RUSSIAN RIVER WRITERS' GUILD POETRY AND PROSE SERIES; A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Pat Nolan

RUSSIAN RIVER WRITERS' GUILD POETRY AND PROSE SERIES; A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

With early west county beginnings in bakeries, bars, and bookstores, the poetry and prose series of the Russian River Writers' Guild (RRWG) is the oldest ongoing reading series in the greater Bay Area and north coast. 

The RRWG has kept the "literatii" entertained in most west county towns, from Monte Rio, its first home, to Occidental, Guerneville, Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. 

Since the early '70's, both famous and infamous poets across the nation have shared the podium with local poets. Literally, hundreds of poets—from nationally recognized names such as McArthur prize recipient Robert Hass; Robert Bly whose translations of Rilke were published by Calliopea Press; and 95-year-old Meridel LeSueur, a McCarthy era blacklisted writer rediscovered in the 70's by the women's movement—to the real unknowns who have just discovered the power of the written word. 

Since the San Francisco literary renaissance of the '50's, when Kenneth Rexroth introduced experimental jazz and "Beat" poets such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac to the literary world of New York, the Bay Area poetry scene has blossomed. 

Hundreds of small presses abound and Poetry Flash, the Bay Area's literary calendar of events lists scores of readings for each day of the week. (needs tranzsition...)

One former RRWG coordinator, Andre Codrescu, Rumanian poet and editor of numerous books and anthologies including Up Late: American Poetry since 1970, is best known as the poetry correspondant for National Public Radio's weekly series, All Things Considered. His fellow coordinator, Pat Nolan has poems and translations published in Random House Book of 20th Century French Poetry, Paris Review, Rolling Stone, and Up Late. Codrescu lists Nolan as a leader of the "California School of Writing" according to Nolan's wife, Gail King, also a former Guild coordinator. 

Guild co-founder and "jewish mother", Marianne Ware, whose chapbook, Bodies Nearly Touching, published by Nolan and King (Doris Green Editions), was printed in the 1987 Editor's Choice II anthology highlighting small presses. The obligatory hug she gave each reader in greeting was dubbed by coordinator Jim Montrose the "obligatory hug" and became the name of the Guild's monthly newsletter which lists upcoming poetic events, prose, and poetry of featured readers. 

Former coordinators Lee Perron and Maureen Hurley said the heyday of the series ('79 to '82) was when novelist Margie Summerfield offered them a free space with a stage, lighting and sophistocated sound system at Garbo's Cabaret & Bar in Guernewood Park. Many customers who came in for a drink were startled at first, but soon took to poetry.

Lee Perron at SSU

Perron and Hurley booked many poetry and arts events that would appeal to larger audiences who traditionally didn't attend poetry readings. Poets and musicians, dancers and actors all performed their poetic works. Folksinger-poets U. Utah Phillips and Ed Balchowsky, Bobbie Louise Hawkins and Rosalie Sorrels; actor-director Fred Curchak, artist Greer Upton, dancer Jere Graham and songwriter Michael Beargrease Hansen were also part of the line up. 

Some poetry events drew crowds of more than 200 such as the poetry and musical extravaganza by Elizabeth Herron, Fran Carbonaro and Rick Duvall. It was raining like hell and the river was rising but Robert Bly who flew in for his book party at Sonoma State cosponsored by the Guild and Public Poetry Center, wandered in. They didn't charge him admission. 

For many, the Guild provides a platform to explore and develop new ideas and areers. Perron, published in American Poetry Review, and CoEvolution Quarterly developed Sun Moon Bear Productions, a small business which distributes prints and fine press poetry across the nation. 

Hurley, who wrote her first grant for RRWG, received artist-in-residency grants from national, state and private funders. From ad hoc RRWG documentor, she became a photojournalist and is published in San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, and Oakland Museum Magazine. 

Other coordinators from the RRWG's 17-year-history include Mark Clagett, Donna Champion, Bonnie Olsen, Claire Josefine, Ellen Appel, Gil Helmick and Hunce Voelker. 

Readers have included Sonoma poet Paul Mariah, publisher of 47 titles from Manroot Press; Pushcart Prize winners David Bromige and Sharon Doubiago; David Fisher, winner of the William Carlos Williams award; Beat poets Jack Michelene, and the late Bob Kaufman—who coined the word "Beatnik;" Jim Dodge of Fup fame; Gerald Haslam who wrote The Oakies; the late Boschka Layton and Helen Luster; and Canadian Poet Laureate Irving Layton, and Jorge Lujan from Mexico City 

The work of the Guild——whether booking readings, editing and publishing, or soliticing memberships is all facilitated by dedicated volunteers. RRWG's strength and longevity is a statement of the commitment of local poets to the organization. 

