by Steve Heilig
Richard Brautigan once observed that “It’s really something to have fame put its feathery crowbar under your rock and then upward to the light to release you, along with seven grubs and a sow bug.” And he would know — Brautigan went from shy, impoverished, unknown struggling writer to world-renowned wealthy counter-cultural icon and back [...]
by Steve Heilig
If all of the homeless people in the United States formed their own city, its population would be very close to that of San Francisco — about 750,000. About 40 percent of those people are part of homeless families. The othere, single, maybe — most likely — solitary, otherthan some loyal pets. And many, many [...]
by Steve Heilig
I don’t “do” many poetry readings — as some wag once quipped, riffing off Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem Howl, “I saw the best minds of my time bored at poetry readings…” But this one, held in Marin on a beautiful October Sunday afternoon, well, it felt historic, and I got a bit carried away. Walt [...]
After easing into the harbor and finding the loading chutes occupied, the Cabot’s captain decided to put to sea and wait out the choppy water. As she came about she got very near the cliff on the south side of the bay and found herself in a precarious position despite dropping both anchors. A rowboat [...]
by Todd Walton
The first few times I finished writing a novel (each book representing two or three years work), I was gripped by the same terrible fear that I might die before I could make copies of the books and send them out into the world.
by Todd Walton
just finished reading an excellent book by British historian Derek Wilson: A Brief History of Henry VIII, 386 pages of densely informative prose that is certainly not brief by American standards.
by Steve Heilig
The seventh-grade classroom fell silent, before I noticed it and then it was too late; the teacher was standing over me and all the other kids were staring. Some were smirking. “Give me that little book you’re reading,” she demanded, holding out her craggy hand. My face flushing, I removed it from behind our boring [...]
by Steve Heilig
Well over 200 people came to West Marin from far and wide on a recent Sunday to hear United States Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin give a rare reading in West Marin. His appearance was arranged by and at Commonweal, an environmental and health institute where I work at times. It was the only reading he [...]
Remembering long time AVA contributor and author John Ross.
by Todd Walton
I wonder how Mark Twain would feel if he knew his novel Huckleberry Finn has been rewritten in such a way that the meaning of his book is entirely changed, and that such an execrable mutation of his work is about to be afflicted on the next generation of American school children.
