You can buy the issue or download a PDF at the bottom of the Current Issue page.

I was very happy to be reading alongside poet, Simone Youngblood, a colleague I had the pleasure of workshopping with back in 2008 when I took my first CSUS creative writing class with Professor Mary Mackey. This is the first time I was able to listen to Simone’s new work as well as some revised pieces which date back to our 2008 class.

I read Annotated Pai Gow Poker and Pretty Potion: An Annotated Recipe. Also, for the first time I was able to read an untitled creative nonfiction piece which I started back in 2008, when I attended CSU Summer Arts Writing the Memoir, in Fresno with Doug Rice. Originally, the prompt, given by Carole Maso, was to write about “a single instant of darkness.” I’ve revisited the piece time and again, but only four years later am I starting to feel satisfied with its shape and feel.

I want to add my special thanks to Doug Rice, Joshua McKinney and the CSU Sacramento English Department for inviting me to read at what was a very memorable and meaningful event.

Also, keep an eye out for the release of Doug Rice’s Between Appear and Disappear.

http://jenpalmaresmeadows.bigcartel.com/product/annotated-pai-gow-poker-chapbook

I’ve finished designing and binding my self-published chapbook “Annotated Pai Gow Poker“. While it was a lot of fun putting it all together, I learned a lot about how not to bind a chapbook. However, I am very happy with the end result.

The chapbook includes “Annotated Pai Gow Poker”, previously published in Denver Quarterly, and “Pretty Potion: An Annotated Recipe”, which was published in Chicken Skin and Impossible Trees. 

I’m hoping to stock a few copies in local Sacramento bookstores and plan on attending open mic readings to promote the chapbook. Also, I’ll be making the chapbook available for purchase on my website.

HOW TO SNIPE HUNT

Common snipe captured by night vision camera

OBJECT

To lead a snipe hunt, a form of wild-goose chase or practical joke that involves experienced people making fun of credulous newcomers by giving them an impossible or imaginary task. Inexperienced campers are told about a bird called the snipe as well as a usually preposterous method of catching it.

In the Boy Scouts of America, new scouts are often sent to go on a snipe hunt, ask other camps for some elbow grease, a bacon stretcher, find an inflatable dartboard, or borrow a “cup” of propane.

Around the Campfire: Setting up the Catchers

PLAYERS

• Snipe Flushers, practical jokesters
• Snipe Catchers, unsuspecting newcomers

EQUIPMENT

• Catching Bags
• Flashlights

GAME PLAY

During a camping trip, preferably at night while around the campfire, experienced campers encourage newcomers to join their snipe hunt, a rite of passage that involves catching an imaginary bird.

SET UP

Snipe Flushers (experienced hunters duped in previous snipe hunts) tell Snipe Catchers (unsuspecting newcomers) about the snipe, a family of shorebirds which are difficult to catch, so much so that the word “sniper” is derived from it to refer to anyone skilled enough to shoot one.

Catchers are told that the snipe is a nocturnal, flightless bird who lives in bushes, and can be flushed out by simple methods, which can include banging rocks together, making strange noises or imitating Fran Drescher of The Nanny. Catchers are encouraged to practice the snipe call again and again.

THE CALL

Players set out on their journey through a dark wood, preferably on a moonless night, armed with flashlights and bags for Catchers. Players hike to a previously chosen snipe hunting ground—a hilly area with bushes is best. It is important to be quiet, so as not to ‘scare’ the snipe away or alert them to your presence.

FLUSHING & CATCHING

Catcher assumes the snipe hunting position

Flushers climb to the top of the hill with the intent to ‘flush’ the snipe out of the bushes while unsuspecting Catchers wait eagerly at the bottom of the hill to catch the snipe, posed in awkward, embarrassing positions, such as with their rears in the air and bags between their legs.

Catchers repeat the snipe bird call again and again until Flushers charge the bushes, to ‘flush’ the imaginary snipe into the Catchers’ waiting bags.