In 1985, RRWG entered the book publishing business with Tracks in the Widest Orbit, selected poems of J. H. Montrose, Jim was a Guild coordinator who died of cancer. In 1986, in Conjunction with Aldebaran Press, Falling to Sea Level, a bilingual edition of poems by Maureen Hurley and John Oliver Simon, now in its third printing, was released. 

Upcoming projects include the first ever RRWG anthology of participating poets and Sonoma county writers. The deadline for submission of poems, artwork, fiction and non-fiction is February 1, 1988. (See address below). 

Poetry is ideal entertainment for the traditional "blue Monday" night of the week when restaurants and cabarets close. Warning. Poetry can be addicting. Many of the Guild's followers have exclaimed, "I didn't know I even liked poetry!" 

The 8th annual Neurotic/Erotic Valentine Open Reading to be MC'd by the Madame of Poetry, Marianne Ware, is guaranteed to draw a large audience of poets of all persuasions. 

Readings at the Burbank Activities Center, 167 North High Street, Sebastopol are on the first and third Mondays of each month, 7:30 p.m., with a half-hour open mike followed by two featured readers. Admission is $2 at the door. 

In addition to the regular series, the Guild sponsors other events from time to time. Currently, on alternate Mondays, there are also readings at the Guerneville Veterans Memorial Building. Membership, participation and attendance of events are open to everyone. Language, lace cuff, surreal, dada, street, serious, academic, frivolous, and poets of all persuasions and opinions are welcome. 

For more information about the readings, workshops, publications, membership, or to volunteer, please call or write to Mark Clagett, Coordinator, Russian River Writers' Guild, 5P.O. Box 1123, Sebastopol, CA 95473. (707) 829-0237.

Elizabeth Herron

RRWG demise? The reports of its death were greatly overexaggerated

maureen hurley photos

Obligatory Hug, June, 1984, Burbank Activity Center, Sebastopol

Blue Mondays at Garbo’s Niteclub

During the early 1980s, West County poets and writers gathered at Garbo's Nightclub & Bar beneath towering redwoods. Just two miles outside of town (Guerneville), the pub was nestled on a thin sliver of land between a misbehavin' creek, the road and the raging beast of a river.

Once an old roadhouse, and a former bowling alley, Garbo's was a massive log lodge with hand-hewn beams, and a riverock fireplace crackling away. The stale odor of cigarette smoke, sweat and puke from the weekend traffic hitched a ride on the woodsmoke haze mellowed with an angel's portion of whiskey. But the sound system, run by Atilla Nagy, was sweetness and light.

What I remember are the winter nights, the rain falling in torrents, the Russian River rising ominously in the dark. The river kept us preoccupied during flood season: would it leap its banks? Would we make it home if it did? Would the water-laden cliffs at Korbel's Winery hold as we drove hellbent down River Road?

Seems like the hundred-year flood plain was being inundated on a yearly basis—or it was just seriously math-challenged. With that as catastrophic background music, we'd tuck in for an evening of poetry and line up for Open Mike.

The Russian River Writers’ Guild Poetry & Prose series was pretty much the only Monday entertainment on the River. Most places were closed—dark. So, after the poetry reading, songwriter-musicians including John Prine’s Brother, would drop by to test their wares. Sometimes we'd stay after hours, we'd buy up several rounds of drinks at closing to last us through the night, Sam the Bartender would lock the doors, and the folksingers would play.

The venue of Garbo's Niteclub was pretty amazing—one owner Margery Summerfield was a novelist with a new novel, "Compression Tested,"about existential life on the Russian River. She (and her partner Allen) were our literary angels, she let us have the space for free on Monday nights. Clubs were traditionally closed on Monday nights—called Blue Mondays because the lights were out (sort of).

Lee Perron at SSU

I was asked to join the Russian River Writers' Guild (RRWG) by a lover, Lee Perron—that's how I met the RRWG coordinators Marianne Ware, Donna Champion, Pat Nolan & Gail King. Andrei Codrescu of NPR fame had moved onto the Big Easy by then.

I was fresh fodder. Newly arrived to poetry, I was snagged by open mike and and then reeled in for booking poets and emceeing, and before I knew it, I was doing much of the publicity/newsletter. How did that happen? Then everybody dropped out. Leaving me as the bagman, or the doorwoman.

When Garbo's closed, we bounced up & down the River into any joint that would have us, then we moved to several venues in Santa Rosa, and Sebastopol (Johnny Otis's Niteclub was one of the last ones)—with many co-coordinators along the way: Glenn Ingersoll, Joe Pahls, Jim Montrose, Craig Taylor, Ann Erickson —even David Bromige & Steve Tills did a stint—but I was the longest running co-coordinator.

