The 2012-2013 Visiting Writers Series featured short story writer Mike Buckley, poet John Brantingham, and poet and publisher Paul Tayyar on Thursday, April 11^th, 2013, at California State University, Long Beach’s Soroptomist House.

Michael Buckley read the beginning of a science fiction dystopian novel that takes place in Long Beach at The Pike before it was, what he described as, the “washed up corporate thing” that it is today. Buckley evoked a Pike much “dirtier, seedier, [and] characterized by tiny, shady streets and lots of strange people.” The title of his piece was “The Contortionist,” and it featured the two main characters meeting for the first time after a large war. He also read his short story “I Didn’t Know Her At All.”

Buckley received his M.F.A. from CSULB in 2009, and has since published a collection of short stories called Miniature Men. His fiction has appeared in national journals, like The Southern California Review, and is anthologized frequently. He is also a science fiction writer and co-founder of SciFutures, a consultancy firm that uses science fiction to shape corporate policy.   

John Brantingham read five poems from his book East of Los Angeles (Anaphora Press, 2011), including “Home Tectonics,” “We Turn Out the Lights,” and one of several poems titled “Los Angeles.” Brantingham said that his collection is about his trying to leave the San Gabriel Valley and being forced back. He also read some of his new poems.

Brantingham is the author of several other books, including Mann of War and Let Us All Pray Now to Our Own Strange Gods. His poetry has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac and in hundreds of magazines in both the U.S. and the U.K. He also teaches composition and creative writing at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California.

Paul Tayyar, Buckley, and Brantingham then discussed the pros of independent publishing. Tayyar began by talking about how World Parade Books started, and he later encouraged the aspiring writers in the room, who may be feeling discouraged about entering the publishing world, “to take matters into their own hands” by organizing readings, small presses, or online literary sites. Tayyar, Buckley, and Brantingham then engaged in a Q&A among each other before taking questions from the audience.

Tayyar received his M.A. degree in American Literature from CSULB in 2001, and went on to earn his Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of California, Riverside. He teaches at Golden West College and is the founding director of World Parade Books. He recently published a novella titled In the Footsteps of the Silver King (Spout Hill Press 2012), and his collection of poems titled Magic Carpet Poems will be released later this year.

L-R: Brantingham, Tayyar, and Buckley

Written by Cortney Kimoto

The 2012-2013 Visiting Writers Series featured Christina Adams, author of A Real Boy: A True Story of Autism, Early Intervention, and Recovery (Penguin, 2005), on Thursday, March 7^th, 2013, at California State University, Long Beach’s Soroptomist House. Adams began her talk by discussing her career progression and recent career that involves working on a new book about the benefits of camel milk for people with autism. She then addressed writers’ goals and asked, “What makes a book or article worth reading?” In response, she offered four features of readable work: truth, story, pace, and writing skill. Adams claimed that writing is at once selfish and selfless: taking time from others and making one self-involved while giving readers enjoyment, emotion, and important information. Speaking to aspiring writers, Adams recommended writing two to four hours a day to develop strong skills and publishable work. She outlined tools for writing, ranging from notes to multimedia, and encouraged writers in the audience to persevere and follow new, unexpected paths. “Writing,” Adams explained, “helps you figure out your personal life, which leads to better living.”

Adams transitioned into a discussion of her latest venture by showing a photograph of her and Gil Reigler receiving frozen Israeli camel milk from San Diego International Airport at 2 a.m. “How weird is that? I’m not an animal person. Who knew?” she said. Adams came across camel milk after the publication of her book in 2005. Following a hunch about the benefits of camel milk for people with autism, she got some camel milk, gave it to her son, and immediately saw improvements in her son’s autism. Her son is now fifteen years old and continues to benefit from camel milk. Sharing her experiences, Adams truly demonstrated that material, from the mundane to the mysterious, is where you find it. “People are interested in the odd and the universal. Joining the two is a triumph,” she said. Concluding her talk, Adams offered the following advice on how to succeed as a writer: workshop your manuscript, go to conferences, contact agents, establish a credible platform, refine you message, research potential buyer numbers (factually define your audiences), and use social media in your proposal or pitch.

