What lives in Oakland, features 53 local writers, took 6 months, 9 editors, and 6 photographers to create, and has a real ISBN?

The Oakland Public Library presents In Your Ear, a book release party for the Oakland Word program on July 8, 2010, 6 – 8 p.m. at the Main Library’s West Auditorium, at 125 14th Street. Event is free and wheelchair accessible.

In a time when words are increasingly going electronic, what does it mean to print a paper book? As a writer, I admit to preferring the weight and texture of a three-dimensional book to an e-book.

Oakland Word is proud to present “Oakland Speaks!” a free Oakland Word Student Reading to be held Tuesday May 4, 2010 at the César Chávez Branch Library, 6-8 pm (3301 E 12th St).

Oakland Word's fifth creative writing excerpt and Q&A comes from Tracy Held Potter. In this excerpt from "French Toast" a young woman tries to navigate her way through some of the awkwardness of a new relationship. Potter's entire story will be published in Oakland Word's anthology, due out in June.

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Welcome to the fourth installment in Oakland Word's series of writer profiles. At 72-years-young, James Eilers is the eldest participant in Oakland Word's free creative writing workshops. He attended the Poetry and Spoken Word workshop with instructor Bisola Marignay in February. In the following poetic vignettes, he skillfully paints impressions of two different moments in his life.

Our third Oakland Word writer profile and excerpt comes from Samuel González. This excerpt is from "Ready," a longer story that will be published in Oakland Word's anthology, due out in June. In it the narrator discovers what he needs to do to bring real love into his life again.

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Ready

by Samuel González

Oakland Word has attracted writers from a wide range of backgrounds, representing some of the kaleidoscope of histories and perspectives that make up Oakland and the Bay Area. Our second excerpt comes from HyeJin Yu, who took the "Life Stories" workshop at the Main Library with instructor Bisola Marignay. The complete story will be published in the Oakland Word anthology, due out in June 2010.

This is the first in a series of selected excerpts from writing produced in Oakland Word's workshops. Oakland Word's anthology of poetry, fiction and memoir is scheduled to be published in June 2010. We hope you enjoy reading these local writers.

For those of you who have been following Oakland Word, the Oakland Public Library program that has been offering free creative writing workshops in several libraries since February, you might be curious about who's been attending and what we've been producing.

One thing's for sure - people are hungry to learn and practice creative writing. Oakland Word's free workshops have attracted a lot of new and emerging writers who might not have been able to take a creative writing class if they had to pay for it. Another happy thing is that a lot of people of color and women are enrolled, many in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

This is encouraging. San Francisco has some great community organizations offering affordable writing programs like YouthSpeaks, Intersection for the Arts, Kearny Street Workshop, 826 Valencia and others. Oakland on the other hand has fewer opportunities. (And we can prevent this small pool from shrinking by protesting the City Council's plan to cut 50% from arts.)

Interestingly, a 2004 National Endowment for the Arts report* notes that creative writing rose between 1982 and 2002 even though literary reading dropped, along with the number of people who have taken a creative writing class or lesson. So we know from this and from experience on the ground that people want to write and tell stories.

It seems like a very human desire, to want to tell stories. Stories reflect on life, comment on the world, and often speculate on what could be different. My hope is that Oakland Word has been able to direct some of this creative energy, to help people write new worlds into being.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting excerpts from some of our writers. These are excerpts of longer stories and poems that will eventually be published in our Oakland Word anthology, which we're aiming to get out in June. Enjoy them, and look for our book in a couple months!