We had a terrific launch for the first Yuba Lit community reading in Grass Valley on September 24th, with about 45 people in attendance. Great thanks to Molly Fisk, Christian Kiefer, and Joshua Mohr for sharing their gripping and beautifully written work. And kudos to the audience members who stepped up to share a poem or a page during our opening flash-reading round. We heard writing at its finest, met and mingled over local Szabo wine, browsed the treasures on the shelves of our host venue, The Open Book, and marveled at Christian Kiefer’s abilities to push the needle on the applause-o-meter during our contest for “most intriguing book title” found in the stacks. (The winner? Christian’s own brilliant title for his second novel, The Animals, natch.) All that and we raised $200 at the door for the Bear Yuba Land Trust. Can’t wait to do it again on November 19th with readers Amy Rutten, Louis B. Jones, and Janis Cooke Newman. Updated info is now posted on www.yubalit.org.

And now I’ll be keeping my head down this coming week as I put finishing touches on the public craft talk I’ll be delivering as a Visiting Writer in the MFA program of Saint Mary’s College of California on October 7th.

UPDATE: Nice mention for Yuba Lit in Keri Brenner’s column in The Union here. Writes Brenner:

[Molly] Fisk was one of three presenters last week at the first Yuba Lit community reading that drew more than 50 people to The Open Book in Grass Valley. The event was a success; apparently there is quite the appetite for good writing and poetry in Nevada County.

Yuba Lit will hold another community reading in November. One of the speakers is expected to be San Francisco-based writer Janis Cooke Newman, author of the recently released novel, “A Master Plan for Rescue” (Riverhead).