We are honored to present Les Bernstein and Susan Gunter as our two Featured Readers for July 23rd Redwood Writers Open Mic. These two were part of the editorial team who put together the poetry anthology, Stolen Light. They will treat us to some of their literary delights.

Here are their bios and photos:

Les Bernstein lives in Mill Valley, CA.  Her poems have appeared in presses, journals and anthologies in the U.S and Europe.

Her chapbooks Borderland, Naked Little Creatures and Amid the Din have been published by Finishing Line Press.

She is currently a Pushcart Prize nominee and has her fingers crossed.

Susan Gunter is a Professor of English Emerita. She has published three books on the James Family and a number of poems in journals, most recently ­Atlanta Review. Her biography of William James’s wife Alice, Alice in Jamesland (University of Nebraska Press, 2009) was acclaimed by Colm Toibin in a feature-length review in the June 13 2009 New York Review of Books. She is currently at work on a novel, “To the Balkans and Back,” in which Isabel Verver, a contemporary Jamesian heroine, goes to Montenegro. The anger that still smolders there from the Balkan Wars intersects with her own latent disease, leading to nearly murderous consequences.

Open mic sign-ups start at 1:30 p.m. First come, first served. Open mic limited to five minutes per person. Please be courteous by observing the time limit. And bring a friend! Open mic is held on the fourth Saturday of each month.

Gaia’s Garden
1899 Mendocino Ave.
(Near Santa Rosa Junior College)