All Raven Videos are on our YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/c/RavenChroniclesPress
On Saturday, July 1, 2023, 4:30-6pm, Stephen Thomas led a free writing workshop, THE PERSISTENT LINE, at BookTree Bookstore, 609 Market St., Kirkland. Sponsored by Raven Chronicles Press and BookTree.
[Note: this video has pops and noises, and is hard to hear at times. This was a live setting and we couldn't control all the environmental elements. The audience feedback is in/out. Videotape and editing by Thomas R. Prince.]
On Saturday, June 3, from 4:30-6:00pm, at BookTree Bookstore, 609 Market St., Kirkland, Raven Chronicles Press and BookTree (Chris J. Jarmick) hosted a free writing workshop, led by Kathleen Alcalá. Kathleen used Garrett Hongo's poem "Scarlet Paintbrush" as an example/tool.
On Saturday, June 3, 2023, 6:30 pm, BookTree bookstore in Kirkland, WA, hosted a reading by contributors from Raven's latest anthology: "This Light Called Darkness, A Raven Chronicles Anthology, Selected Work 1997-2005." Readers, in order of appearance: Kathleen Alcalá, Mercedes Lawry, Cat Ruiz, Peter Ludwin, Paul Hunter.
On April 24, 7-8:30 pm, at Elliott Bay Bookstore Raven launched our 2nd anthology of work, selected from the work we published from 1991 to 2018: This Light Called Darkness, A Raven Chronicles Anthology, Selected Work 1997-2005. The anthology contains the work of 85 writers and 34 artists. We asked a number of writers to read the work of contributors who are no longer with us or who can’t be in Seattle; a few readers read their own work.
Presenters: Raúl Sánchez, Paul Hunter (MC), Phil Red Eagle, Kathleen Alcalá, Carletta Carrington Wilson, Carolyne Wright, Anna Bálint, Annie Pearson, Natalie Pascale Boisseau, and Martha McAvoy Linehan.
Kathleen Alcalá reads From THE FLOWER IN THE SKULL, Tuesday, May 9, 2023, 6:30 pm at Eagle Harbor Book Co., 157 Winslow Way East, Bainbridge Island. BI writer and resident Jessica Dubey joins Kathleen for a discussion of her work.
APRIL 5, 2022, TUESDAY, 7 PM PST Carolyne Wright in conversation with Christine Lysnewycz Holbert. Carolyne and Christine discuss the history of Lost Horse Press, particular books published, and the Lost Horse Press Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry Series.
April 10, 2022: Raven Talk, qaẃqs, presents: Ruby Takushi in conversation with Anna Bálint on the Launch of the 2nd Edition of Words From the Café.
January 15, 2022, Saturday, 2 pm PST: Ann Spiers in conversation with Sharon Hashimoto about Sharon’s recently published book, MORE AMERICAN, winner of the 2021 Off The Grid Poetry Prize.
February 5, 2022, Saturday, 2 pm: Susan Noyes Platt in conversation with Ann Batchelor Hursey about Ann’s recently published book, FIELD NOTES TO MAYA LIN’S CONFLUENCE PROJECT LANDSCAPES.
April 27, 2022: Susan Rich and Harold Taw discuss Susan’s new book Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New and Selected Poems (Salmon Poetry). With an introduction by Ilya Kaminsky, Gallery of Postcards and Maps collects the essential and award-winning poems from Susan Rich’s four books of poetry along with a generous selection of unpublished work. Rich’s poetry spans the last twenty years through a life engaged with human rights, compassion, and questions of travel.
May 3, 2022: Allison Green talks to Rebecca Brown about her new book of essays, You Tell the Stories You Need to Believe, on the four seasons, time and love, death and growing up. In this new nonfiction work, queer novelist Rebecca Brown turns her attention to life’s biggest questions: time, love, and how we endure.
May 11, WEDNESDAY, 7:30 PM: Kathleen Alcalá talks to Daniel A. Olivas about his new book, How to Date a Flying Mexican, which is a collection of short stories derived from Chicano and Mexican culture but ranging through fascinating literary worlds of magical realism, fairy tales, fables, and dystopian futures. The characters confront—both directly and obliquely—questions of morality, justice, and self-determination, but often with a large dose of humor.
Nov. 24, 2021, Wednesday, 2 pm PST: “Rescuing what is useful for the present: Activism for the Ópata Nation” (“Rescatando lo que es útil para el presente: Activismo por la Nación Ópata”) Discussion in Spanish & English. Participants: Kathleen Alcalá, moderator (Bainbridge Island, Washington State); Isabel Cristina Murrieta López (Nácori Chico, Sonora, Mexico); Dani Ahuicapahtzin Cornejo Warner (East Oakland, California).
