Our Writers’ Workshop week was jam-packed and full of excellent writing. In addition to our workshops craft talks and panels, we had two special workshops (Finding the Story and Adaptation), and for the first time, we created a podcast feed where anyone could access the afternoon events in real time. We hosted a beautiful published alumni reading, and our primary goal, as always, was to facilitate excellent writing through community building, and we are so proud to say that this year was a resounding success.
A big thank you to Patricia K. Meyer and Stacy Spruill who joined us again this summer to teach their special adaptation class, and especially to Diana Fuller, who founded and shepherded this program from a full screenwriting program to an adaptation program for fiction and nonfiction writers. She has been with this organization from the very beginning.
Likewise, Leslie Daniels took up Gill Dennis‘s torch once again this year, leading the beloved Finding the Story Workshop for the second year in a row. Thank you Leslie!
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.
Our Elves (and all-around helpers) were Irish Ely, Michaelyn Logue, Emma McCandless, Jaz Nguyen (the printer guru), Rumi Petersen, Gyana Roberts and Kate Rogers. With high energy and good spirits, they all made things happen seamlessly.
Thank you also to Graham Knibb, Lindsey Jones, Tracy Hall, Jim Chumbley, and Dashiell Jones for their support and hard work during the summer. Thanks also to Sands Hall for everything she brings to the workshop week from her Making Workshops Work presentation to The Open Workshop, to her brilliant teaching, and the Follies, which she emcees and puts together.
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 decades.
Thanks to Will Richardson for leading such informative Nature Walks during our Poetry week.
The Benefit Poetry Reading raises important scholarship funds which we look to expand each year in the face of rising costs. 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: Blas Falconer, Brenda Hillman, Major Jackson, Patricia Spears Jones, Brynn Saito, and Matthew Zapruder. A heartfelt thanks especially to Jared and Julia Drake of Wildbound Media for all of their brilliant work producing the event and immersing our virtual audience in our mountain community. To view the video, click here. We have tremendous gratitude to everyone who came to the event, in person or online, to support this project. Donations welcome. And thank you to our Benefit Sponsors: Copper Canyon, Wesleyan University Press, Word After Word Books, Beers Books, and the Nevada County Arts Council.
We also want to thank Ken Haas, who galvanized us to create the Writers Annex, which brings poetry and literature and world-class teachers into your living rooms, and Brenda Hillman and Lisa Alvarez who have helped create this remarkable program that allows the Community of Writers to continue to produce our summer workshops (affordably) in an increasingly unaffordable environment. With our Paul Radin Memorial Dream Wagon now in its fifth year, we are grateful to Robin Radin and David Radin, and everyone for their contributions to this beautiful tiny house that we now use as a stage, bookstore and year-round office.
We would like to acknowledge our friends and board members, Eddy & Osvaldo Ancinas and Amy Tan & Lou Demattei, who have been tremendously generous with their time and support over the years. We couldn’t ask for a more responsive, generous and wise Board of Directors, especially president Carlin Naify. Thanks as well to board members Katy Hover-Smoot (Katy Hays), Jim Naify, Amy Tan, and Nancy Teichert for pitching in and helping with various events. Thanks also to our Literary Committee: Michael Carlisle, Dana Johnson, Michelle Latiolais, Margaret Wilkserson Sexton, and Oscar Villalon. And thanks to Reagan Arthur, Lester Lennon, and Jason Roberts. We also want to thank Alex Espinoza whose work as a board member has made lasting changes to this organization, which we value so deeply. And gratitude to our friend and board member Steve Rempe, who has done so much for us this year.
Thanks also to alum and friend Bob Austin for his generous wine donation. And thank you to our angel in Tahoe, 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 workshops 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 creating COVID-safe pleasant outdoor spaces, devising the sound system, creating the hybrid benefit event, recording and producing podcasts, and so much more. They deserve a restful vacation soon!
We are deeply grateful to our participants and staff, who, all together, bring the magic of the community. You showed care for one another, following our COVID protocols and treating each other with love and respect in the workshops and beyond. Our hope is that you’ve made life-long friends. We are so glad to have had a safe and healthy summer without COVID joining us.
Thank you to the intrepid staff at Palisades Tahoe who made us feel so welcome and taken care of through the week. You rolled with the punches, and the food has never been better.
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.
Finally, we want to thank our participants who made these workshops so productive through your active participation in building this brief, seasonal community, and for your warmth and good will. We at the Community of Writers can only do 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