VIRTUAL EVENT: Zoom Forward!: In Celebration of the Muse, Part 2, featuring women writers of the Monterey Bay area.
Founded by Jory Post, Zoom Forward! is an ongoing reading series to showcase writers, keep our cultural spirits high, and support Bookshop Santa Cruz. Presented by phren-Z, Catamaran, and Bookshop Santa Cruz.
Live on Zoom (link and instructions provided upon signup). Register here.
FEATURING:
ADELA NAJARRO
Adela Najarro is the author of four poetry collections: Split Geography, Twice Told Over, My Childrens and Volcanic Interruptions. Her extended family left Nicaragua and arrived in San Francisco in the 1940’s. After the fall of the Somoza regime the last of the family settled in the Los Angeles area. She teaches at Cabrillo College and is an English instructor for the Puente Project- a program designed to support Latinidad in all its aspects while preparing community college students to prepare for four year colleges and universities.
JULIE FOSTER
Julie Foster has lived in Santa Cruz for over 40 years. She recently returned from a twoyear adventure in northern New Mexico, where she lived on a ridge top with a view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Julie takes her inspiration from the natural world. Besides writing, she has a keen interest in local history. Julie taught elementary-aged children for many years and especially enjoyed teaching writing and exploring nature with her students. She now resides again in Santa Cruz where she is a member of a group of women writers.
JENNY D’ANGELO
Jenny D’Angelo, poet, editor, mystic. Born in Massachusetts, she lived and studied in Europe before moving to California. Jenny believes in the power of poetry to transmit consciousness and to inspire. Her work has appeared in many international collections. She has led workshops and given presentations in the US, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Italy, and Sweden. She lives on the central coast in a little bungalow near the sea with her chickens and their lovely blue/green eggs.
MARIGOLD FINE
Marigold began writing at the kitchen table of her Chicago childhood. She has been a video producer and documentary filmmaker since 1984, created Full Circle Productions and taught video arts as a SPECTRA Artist in the Schools. She performs Spoken Word and Reader’s Theater with Next Stage Productions and is compiling a book of her poetry and essays. She plays well and always welcomes the muse.
RUTH MOTA
Ruth moved to Santa Cruz just after the earthquake when she was coordinating the prevention program for the Santa Cruz AIDS Project. She then worked at International Health Programs where she conducted AIDS training to health care providers from around the world in English, Spanish and Portuguese. She moved to DC to become the health specialist for the Africa Region for US Peace Corps and returned to Santa Cruz just before 9/11 to focus on writing. She is grateful for the community of poets here, for the opportunity to study with Ellen Bass and for the privilege of facilitating poetry circles to men at Rountree jail and local veterans. Samples of her poetry can currently be found online at Canary Literary Journal, Reservoir Road, Cathexis Northwest and Soul Lit.
ZIGGY RENDLER-BREGMAN
Ziggy has lived and worked in Santa Cruz for more than 50 years. After graduating from UCSC in Aesthetic Studies, she created an active studio and writing life, raised a family, with her husband Jesse, and has been a leader in our community. In 1973, Ziggy co-founded Stone Soup, a literary and art magazine for children. In 1976, she co-founded The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County. In 1999, She led the first campaign to pass a parcel tax to restore music and arts education in Santa Cruz City Schools. Today, Ziggy is active in interfaith dialogue and teaches yoga on zoom. She’ll be reading from her recently published book INTO THE THICKET published by Olallieberry Press.,
ROSIE KING
Rosie King grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, lucky to have summers by lakes and her hometown Pulitzer poet Theodore Roethke’s strict sister, June, for 9th grade English. She went east to Wellesley College, west in the 60’s for graduate school, and taught beginning poetry workshops at UC Santa Cruz in the 80’s while finishing a dissertation on the poetry of HD. Her first book, Sweetwater, Saltwater was published in 2007, a second collection, Time and Peonies, in 2017, both with Hummingbird Press. Seven of her poems were read by Garrison Keillor on NPR’s Writer’s Almanac. She’s grateful to be living and still writing where she first landed in Santa Cruz, in a house with a garden by the beach.
MAGGIE PAUL
Maggie is the author of Scrimshaw (Hummingbird Press 2020), Borrowed World, (Hummingbird Press 2011), and the chapbook, Stones from the Baskets of Others (Black Dirt Press 2000). Her poems appear in Caesura, Phren-Z, The Porter Gulch Review, Red Wheelbarrow, SALT, The Jung Journal of San Francisco, Moonstone, and others. Poetry interviews and book reviews appear in the Catamaran Literary Reader, Rattle, and the Valparaiso Poetry Review. A co-founder of Poetry Santa Cruz and a member of the Morton Marcus Tribute Reading Committee, Maggie has taught writing at UCSC, Cabrillo, CSUMB and DeAnza College, She is currently an independent writing coach.