| SF WRITERS GROTTO ANNOUNCES SUMMER WRITING CLASSES Summer is the best time to hone your writing skills. And the SF Writers Grotto is offering a summer smorgasbord of one-day and multi-week classes. Writers' Sampler Menu - A tapas menu of different non-fiction genres: Travel Writing (July 8), Food Writing (July 15), Personal Essay and Memoir (July 22), Better Blogging and Breaking into Magazines (July 29). Sign up for one or more of these 2 hour sessions - $45 per class, or $150 for the series. Taught by Laura Fraser, author of 'An Italian Affair,' contributor to 'Travel & Leisure,' 'Gourmet,' 'The New York Times,' and winner of an International Association of Culinary Professionals Award for Essay Writing. Fiction Bootcamp - Everything you wanted to know (and didn't know you wanted to know) about the craft of writing fiction. This one-day, hands-on workshop will teach you how to plot, organize, and write a terrific story (or novel). Saturday, July 11, 10 am - 4 pm. $155. Taught by Janis Cooke Newman, author of the novel, 'Mary,' chosen as a BookSense Year-End Pick, the Best Historical Novel of 2006 by USA Today, and a Finalist for an LA Times Book Prize. Master Class: Workshop your Non-Fiction - This class will give experienced writers an opportunity to workshop their pieces and get professional feedback. Thursday evenings, July 9 - 30. $150. Taught by Laura Fraser, author of 'An Italian Affair,' contributor to 'Travel & Leisure,' 'Gourmet,' 'The New York Times,' and winner of an International Association of Culinary Professionals Award for Essay Writing. Memoir Writing: Fact is Not Truth - Memoir and the Art of Honesty - What does truth in memoir really mean? This class will help writers examine the personal story they're trying to tell, and how they can best tell it. Using a combination of in-class writing and reading, students will find the truth that drives their story. Three Monday evenings, August 3 - 17, with an optional fourth session for personal critique. $195 (optional critique session $75). Taught by Rachel Howard, author of 'The Lost Night: A Daughter's Search for the Truth of Her Father's Murder, one of the SF Chronicles Best Books of 2005. For more information - and to register - visit the SF Writers Grotto website: http://www.sfgrotto.org/ |
FOR JOSH AND MARGARET, A GLIMPSE OF STARDOM AT CANNES
Twittering in from the Cannes Film Festival is Grottoite Josh McHugh and his wife Margaret: “’Dunkumentary’ was part of the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival. Margaret and I went, and had a blast. Fending off interest from buyers now (okay - two buyers). Anyway, showed up underdressed to our first big premiere, ran back to apartment to change into formal attire, and walked up the old red carpet just in front of Juliette Binoche, which was rad.”
GET LOST IN SPACE THIS FRIDAY AT SubZERO IN SAN JOSE WITH JD
Grottoite JD Beltran and collaborator Scott Minneman will be debuting the amazing Astrotable, which essentially uses the same visuals you see in worldwide state-of-the-art planetariums (including that of New York’s Museum of Natural History), and puts it on a tilting, turning round tabletop, enabling you to virtually travel through space. See the surface of Mars, or check out the rings on Saturn – it’s all there for you at this Friday’s SubZero, an interactive street festival produced by Zero1, the Art and Technology Network based in San Jose. The fun begins at 6:00 pm and lasts until midnight – more information at http://zero1.org/events/
JD also was awarded a fellowship and residency at the Montalvo Arts Center this month, where she will be working on her recent body of video work and finishing her book of short stories. More info at http://montalvoarts.org/
DON’T MISS THE NEW UPCOMING MONTHLY RUMPUSES! THE FIRST ONE IS JUNE 8
**June 8 is the first Monthly Rumpus.** Presented by The Rumpus along with Noise Pop and Wholphin DVD.
Hosted by Grotto Dweller Stephen Elliott and featuring readings by Andrew Sean Greer, Peter Orner, Barbara Jane Reyes, and Damion Searls, along with a performance by Word For Word, a short film from Wholphin, and music by Thao Nguyen. Get your tickets here: https://www.brownpapertickets.
More information as at http://therumpus.net/sections/
Check out The Rumpus at http://www.therumpus.net
AND ALSO FROM STEVE, YOUR CHANCE TO READ AN ADVANCE COPY OF “THE ADDERAL DIARIES”
Want to read an advance copy of Stephen Elliott's forthcoming true-crime/memoir The Adderall Diaries? The book will be published in September, but if you send an email to adderall@therumpus.net Stephen might send you an advance copy. Here’s the hitch, if he mails you a book he'll also email you the address of the next person to send it to. You have a week to read it, then you have to send your copy to the next address. First class postage is $3.04 so this is not totally free. In your email please include your address and a little bit about yourself. Priority given to people who are verifiably real. More information here: http://therumpus.net/2009/04/
DAVID READING “EXPERIMENTAL MAN” AT THE SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY ON JUNE 16
In case you missed Grotto dweller David Duncan’s talk about his new bestselling book, come hear it at the library, where he’ll be reading from “Experimental Man, What one man’s body reveals about his future, your health, and our toxic world (Wiley).”