Adams then read a selection from her work in progress Peace, Love, and Camel Milk. Click here to watch her presentation and here to watch the Q&A session that followed.

Adams wrote fiction in CSULB’s M.F.A. program, and her master’s thesis, titled Boozy Creek, won the award for “best first chapter of a novel.” Despite her focus on fiction throughout graduate school, however, Adams made a career for herself in nonfiction writing, working in government and the aerospace industry. She turned her attention to autism after her son was diagnosed at age two. Since then, she delivers lectures nationally on relationships, health, and autism, and has had her work featured in Autism File Global Magazine, The Washington Post, Child Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, and several other venues. Adams has also been interviewed by Web M.D., NPR, and many other television and radio shows.  

The Visiting Writers Series has been a tradition at CSULB for decades, hosting many of the country’s most prominent writers. The 2012-2013 series is really something special because it welcomes back graduates of CSULB’s Creative Writing M.F.A. program who are now out in the world writing and publishing books.

All readings in the 2012-2013 Visiting Writers Series are co-sponsored by CSULB’s Department of English, English Students’ Association (ESA), HipPoetics Creative Writing Club, and Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation.

[Photo: L-R Stephen Cooper and Christina Adams]

Written by Cortney Kimoto

Based on Fulbright-supported studies in Cyprus (2008) and Rwanda (2004), Sheley’s essay examines the commonalities of cultural conflicts that are rooted in faulty educational processes which often include a dependence upon rote learning, a belief in incomplete or biased historical narratives, a lack of critical thinking infused in learning, and educational structures that require obedience over critical reflection.  Further, her essay illumines the difficulties in U.S. schools with bullying and inadequate methods to deal with aggressive behavior.  Ultimately, Sheley argues that all three countries need improved curricula to ensure the education of better citizens for communities, countries, and the world.

Click here to access the entire volume.

The following is from the upcoming collection:

IT TAKES, IT TAKES A BUSY MAN 

by Gerald Locklin

He hadn’t made a dent

In his list for weeks.

One of the items was “Call Z.”

Then one day Z’s wife called to say

That Z had died.

He was ashamed to catch himself

Indulging in a feeling of accomplishment

As he crossed “Call Z” off his list.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gerald Locklin is a professor emeritus of English at California State University, Long Beach, where he taught full-time from 1965-2007, retains his office and contact information, and still teaches an occasional class as needed. He has published fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews prolifically in periodicals and in over a hundred and fifty books, chapbooks, and broadsides. Recent or upcoming books include a fiction e-Book, The Sun Also Rises in the Desert, from Mendicant Bookworks; a collection of poems, Deep Meanings: Selected Poems, 2008-2013, from PRESA Press; three simultaneously released novellas from Spout Press; and a French collection of his prose, Candy Bars:  Le Dernier des Damnes, due May 7, 2013, from 13e Note Press, Paris. Event Horizon Press released new editions of A Simpler Time, A Simpler Place and Hemingway Colloquium: The Poet Goes to Cuba in 2011; Coagula Press released the first of two volumes of his Complete Coagula Poems; and From a Male Perspective appeared from PRESA Press. Click here to visit Locklin’s website.  

Rafael Zepeda recently published his book Desperados (World Parade Books, 2013).

Beef Torrey, Co-Editor of Jim Harrison: A Comprehensive Bibliography and Conversations With Hunter S. Thompson, had the following to say about Zepeda’s Desperados:

[It's] an enchanting and captivating cachet, cut from Zepeda’s own Iberian legacy. It presents the reader with a zany romp through the hinterlands of the Baja Peninsula of Mexico and beyond. The story chronicles the son’s quest for his nomadic, manic, half-crazed father–as the 21st Century resurrection of the legendary bandito Joaquin Murrieta, who was Mexico’s Jesse James. Encountering a colorful array of characters along the way, “Desperados” is an arresting rendering of their adventures and escapades–a historical travelogue of conquest and surrender.   

Zepeda is a Professor of English at California State University, Long Beach. His previous books include Horse Medicine & Other Stories, Toa Driver and Selected Poems, The Wichita Poems, The Yellow Ford of Texas, and The Durango Poems. His poems and stories have appeared in many anthologies and magazines. He has received a National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in Fiction, a California Artists’ Fellowship, and a Poets, Essayists and Novelists Syndicated Fiction Award.