This is a video of henry 7. reneau, jr. reading his work from Raven Chronicles Press’s 2020 anthology, Take a Stand, Art Against Hate. First henry reads (page 185) “The Saga of The Exit Wound.” Second he reads (page 127) “About Writing Political Poetry,” by Anita K. Boyle. Lastly, he reads his second poem in the anthology (page 144) “The AK-47 Blues, or Sorting Through a History of Violence.” He discusses the anthology and the place of his poems in it.
SoulFood Poetry Night presents Take a Stand, Art Against Hate Anthology
On March 18, 2021, Michael Dylan Welch hosted/moderated a reading by contributors to Raven Chronicles Press's anthology: Take a Stand, Art Against Hate. READERS: Marc Beaudin (Livingston, Montana), Risa Denenberg (Sequim, WA), Thomas Hubbard (Kirkland, WA), Tamam Kahn (San Rafael, CA), Susana Praver-Pérez (Oakland, CA). Writers read their work from the anthology; Anna Bálint discusses the putting together and evolution of the anthology; the reading was followed by a short open mic. Title Music, "Wind Blows Through Me," copyright 2009/created by DOMAIN (aka Crystal Hell Pool). https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/iCcoBHF7tY6Qjw1F9. Credit Titling by Thomas R. Prince/Threadbare Rag. Thanks for 2021 Pandemic support from: Washington State Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, and 4Culture of King County.
June 5, 2021, conversation between Kathleen Alcalá & Christi Craig (Hidden Timber Books) discussing Kathleen’s novel: Spirits of the Ordinary.
May 6, 2021, 7pm PST: Eagle Harbor Books, on Bainbridge Island, presents a conversation with Kathleen Alcalá & Claudia Castro Luna: discussing Kathleen’s novel: Spirits of the Ordinary.
In this last of 7 conversations with Kathleen, Donna asks Kathleen what she has learned since publishing the entire trilogy of novels: Spirits of the Ordinary, The Flower in the Skull, and Treasures in Heaven. And of her connections to the Opata Nation since publishing the trilogy.
Kathleen Alcalá joins Rigoberto González in launching a new edition of SPIRITS of the ORDINARY from Raven Chronicles Press. Cover art by Alfredo Arreguín, detail from Red Pony, 2009.
Set in northern Mexico in the 1870s, Spirits of the Ordinary weaves the stories of women struggling against societal constraints, Mexican Jews practicing their religion in secret, and a gold prospector turned spiritual seeker in a spectacular desert landscape.
(Photo of cover artist Alfredo Arreguín and Kathleen Alcalá.) In this sixth conversation of seven, author Donna Miscolta asks Kathleen Alcalá about the cinematic possibilities of Spirits of the Ordinary. Kathleen has recently had two of her linked novels, Spirits of the Ordinary and Treasures in Heaven, optioned by a Hollywood producer for possible film adaptations. Dream directors? Coen Brothers or the Mexican director of Roma, Alfonso Cuarón?
Anna Bálint is interviewed by Christi Craig, April 10, 2021, as part of Hidden Timber Books Small Press Authors Series.
In this fifth conversation of seven, Donna asks Kathleen about the symbolism of the artwork on the cover: A detail from Red Pony, a painting by Alfredo Arrequín. As a pony figures prominently in the painting, Donna asks if it relates to the relationship between one of the main characters, Zacarías, and his horse. Kathleen talks about the relationship between Zacarías and the natural world, which is an important element in her book.
In this fourth conversation of seven, author Donna Miscolta asks Kathleen about the role that speculative fiction has played in her fiction writing, and in her gathering of stories from family and culture.
In this third conversation of seven, author Donna Miscolta asks Kathleen Alcalá about the definition of Magical Realism and its role in Spirits of the Ordinary, A Tale of Casas Grandes.
In this second conversation of seven, famed author Donna Miscolta (Living Color: Angie Rubio Stories) interviews author Kathleen Alcalá about Raven Chronicles Press's new edition of her acclaimed speculative fiction novel, Spirits of the Ordinary, A Tale of Casas Grandes.
Donna Miscolta interviews author Kathleen Alcalá about Spirits of the Ordinary, A Tale of Casas Grandes, available from Raven Chronicles Press on May 10, 2021. This is the first of 7 interviews.
With cover art by Mexican artist Alfredo Arreguín (detail from his painting Red Pony, 2009), Alcalá's novel is set in northern Mexico in the 1870s. Spirits of the Ordinary weaves the stories of women struggling against societal constraints, Mexican Jews practicing their religion in secret, and a gold prospector turned spiritual seeker in a spectacular desert landscape. Winner of the Washington State Governor’s Writers Award and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award when originally published in 1997, Spirits was one of the first books to address the topic of the hidden Jews of Mexico. The author has gone on to write two more novels of the Mexico-U.S. borderland in the late 19th century (The Flower in the Skull and Treasures in Heaven), and in her collection of essays, The Desert Remembers My Name: On Family and Writing, she describes how the three novels were inspired by family stories, interviews with elders, and extensive research.