Bob Kaufman & Pat Nolan

I met lots of poets, good and bad. Some went on to worldwide fame: Michael Oandatje and Jane Hirshfield come to mind. We also booked local and traveling musicians: U. Utah Phillips, Rosalee Sorrells, Ed Balchowsky, Holly Near, Ronnie Gilbert, Nina Gerber, and the Beat poets: Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Joanne Kyger, Diane DiPrima. I'm sure I'll remember many other names—now that I've disturbed the relative harmony of age, distance and forgetfulness—and expand this piece as I go. (Or write another blogeen). This is merely a placeholder, this piece was lifted from my blog on John Prine.

After her mother's funeral, Donna was cleaning house and offered to give me all the old RRWG newsletters and memorabilia. I said "No, not yet," not wanting to open that particular Pandora's box. It swallowed me whole then, and threatens to engulf me now from across the suspension bridge of time. When I look at the proof sheets, I am overwhelmed. (It really launched me into a lifetime passion of taking photos of poets, as I felt an overwhelming need to document our ephemera).

Book covers: Andrei Codrescu, Jeffrey Miller

The Russian River Writers' Guild: origins

The Russian River Writers' Guild was unofficialy founded when Sebastopol poet Donna Champion, who needed some community service credits at Sonoma State, joined forces with fellah poet, Marianne Ware, in the fall of 1978. Before that, the west county reading series, curated by Pat Nolan, Gail King, Andrei Codrescu, Hunce Voelcker, Jeffrey Miller, etc., had no real name, nor permanent home. At one point it was called The Sonoma County Writers' Association, or Sonoma County Russian River Writers, etc.

This poster below was for a reading at Odd Fellows Junction (formerly Brothers), 2 miles east of Guerneville, on Highway 116. Sometimes readings were held in living rooms, at the crossroads, in a makeshift castle with a real moat and drawbridge, or even in an old redwood stump. I remember attending a memorial reading and book party for Jeffrey Miller, which was held inside an old redwood snag near (or in) the Bohemian Grove in Monte Rio, sometime in the late 1970s. That was probably my introduction to the Russian River poets.

Poets also read at Country Grounds in Guerneville. But I first became aware of the reading series when it moved to a new venue, Garbo's Nightclub and Cabaret in Guerneville in 1978. And the Garbo's reading series was my induction into the guild. The name was codified as The Russian River Writers' Guild when we became a 501c3 non-profit organization in order to apply for a CAC grant.

Despite its fluctuating name, the RRWG held the distinction of being the Northern Bay Area's longest running series. The list of poets who read for the series is like a Who's Who in poetry. It is my intent to post RRWG ephemera here, as a sort of timeline, as the material has been swallowed in my behemoth of a Literrata blog. I mean, what else is there to do with all those old posters, poems and photos living in attics and basements?

Diane diPrima at NPW

In the earliest of daze, the poets gaze....

What to do with all those old literary archives—why, scan them, of course. Welcome to our latest blog, the archives of the North Bay Area's longest running poetry series, the Russian River Writers' Guild, founded in 1972, or 73, depending upon your source. I cannibalized posts from my blog, Literrata to enhance this blog. So this project is very much in medias res... please bear with me while I massage all the bits and pieces together to make a timeline of sorts. If you were a reader, please reveal yourselves, share your stories, and memorabilia. Leave poems, and comments. So many (in)famous writers. So many crazy nights. This stuff needs to be documented, and I'm counting on you to remember, O collective hive mind. A little backstory:

Since the early '70's, both famous and infamous poets across the nation have shared the podium with local poets at the Russian River Writers' Guild poetry and prose reading series. Literally, hundreds of poets—from nationally recognized names such as MacArthur prize recipient Robert Hass; Robert Bly whose translations of Rilke were published by Calliopea Press; and 95-year-old Meridel LeSueur, a McCarthy era blacklisted writer rediscovered in the 70's by the women's movement—to the real unknowns who have just discovered the power of the written word. 

Guild coordinators Lee Perron and Maureen Hurley said the heyday of the series (1979 to '82) was when novelist Margie Summerfield offered them a free space with a stage, lighting and sophisticated sound system at Garbo's Cabaret & Bar in Guernewood Park. Many customers who came in for a drink were startled at first, but soon took to poetry like ducks to water. The Paper:  RUSSIAN RIVER WRITERS' GUILD POETRY AND PROSE SERIES; AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE (1/6/88)

The Sunday evening poetry series, called Poetry, for lack of a better handle, began in 1973, or 73, depending upon whom you talked to. The ad hoc poetry group met in people's homes, and cafes like West of the Laguna, Brothers, and Odd Fellows Junction.

