New novel by Oakland's Allen-Taylor looks at Southern black culture during Depression (Preview)
Article by Oakland Local edi....
Last updated at Thu, 15 Mar at 11:53pm.

Independent San Francisco Bay Area publishers Freedom Voices announced this week the acquisition of publishing rights for "Sugaree Rising" - Bay Area author, journalist and political columnist J. Douglas Allen-Taylor's first novel.

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Oakland author AJ Harper creates vampires, werewolves that speak to diverse readers (Review)
Blog entry by Venus.
Last updated at Fri, 5 Nov at 9:16am.

The Bay Area is one of the most diverse places in the world, so it stands to reason that if vampires and werewolves roamed the street of Oakland, they would be reflective of that diversity.

Oakland author AJ Harper thinks so, at least, and in his first two novels, "Night Biters" and "Werewolves the Mix Tape," he writes about an Oakland filled with African-American, Latino and Asian vampires and Filipino werewolves.

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Oakland Word Launches In Your Ear, Anthology of Writers From Free Workshops, July 8 party!
Blog entry by Kenji Liu.
Last updated at Thu, 8 Jul at 4:50pm.

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.

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Young East Oakland Author Parallels Past, Present Tales of African Americans
Article by Stephen Allen.
Last updated at Mon, 5 Jul at 3:39pm.

W.E.B. Dubois is recognized as one the great African-American authors of all time. In 1903, he published a book entitled “The Souls of Black Folks.” The book contained essays on race written by Dubois, and drew from his personal experiences being African-American during that time period.

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Tracy Held Potter's "French Toast": Excerpts from Oakland Word's Emerging Writers
Blog entry by Kenji Liu.
Last updated at Tue, 4 May at 12:41pm.

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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Oakland Word's Free Creative Writing Workshops Grow Writers
Blog entry by Kenji Liu.
Last updated at Mon, 29 Mar at 1:47pm.

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!

 

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