On Jan. 21, 2021, 7:8:30 pm PST, contributors from Raven Chronicles Press’s anthology Take A Stand, Art Against Hate read their work and work by other authors. Moderator: Anna Bálint; Readers: Tess Gallagher, Lawrence Matsuda, Tiffany Midge, and Shankar Narayan. The event was co-hosted by Seattle City of Literature, The Seattle Public Library, and Raven Chronicles Press, with bookstore partner Third Place Books. With over 170 contributors, including Jericho Brown, Lucille Clifton, Marge Piercy, and Danez Smith, Take a Stand features poetry, artwork, essays, and fiction that confront past and ongoing injustices and offer visions of positive change.
Presented by Jack Straw Cultural Center & Raven Chronicles Press, on January 7, 2021, 7:00-8:30 pm (PST) , Moderator: Holly J. Hughes; Readers: Kathleen Alcalá, Ronda Broatch, Mike Dillon, Ed Harkness, Anna Odessa Linzer, Jed Myers, and Carletta Carrington Wilson .
In a time of destruction, create something: a poem, a parade, a community, a school, a vow, a moral principle; one peaceful moment.
—Maxine Hong Kingston
Bios of readers: Holly J. Hughes (moderator) is the author of Hold Fast, Sailing by Ravens, coauthor of The Pen and The Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World, and editor of the award-winning anthology, Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease. Her fine art chapbook Passings received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 2017.
Kathleen Alcalá: is the author of six award-winning books that include a collection of stories, three novels, and a book of essays. Her work embraces both traditional and innovative storytelling techniques, and Raven Chronicles Press will reissue her first novel, Spirits of the Ordinary, A Tale of Casas Grandes, in 2021.
Ronda Piszk Broatch, poet and photographer, is the author of Lake of Fallen Constellations (MoonPath Press, 2015). Ronda was a finalist for the Four Way Books Prize, and her poems have been nominated several times for the Pushcart prize.
Mike Dillon, retired publisher of Pacific Publishing Company, grew up on Bainbridge Island. His most recent book is Departures: Poetry and Prose on the Removal of Bainbridge Island’s Japanese Americans After Pearl Harbor (Unsolicited Press, April 2019).
Ed Harkness is the author of three poetry collections, Saying the Necessary, Beautiful Passing Lives, and, most recently, The Law of the Unforeseen, from Pleasure Boat Studio Press. He lives in Shoreline, Washington.
Anna Odessa Linzer lives on Dabob Bay, where she writes poetry and fiction, is adapting her play from her novel A River Story into a film, and where she swims year around. Her novel Ghost Dancing received an American Book Award in 1998; three of her other novels were published as a limited-edition trilogy Home Waters by Marquand Books.
Jed Myers is author of Watching the Perseids (Sacramento Poetry Center Book Award), The Marriage of Space and Time (MoonPath Press), and four chapbooks. His poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Poetry Northwest, The American Journal of Poetry, Southern Poetry Review, Greensboro Review, and elsewhere.
Carletta Carrington Wilson is a visual and literary artist. The form and formation of language is integral to the work she creates by exploring the “texts” of textiles. Her installation, letter to a laundress, was exhibited at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, the University of Puget Sound’s Kittredge Gallery, and Seattle’s King Street Station.
NOTE OF CORRECTION: Holly J. Hughes read a poem from the anthology, “Word of the Day,” by Penina Ava Taesali. We regret mispronunciation of her name and mistaken ethnic heritage.
From Penina: “Thank you for including my poem, Word of the Day in the January 7th reading. I wanted to let you know that my name is Penina Ava Taesali - pronounced Paw-nina Ava (as in awe-va) Taesali (Tye sal lee). And I am Samoan American. My name is Samoan. I hope we could correct my pronunciation and my heritage.”
On November 17, Tuesday, from 7-8:30 pm PST, Raven hosted an online Zoom event #5, with contributors from the Raven Chronicles anthology, "Take a Stand, Art Against Hate," published in 2020. This event was co-presented by Jack Straw Cultural Center and Raven Chronicles Press. The engineer was Jack Stiles from Jack Straw, and the moderator was Jesse Minkert. Readers were: Catalina Marie Cantú, T. Clear, Paul Hunter, dan raphael, Susan Rich, Carolyne Wright and Jesse Minkert.