Lee Perron, Marianne Ware, Sam the Bartender, Maureen Hurley, Eady & Jim Montrose

One former co-founder, Andrei Codrescu, Rumanian poet, and poetry correspondent for NPR's weekly series, All Things Considered, dubbed his fellow poetry conspirator, Pat Nolan, a leader of the "California School of Writing" according to Nolan's wife, Gail King, who was also a coordinator. Other coordinators included Ellen Appel, Gordon Carrega, Gil Helmick, and Hunce Voelker.

The nameless poetry series, a showcase for the 1970s new school of writing, and local talent, featured writers including Pat Nolan, Gail King, Jeffrey Miller, Diane diPrima, Steve Petty, Richard Welin, Gerrye Payne, Marianne Ware, and Donna Champion.

Newcomer, Donna Champion, who had read for the series in 1976, was expertly reeled in by Marianne Ware who was after new blood when Andrei Codrescu fled to New Orleans. Donna coined the Guild's moniker when she needed a title for her community project at Sonoma State University in 1978. And the name, the Russian River Writers' Guild, shortened to RRWG, which stuck, apostrophe and all.

RRWG guild co-founder and "Jewish mother", Marianne Ware, greeted each reader with a big hug, which was dubbed by coordinator Jim Montrose as the "obligatory hug" which became the name of the Guild's monthly newsletter of upcoming poetic events, prose, and poetry of featured readers––circa July of 1982.

Pat Nolan

Burnout was a constant problem as most of the former coordinators had either dropped out, or moved on. Over the years, many Sonoma County poets stepped up to help carry the mantle that Marianne Ware, and Donna Champion, who were the last ones of the original group left upholding the series in 1979. Maureen Hurley, Lee Perron, Jim Montrose, Joe Pahls, Mark Clagett, Craig Taylor, Bonnie Olsen, Claire Josephine, Glenn Ingersoll, David Bromige, Steve Tills, Jim McCrary, Jayne McPherson....(don’t take offense if we didn’t list you, we're adding names as we go.)

And all the poets who read for the series—reads like a veritable Who's Who in poetry: Pat Nolan, Gail King, Andrei Codrescu, Jonathan London, Doug Powell, Carolyn Kizer, Jane Hirshfield, David Bromige, Michael Oandaje, Elizabeth Herron, Jerry Rosen, Gerry Haslam, Bob Kaufman, Gene Ruggles, Robert Bly, Dorianne Laux, Utah Phillips, Rosalee Sorrells, Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Joanne Kyger, Ed Balchowsky, Ramon Sender Morningstar, Susan and Philip Suntree, Lewis McAdams, Molly Fisk, Frances Mayes, Paul Mariah, May Sarton's sister, and Madame Blavatsky.... those were wild times.

This list is just the beginning—we'll be fluffing up the history pillows and developing the timeline in the near future. And it will be a challenge to name all the venues that hosted the series up and down the Russian River, to Sebastopol, and Santa Rosa—we read in tree stumps, living rooms, pizza parlors, bars and niteclubs, cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, and senior centers—any place that would have us. 

Venues: West of the Laguna?, Brothers/Odd Fellows Junction, Country Grounds, Garbo's Cabaret, Stumptown Annie's, Fife's Resort, several other venues before we moved off the river. Coffee & Co.,  Creative Space annex above Copperfield’s, Burbank Activity Center, Copperfield's, and another small market venue in Sebastopol (plus one-off events at the Sebastopol Veteran's Hall, the Episcopal Church in Guerneville,  the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Santa Rosa, Sonoma State University), Aroma Roasters, Franklin Street Clubhouse, Higher Grounds, Mudd's, in Santa Rosa; Johnny Otis Niteclub in Sebastopol... (I need help here).

Maureen Hurley said, I gave 20 years of my life to promoting poets and producing poetry readings in Sonoma County. I was an open mike poet, was elevated to featured reader, then emcee, then booker, grantwriter, photographer, and eventually Executive Director. In other words, I was the last one standing. Like the phoenix, the series died, and was reborn again and again.... until it died for good in the mid-1990s. We're not even sure when poetry died in Sonoma County. But it did. Long live the Russian River Writers' Guild.

It was a largely thankless job. Unpaid, of course. There's no money in poetry, or herding cats. There were plenty of catfights and petty rivalries bested many of us. The biggest insult, was when an anthology was produced by the Russian River Women Writers, an offshoot of the guild, and my work wasn't included, out of spite because of a petty RRWG booking SNAFU where Maureen calligraphed Margaret Ellingson's very long name smaller in order to fit it on the flyer (no typesetting in those days). When the guild made another collective anthology edited by Jayne McPherson, A Stone's Throw, the oversight was rectified, but by then, she was spun and done with the RRWG for good. But these poets, whether good, bad, or indifferent—were our teachers and mentors. 

I've created a database list below the year entries. It should pull up every event for each featured poet.

—Maureen Hurley 12/3/2018