Lit Crawl Sebastopol 2025

The concept for Jumpstart Writing Workshops began in 2002 when friends gathered in Marlene Cullen’s parlor and began writing together. The group used a rules-free method to write about whatever topics ignited their imagination. After two years, the group encouraged Marlene to offer this creative process to the public. And so, Jumpstart was born, founded on the idea that writing freely and using evocative prompts encourages writing that speaks to the soul. Jumpstart meets on the Zoom platform with facilitators Marlene Cullen, Susan Bono, teacher, editor, and writer, and Lakin Khan, former SSU writing instructor and author. The work gathered for this event began in Jumpstart from prompts such as the ones found in Marlene’s Write Spot books. Learn more at: TheWriteSpot.us

Under the Round Table Writers are a group of writers who have benefitted in a number of ways from their association with the Sitting Room Library (SRL) and their decades long effort seeking to restore the history of women’s achievements. The many volunteers at SRL, including students and interns from neighboring SSU, are devoted to the collection and curation of interdisciplinary, international, and cross-genre literature, poetry, and art by and about women.

The Under the Round Table Writers, many of whom depend on the quiet solitude, caffeine and carbs the library mavens provide to fuel our creativity, are especially honored to represent the Sitting Room at this year’s Lit Crawl. We propose to offer an eclectic, audience-centered program of poetry and prose intended to both entertain and perhaps ease listeners’ discomforting angst concerning the socio-cultural, political chaos of our current lives – at least for the few hours folks will be romping about in the “literary mayhem” of Lit Crawl Sebastopol 2025.

Wednesday Edition is an online-only spinoff of the San Francisco Writers Workshop, providing a forum for writers in any genre to share their works-in-progress and receive constructive critiques from other writers. Some of our regular attendees spend time in Sebastopol and thought it would be fun to read there from those of their current projects that work well live!

Brenda Marie Yeager, Lake County Poet Laureate 2024-2026, has gathered some of the best people imaginable to right the course of our spinning rock with their words of truth. That is, poets, of course! We are your neighbors from Lake County & Santa Rosa, who have been writing & reading together around town & online for years. Since 2021, many of us have been focused in our writing practice in The Word Circle, an online bi-monthly group led by Lake County Poet Laureate Emerita, Georgina Marie Guardado. Come listen with us to what emerges when humans speak from their fierce and tender hearts.

We are excited to share poems of "Earth's Kindness" with everyone on the Lit Crawl for our second year! All four of us are published poets with years of experience delivering dynamic, meaningful content that is both contemporary and often reaches into long-term horizons. We'll be weaving some Native flute music into the hour, thanks to one of our members, Gail Onion.