David Fine, professor emeritus of English, will discuss his recently published novel, Missing Persons (The Troy Book Makers, 2012). Click here for more information.

Thursday, March 21 // Location AS 384

Sarah Arroyo will discuss material from her forthcoming book, Participatory Composition: Video Culture, Writing, and Electracy (SIU Press, 2013).

Thursday, April 25 // Location AS 384

Susan Carlile will discuss her work-in-progress, a biography of Charlotte Lennox.

Spout Hill Press recently released Gerald Locklin’s Bear Trilogy: a reprint of The Case of the Missing Blue Volkswagen and the follow-up novellas Come Back, Bear and Last Tango in Long Beach.

As noted on the publisher’s website, Spout Hill Press is “dedicated to the beauty and elegance that can be found only in the novella. We publish works of this length because so many of our favorite works were written in this form. Our mission is to publish the best novellas we read, whether they are from long-established writers or those who are new to the field.”

The following descriptions of Locklin’s novellas are from the Spout Hill Press website:

The Case of the Missing Blue Volkswagen is Gerald Locklin’s classic post-modern epic of Los Angeles and gumshoe detectives. At once homage and spoof, the novella follows Bear, a private detective, as he searches for the eponymous blue Volkswagen through the meanest streets of the West Coast and into a more dangerous world, his subconscious. The novella is at once a comedy, a discussion of the detective genre, and a look into the various cultures and subcultures of the 1970s.

Come Back, Bear is Gerald Locklin’s long awaited sequel to The Case of the Missing Blue Volkswagen. Where Locklin explored the subconscious and the idea of the detective novel in the first novella of the series, here he delves into the Western novel and the idea of loyalty. Locklin is at his best here as he becomes irreverent in his relationships, his love of the classic cowboy novel, and his view of America.

Last Tango in Long Beach completes Gerald Locklin’s trilogy of post-modern novellas that began with The Case of the Missing Blue Volkswagen and continued with Come Back, Bear. In this final story, Locklin explores the 1970s sex drama but backs away from his classic humor to take an inside look at the politics of a real couple. It takes a painfully accurate view of the way life can be in the long run even with people who love each other.

Come celebrate Locklin’s new Sprout Hill Press Releases at Gatsby Books (5535 E. Spring St. Long Beach 90808) on March 7, 2013, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. Locklin will read and sign his novellas (already on sale at Gatsby Books).

Gerald Locklin is now a professor emeritus of English at California State University, Long Beach, where he taught from 1965 to 2007, and continues as an occasional part-time lecturer. He has published over 3000 poems, stories, articles, reviews, and interviews in periodicals, and is the author of over 125 books, chapbooks, and broadsides of poetry, fiction, and criticism. Locklin‘s poetry will appear in the upcoming Silver Birch Press Green Anthology, scheduled to be released March 15, 2013. Click here to visit Locklin’s website.

Click here to watch Dr. Stephen Cooper’s introduction to the film screening, and here to watch the Q&A session with Irek Dobrowolski.

Co-hosts: The College of Liberal Arts, Jewish Studies Program, Department of English, and Department of Romance, German, Russian Languages and Literature

Ferris arrived at CSULB in 1977 after starting teaching at California State University, Northridge in 1975.

Amazon.com’s Description of The Pain Scale

Long Beach homicide detective Danny Beckett returns from a year-long medical leave badly scarred and in constant pain, yet determined to prove he still has what it takes to do the job. He gets his chance when a call comes in that shocks even the toughest guys in the squad room: A California congressman’s daughter-in-law and grandchildren have been brutally murdered in their upscale home. At first glance, it looks like a robbery gone wrong, but Danny’s not so sure. Something doesn’t quite add up. With state and local law enforcement in an uproar and the media circling like vultures, the pressure’s on for Danny and his partner, Jennifer Tanaka, to solve this one. Too much is at stake…and not just politically. Even if they manage to crack the case, there’s no guarantee the stress won’t derail Danny’s recovery. Because while the doctors can treat his physical pain, no one can erase the agony of the past that haunts every step he takes—and threatens to destroy his career once and for all.