Why There Are Words: “Rhyme or Reason”

“Rhyme or Reason.” The third track from Eminem’s eighth studio album in which the rapper sings along with the chorus of “Time of the Season.” Attributed to poet Edmund Spenser in a letter with Queen Victoria as the first to utter the words. This in response to his having composed the poem “The Faire Queen” in honor of Queen Elizabeth and expecting his promised L100, to which the High Treasurer of the time felt the sum was too much for a poem. The Queen, however, granted the money immediately after Spenser’s plea. Definitely found in Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors and in As You Like It. Join us April 14, 2016, at Studio 333 on 333 Caledonia Street in Sausalitoto hear the following acclaimed authors give you their take on these words. Doors open at 7pm; readings begin at 7:15. $10

A.E. Conran is a freelance editor, bookseller, book talker, and children’s book club facilitator at Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA. Originally from England, she holds a BA (Hons) and MPhil in English from Leeds University. She is a member of the Tuesday Night Writers group, which hosts the bi-monthly Pints and Prose Reading series in Fairfax, and co-organizer of Better Books Marin, a craft-based children’s book conference now in its fourth year. Her first middle grade novel, The Lost Celt, was just launched on March 15. Katherine Applegate, Author of The One and Only Ivan and winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal said, “The Lost Celt is the best kind of children’s adventure story, full of …humor and heart. Not to be missed.”

Born on the German coast of the Baltic Sea, Stefan Kiesbye moved to Berlin in the early 1980s. He studied drama and worked in radio before a scholarship brought him to Buffalo, New York. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and in the Coachella Review, among others. His first book,Next Door Lived a Girl, won the Low Fidelity Press Novella Award, and has been translated into German, Dutch, and Spanish. Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone made EW’s Must List and was named one of the best books of 2012 by Slate editor Dan Kois, and was optioned for television by Warner Bros. The German edition of Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone was published by Tropen Verlag, the Spanish edition by Editorial Almadia. The gothic novel Messer, Gabel, Schere, Licht (Knives, Forks, Scissors, Flames) was published by Tropen Verlag in 2014. Ars Vivendi Verlag released the The LA Noir Fluchtpunkt Los Angeles (Vanishing Point) in February 2015. The Staked Plains, a novella, was recently published by Saddle Road Press. Kiesbye teaches creative writing at Sonoma State University.

Allie Marini holds degrees from Antioch University of Los Angeles and New College of Florida, meaning she can explain deconstructionism but cannot perform simple math. Her work has been a finalist for Best of the Net & nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is managing editor for theNonBinary Review, Unbound Octavo, & Zoetic Press, and co-edits forLucky Bastard Press with her man, performance poet B Deep. She has previously served on the masthead for Lunch Ticket, Spry Literary Journal, The Weekenders Magazine, Mojave River Review & Press, & The Bookshelf Bombshells. Allie is the author of Unmade & Other Poems, (Beautysleep Press), You Might Curse Before You Bless (ELJ Publications)wingless, scorched & beautiful, (Imaginary Friend Press), Before Fire, (ELJ Publications), This Is How We End (Bitterzoet), Pictures From The Center Of The Universe (Paper Nautilus, winner of the Vella Prize),Cliffdiving (Nomadic Press), And When She Tasted of Knowledge(Nomadic Press), Southern Cryptozoology: A Field Guide To Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Hyacinth Girl Press),Here Comes Hell {dancing girl press}, and Heart Radicals, a collaborative collection with Les Kay, Janeen Pergrin Rastall, and Sandra Marchetti (ELJ Publications). Allie rarely sleeps, and her mother has hypothesized that she is actually a robot fueled by Diet Coke & Sri Racha. Find her on the web: @kiddeternity.

Nayomi Munaweera’s debut novel Island of a Thousand Mirrors was long-listed for the Man Asia Literary Prize and the Dublin IMPAC Prize. It won the Commonwealth Regional Prize for Asia and was short-listed for the Northern California Book Award. Publisher’s Weekly wrote, “Munaweera’s… lyrical debut novel [is] worthy of shelving alongside her countryman Michael Ondaatje or her fellow writer of the multigenerational immigrant experience, Jhumpa Lahiri.” The New York Times Book review called the novel, “incandescent.” Nayomi’s second novel What Lies Between Us was released in February 2016 and has already been reviewed to great acclaim in venues from the SF Chronicle to Buzzfeed.

Barbara Roether is a writer and teacher based in San Francisco. She grew up in Ohio and left rather quickly, and rather young. Her debut novel This Earth You’ll Come Back Toexplains why. She has lived and worked in Morocco and Indonesia. Before teaching, she worked in book publishing as an editor and freelance writer, and has contributed to many books on travel and religion. As an editor at HarperCollins, she created Signs of the Sacred, a series of visual books on religious ritual. She is the author of a poetry collection The Middle Atlas, while essays and short fiction have appeared in Tricycle, Yoga Journal, and various literary magazines. She holds an MFA from Bard College where she was the recipient of the Milton Avery Fellowship in the Arts.

Kathleen Winter is the author of Nostalgia for the Criminal Past (Elixir Press), winner of the Antivenom Poetry Prize and the Texas Institute of Letters 2013 Bob Bush Memorial Award.  Her poems have appeared in Tin House, AGNI, The New Republic, Gulf Coast, Poetry London, and other journals. She was awarded fellowships at the Dora Maar House, James Merrill House, Cill Rialaig Retreat, and Vermont Studio Center. During fall semester 2015, she was the Ralph Johnston Fellow at the Dobie Paisano Ranch, selected by the University of Texas and Texas Institute of Letters. She teaches at Napa Valley College and lives in Glen Ellen.

Katie M Zeigler is a writer and teacher living in Walnut Creek, CA. She holds a BA and MA in Literature from Stanford University and has had short fiction and non-fiction published in a variety of outlets, including A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, the Fish Anthology, andStanford Magazine. She won the Stanford Magazine Fiction Contest and was a finalist in Glimmer Train’s short fiction contest. She is currently working on a young adult novel and teaches writing at Diablo Valley College.

Why There Are Words takes place every second Thursday of the month, and is the brainchild of curator and host Peg Alford Pursell. This literary goodness has been going strong for six years and is expanding its mission in 2016 to publish those voices that must be heard. See WTAW Press for more information and to support this crucial activity!