Excited Catcher with bag in hand

WINNING THE GAME

Flushers should yell that they have seen the snipe, pointing into bushes and trees, until the Catchers, not wanting to be the only one who can’t see the imaginary snipe, will also claim that they too have seen them and run around searching for the birds.

THE RESULT

Flushers return to camp victorious, and although Catchers return empty-handed, they are wiser, and more confident as newly initiated Flushers for future snipe hunts.

Please note: This is only one derivative version of snipe hunting. Experienced Snipe Hunters are encouraged to use their imaginations when contriving new, more embarrassing methods for catching snipe, including  new positions and calls for Catchers. In some versions, Winning the Game can include ditching the Catchers and running off so that they can find their own ways back to the campsite.

Wed, Jul 6 | 7pm – 9pm | $10 – $15
Kearny Street Workshop, Intersection for the Arts and AMATE: Women Painting Stories
 present
The 8th Annual Interdisciplinary Writers Lab 2011 Literary Reading & Online Anthology Launch

Chicken Skin & Impossible Trees

Featuring IWL Participants and Instructors

Tickets: http://iwl-2011.eventbrite.com

IWL Participants:
Indira Allegra
Maria T. Allocco
Dylan Casama
Elwin Cotman
Erika Céspedes-Kent
Sarah Dayley
Lisa Hsia
Jen Palmares Meadows
Nayomi Munaweera
Ron Ragin
Jenny Strauss

IWL instructors:
Jaime Cortez
Cheryl Dunye
Leticia Hernandez
Brenda Wong Aoki

Location:

Intersection for the Arts
925 Mission Street Suite 109
San Francisco, CA 94103
More Information

www.theintersection.org
rebeka@theintersection.org, (415) 626-2787 x109

A second release party will be held the following evening on July 7th at Intersection for the Arts in correlation with Litquake. Visit Intersection for tickets and more information.

In March, I attended a Filipino American Writers Workshop at SFSU  and was lucky enough to work with both Barbara Jane Reyes (poetry) and Janet Stickmon (memoir). They are reading at Hercules Library on April 9th in a series of Conversations with Filipino/Filipino American Authors, which is geared to promote the first-ever Filipino American International Book Festival, which will gather authors of Filipino heritage based in the U.S. and abroad, Philippine and U.S. publishers, librarians, book dealers, academics and artists. The following is the press release.

—————————

PRESS RELEASE

HERCULES LIBRARY TO HOST TWO FILIPINO AMERICAN WOMEN AUTHORS

Two Filipino American women — poet Barbara Jane Reyes and memoirist Janet Mendoza Stickmon – will read from their books and talk about Living and Growing Up in America at the Hercules Library, 109 Civic Drive, Hercules, California, on Saturday, April 9 at 2 pm.

Sponsored by the Contra Costa County Library and the Literacy Initiatives International Foundation (LIIF), lead organizer of the forthcoming Filipino American International Book Festival (FilBookFest), Living and Growing Up in America will feature Reyes and Stickmon in conversation with Edwin Lozada, president of the Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA). Hercules Vice Mayor Myrna de Vera will also be present.The public is invited, admission is free.

Barbara Jane Reyes is the author of Diwata, a striking collection of poems woven between The Book of Genesis and Philippine Tagalog creation myth. Diwata is a moving narrative of split heritage and in-between traditions. Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the author of two previous collections of poetry, Gravities of Center (Arkipelago Books, 2003) and Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish Press, 2005), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets.

Janet Stickmon is the author of Crushing Soft Rubies, a memoir that writes of struggle, independence, racial identity and self-acceptance. “From her childhood home being burned to the ground, to the joys and conflicts with her Filipino family, to seeking a connection to her African-American heritage, and then to the beautiful moment of her marriage, Janet navigates the rough waters of love, spirit, identity, and survival, maintaining a life filled with faith and wonder.” Stickmon is a teacher, a wife and mother, and a Spoken Word artist.