Riverwood Poetry Series opened its new season with readings and conversations from the anthology Take A Stand: Art Against Hate, October 13, 2020, 7:00-8:30. Ten New England poets and community leaders read their favorite poems from the collection and shared responses.
A reading celebrating Raven Chronicles Press's Take a Stand, Art Against Hate Anthology, edited by Anna Balint, Phoebe Bosche & Thomas Hubbard. 0ct. 8, 2020, 7:30pm-9pm, co-sponsored by Northwind Reading Series, Port Townsend Public Library, & Raven Chronicles Press, with partial support from Poets & Writers. Moderator: Holly Hughes and Readers (in order of appearance): Sharon Carter, Lawrence Matsuda, Alice Derry, Pat Dixon, Tess Gallagher and Gary Copeland Lilley.
Videos
A Raven Talk, June 1, 2019, presenting Anna Bálint: Voices from the margins: Words From the Café. Video recorded June 1, Saturday, 2-4 p.m., Douglass-Truth branch library, 2300 E. Yesler Way, Seattle.
Every Friday at Seattle’s Recovery Café, people struggling with addiction or mental illness or homelessness come together in Anna Bálint’s Safe Place Writing Circle to write and share writing. Here they discover their own unique voices and ways of shaping language to write stories and poems as part of reclaiming their lives. Anna Balint discusses the birth of WORDS FROM THE CAFE, an anthology and CD compilation, which introduces us to voices from some of the most marginalized members of society. Safe Place readers in the video: Bang Nguyen, Cathy Scott, K-Bob, Cathleen Knutson, Taumstar, Sara Beckmann, and Shelby Smith.
Videotaped/edited by Thomas R. Prince/Threadbare Productions.
RAVEN CHRONICLES PRESS IS INDEBTED TO OUR 2019 CO-SPONSORS FOR PARTIAL FUNDING OF OUR PROGRAMS: SEATTLE’S OFFICE OF ARTS & CULTURE; 4CULTURE / KING COUNTY LODGING TAX. THIS EVENT was SUPPORTED IN PART BY POETS & WRITERS.
Contact Information: https://www.ravenchronicles.org 206.941.2955, editors@ravenchronicles.org, Mailing address: 15528 12th Ave. NE, Shoreline, WA 98155
A Reading & Reception for Stealing Light Anthology, 10/21/18, 2:00-5:00 pm, Seattle Public Library, Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium, 1000 4th Ave, Seattle, WA. MCs: Paul Hunter & Anna Balint. Readers: dan raphael, Gretta Harley, Anna Balint, Alicia Hokanson, Paul r Harding, Nora Martin, Gail Tremblay, Bart Baxter, Kathleen Alcala, Paul Hunter, Joycelyn Moody, James Bertolino, Fatima Lim-Wilson, Stephan Magcosta, Alice Derry, Larry Laurence, Ann Spiers, Janet Yoder. Video Credits–Music: “Amame” from the album “Prodigal Light,” 2013, composed and performed by Amy Denio, with voices of Abel Rocha and Madeleine Sosin. Camera and video editing by Thomas R. Prince.
Video of Poets Against Hate Reading This video was recorded by Seattlechannel.org, City of Seattle Channel 21, on February 13, 2016, 2-5 pm, at the Central Seattle Public Library, in the Microsoft Auditorium, 1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA. Co-sponsored by Raven Chronicles, It’s About Time Writers Reading Series and The Seattle Public Library.
How Artists/Writers Rule the Information Economy
I’m Phoebe Bosche, managing editor of Raven Chronicles Press, a Seattle-Shoreline based press. We are here, in the Raven’s Roost, in Shoreline, King County, Washington. This is the first of hopefully many conversations we will have over the next year with writers and artists we have published or have collaborated with since 1991. We have been around a long time.
Paul Hunter’s poems have appeared in numerous journals, as well as in seven full-length books and three chapbooks. His first collection of farming poems, Breaking Ground (Silverfish Review Press, 2004), was reviewed in The New York Times, and received the 2004 Washington State Book Award. A second volume of farming poems, Ripening, was published in 2007, a third companion volume, Come the Harvest, appeared in 2008, and the fourth, Stubble Field, from the same publisher, appeared in 2012. He has been a featured poet on The News Hour, and has a prose book on small-scale, sustainable farming, One Seed to Another: The New Small Farming (Small Farmer’s Journal, 2010). His book of prose poetry, Clownery, In lieu of a life spent in harness, was published by Da-va-la Art & Books in 2017.
First off, we are talking to Paul Hunter, a long-time contributing editor to Raven Chronicles books and magazines about his recent book: His most recent book isSit a Tall Horse,eighteen contemporary cowhand stories from Davila Art & Books, 2020, in Sisters, Oregon. (www.davilabooks.com)