Get Lit! w/ Spagna, Arsdale + Conran

Get Lit celebrates SPRING with special guest readers Ana Maria Spagna, Sarah Van Arsdale and A. E. Conran ! We sure hope you’ll join us!

Following our guest readers, we’ll have time for schmoozing, buying books and drinks and then YOU can read on the open mic (5 minute limit).

Ana Maria Spagna lives and writes in Stehekin, Washington, a remote community in the North Cascades accessible only by boat, trail, or float plane. She is the author most recently of the braided nonfiction narrative Reclaimers, stories of people reclaiming sacred land and water, as well as the memoir/history Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter’s Civil Rights Journey, winner of the River Teeth literary nonfiction prize, and two collections of essays, Potluck: Community on the Edge of Wilderness, finalist for the Washington State Book Award, and Now Go Home, a Seattle Times Best Book of 2004. Her writing on nature, work, civil rights, and life in a small community has appeared in dozens of publications including Orion, Ecotone, Creative Nonfiction, North American Review, and High Country News.

Sarah Van Arsdale’s fourth book of fiction, In Case of Emergency, is just out with Queen’s Ferry Press, April, 2012. Her third novel, Grand Isle, was published by SUNY Press in 2012. Her second, Blue, winner of the 2002 Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel, was published by the University of Tennessee Press in 2003, and her first, Toward Amnesia, was published in 1996 by Riverhead Books. Her poetry, book reviews, interviews and essays have appeared in national publications, including Guernica, Passages North, Fiction Writers Review, Bookslut, Episodic, and Oxford Magazine. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College, and teaches at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts MFA in Creative Writing Program and at NYU. She serves on the board of the Ferro-Grumley Award in Fiction and curates BLOOM: The Reading Series at Hudson View Gardens in New York City.

A. E. Conran (Amanda) is a children’s book author, freelance editor, children’s book specialist and children’s book club facilitator at Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA. The Lost Celt is her first middle grade novel. A modern adventure story, it draws upon video games, time-travel conspiracies, Roman and Celtic history and the ancient stories of Irish warrior hero Cuchulain, but ultimately it deals with the invisible effects of war on veterans and their families throughout the generations and the transcendent power of friendship. Katherine Applegate, Author of THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN and Winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal says, “THE LOST CELT is the best kind of children’s adventure story, full of taut suspense, riveting action, and, most importantly, humor and heart. Not to be missed.” Originally from England, Amanda now lives in the Bay Area with her husband, two kids and lots of squirrels, deer and coyotes…in the back garden, not in the house!

*NEW FOR 2016: Join hosts Dani Burlison and Kara Vernor the 4th Wednesday of January, April, July and October for the Get Lit reading series at Corkscrew Wine Bar in Petaluma!

Each event features three guest readers with a short open mic immediately following. Authors will have books and other materials available to purchase. Corkscrew will have fantastic wine, beer, non-alcoholic beverages, appetizers and desserts for sale at the bar, as well.

Get Lit is a free, 21+ event