Living and Growing Up in America is part of the series of Conversations with Filipino/Filipino American Authors that will be held in various libraries, universities and other public venues in the Bay Area. Conversations is geared to promote the first-ever Filipino American International Book Festival, which will gather authors of Filipino heritage based in the U.S. and abroad, Philippine and U.S. publishers, librarians, book dealers, academics and artists.

FilBookFest will be held at the San Francisco Public Library on October 1-2, 2011 and is sponsored by the Literacy Initiatives International Foundation (LIIF) in cooperation with the Philippine Consulate of San Francisco and the Filipino American Center of the San Francisco Public Library.

For more information about the festival, visit its website at www.filbookfest.info or at http://filbookfest.wordpress.com.

For more information on how to be part of FilBookFest as an author, exhibitor, sponsor, donor or volunteer, email the Steering Committee at filbookfest@yahoo.com.

Contact Persons: Tim Madigan (510) 245-2420
Estela Manila (510) 234-4523

March 25th at 6-8PM
Crema Coffee Roasting Company
950 The Alameda
San Jose, CA

Featuring…

• DIANA MONTAÑO
• NIKI ESCOBAR
• JACQULYN WHANG
• JANICE SAPIGAO
• SUSIE HUERTA

& Special Featured Performer: GEMMA NEMENZO

Writer Bios

Diana Montaño is a native of Mexico City and a product of divorce, microwave dinners and immigrant dreams. She is a recent graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and now spends her time teaching video to high school kids and producing a news program for Spanish language public radio. Diana believes that even though storytelling is our greatest weapon, it’s still a good idea to keep a bat under the bed.

Niki Escobar graduated in 2009 from the Creative Writing program at San Francisco State University. She is a Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation fellow, a recipient of the Frances Jaffer Prize in Poetry, and her first collection of work was a finalist in the Meritage Press Tabios contest. She will be entering two masters programs in the fall. Niki hopes to develop accessible health programs that integrate wellness with creative arts for low-income families.

Jacqulyn Whang is a cali baby, born and raised in Southern California, and raised again in the Bay Area. She is a member of Acts Full Gospel Church in Oakland, as well as Eun Sung Church in Rowland Heights. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and eating. She looks forward to graduating this semester from University of San Francisco with a BA in Literature, and a minor in Asian American Studies. And after college, she hopes to be a high school teacher. She has performed in HBO’s Brave New Voices ’08, LA’s Kollaberation Acoustic ’10, Lyricist Lounge at P4CM, local churches and schools, and now, here.

Janice Sapigao is a Pinay poet living in San Jose, CA and working with high school students in East Palo Alto, CA. She graduated from UC San Diego with a B.A. in Ethnic Studies and a minor in Urban Studies & Planning. She enjoys writing, reading, playing with stuffed animals and meeting other artists who are passionate about social justice and arts education. She hopes to earn her M.F.A. in Creative Writing one day soon.

Susana de Jesus Huerta is a composition writing instructor with poetic tendencies. She dedicates most of her energies to the California community college system and its inspiring student body. A Bay Area native, Susana was born of apricot dreams on Del Monte Cannery conveyer belts and raised in the thick of picket lines and union meetings among the dying orchards of San Jose. She is proud to call herself a VONA alum, and her work has appeared on La Bloga, El Coraje and Poets Responding to SB1070.

Gemma Nemenzo is the author of “Heart in Two Places: An Immigrant’s Journey.” She was the Managing Editor and columnist of Filipinas, the only monthly glossy magazine for the Filipino American community circulated in all fifty U.S. states. Before she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with her three children in 1988, she was a freelance journalist writing for various publications in Manila. She was also part of the pioneering team that conceptualized and created Batibot, the acclaimed children’s educational TV show. A journalism graduate of the University of the Philippines, Gemma has had extensive experience writing for both television and print. In the U.S., she worked for more than ten years as an abstractor/editor for a major electronic database publisher.

Join the Filipino American International Book Festival at our first Youth Events program! Come and celebrate Women’s Herstory Month with the Women Writers of Color that will share their work with us. More info soon!

filbookfest.info
filbookfest.wordpress.com
twitter: @filbookfest