Where: SF Public Library, Latino-Hispanic Community Room (100 Larkin Street, at Grove)
When: June 16, 6 pm
More information: http://events.sfgate.com/san-
For lots of info about the book and the Experimental Man Project, go to http://www.experimentalman.com
DIANA KAPP PROFILES THE HIGH DRAMA GAY MARRIAGE MAYOR GAVIN NEWSOM IN HIS QUEST TO BECOME CALIFORNIA'S NEXT GOVERNOR IN JUNE ELLE
The June edition of Elle Magazine highlights Grotto gal Diana Kapp's second feature on her fair mayor Gavin Newsom. She spent a few days trailing him around the Democratic National Convention this summer and many months tracking him in SF. This is the story of the guy who has somehow revived himself from an affair, addiction, really bad hair, becoming the pro Prop 8 poster boy [Remember the ad: "It's going to happen...Whether you like it or not..."], and Feinstein and his whole Party blaming him for Kerry losing to Bush in 2004. His bid for governor is actually looking pretty strong....
Check out Dianna’s Elle article at http://www.elle.com/Living/
EARLY BUZZ BUILDING FOR MELANIE GIDEON’S THE SLIPPERY YEAR!
Although Grottoite Melanie Gideon’s The Slippery Year won’t be on bookshelves until August 4th, it’s already building a nice little buzz. The Slippery Year was included in Time Magazine’s Summer Preview of Books. It also made the Daily Beast’s 13 Hottest Summer Reads list. Check out a preview at http://www.amazon.com/
ARIANE’S HOOPING IS YOUR GUIDE TO A HOT SUMMER BOD
Grotto sublettor Ariane Conrad has a new book out, in collaboration with Christabel Zamor, aka HoopGirl. HOOPING (Workman Publishing) is your guidebook to the 21st century’s version of the 1950's fad. Today it’s a hot form of dance and fitness that delivers radiance, happiness, and one hot bod.
Buy the book: http://tiny.cc/hoopbook
Grab a hoop: http://tiny.cc/buyhoop
Learn more: http://thehoopingbook.
THE GROTTO IS NOW ON TWITTER
The Grotto now has a Twitter feed! For late-breaking news about Grotto classes, the SF Bay Area lit scene, and happenings at the Grotto, follow us here:
http://twitter.com/sfgrotto
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JD’S ART PICKS FOR JUNE
PAUL MADONNA AT RITUAL ROASTERS
On Friday June 12, at 7pm at Ritual Roasters 1026 Valencia, San Francisco, the Rumpus and Ritual Roasters coffee shop are hosting an opening for an exhibit of one of my favorite artists, Paul Madonna and his body of work “Small Potatoes.” See Small Potatoes online here: http://therumpus.net/sections/
NICK CAVE AT THE YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS
This spring, YBCA debuted the largest scale presentation of work by Chicago-based artist, Nick Cave, featuring forty of his "Soundsuits"—multi-layered mixed-media, wearable sculptures named for the sounds made when the sculptures are worn. As reminiscent of African and religious ceremonial costumes as they are of haute couture, Cave's work explores issues of ceremony, ritual, myth and identity. He does this through a layering of concepts, highly-skilled techniques and varied traditions, using materials such as fabrics, beads, sequins, old bottle caps, rusted iron, sticks, twigs, leaves and hair. Mad, humorous, elaborate, grotesque, glamorous and unexpected, the Soundsuits are created from scavenged ordinary materials—detritus from both nature and culture—that Cave re-contextualizes into visionary masterpieces. See more information at http://www.ybca.org/tickets/
ROBERT FRANK’S “THE AMERICANS” AT THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
I just spent a few hours at this exhibition last week and was stunned by its timeliness, prescience, poignancy, and beauty. Robert Frank's The Americans is widely celebrated as the most important photography book since World War II. Including 83 photographs made largely in 1955 and 1956 while Frank traveled around the United States, the book looked beneath the surface of American life to reveal a profound sense of alienation, angst, and loneliness. With these prophetic photographs, Frank redefined the icons of America, noting that cars, jukeboxes, gas stations, diners, and even the road itself were telling symbols of contemporary life. Frank's style — seemingly loose, casual compositions, with often rough, blurred, out-of-focus foregrounds and tilted horizons — was just as controversial and influential as his subject matter. The exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of the book's publication by presenting all 83 photographs from The Americans in the order established by the book, and by providing a detailed examination of the book's roots in Frank's earlier work, its construction, and its impact on his later art. Through August 23rd. More information at http://www.sfmoma.org/events/
Happy Summer!
