Santa Clara Magazine

Santa Clara Mag Blog

Santa Clara Magazine's blog, updated whenever the writing goblin visits the editorial staff of the magazine.

Hansen on tour: Readings from the new novel

Friday, May. 27, 2011

The new novel by Ron Hansen M.A. '95 is about to hit the stores, and he'll be giving readings in the SF Bay Area and Southern Cal in June. Here's where you can catch him.

June 13 — KEPLER'S

7pm • 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park

June 15 — M IS FOR MYSTERY

7pm • 86 East Third Ave., San Mateo

June 16 — A GREAT GOOD PLACE FOR BOOKS

7pm • 6120 LaSalle Ave., Oakland

June 22 — VROMAN'S

7 pm • 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena

And watch for the story behind the novel in the summer issue of Santa Clara Magazine, also heading your way in June.

Steven Boyd Saum

Editor

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Artist in the house: Susan Middleton '70 tonight at the de Saisset Museum

Thursday, May. 12, 2011

The luminous photography of Susan Middleton '70 graces the cover of the Spring 2011 Santa Clara Magazine and illuminates with the delight of discovery in the photo essay "Life cycle."

Folks in the vicinity of the Mission Campus can meet Middleton in person tonight at 7 p.m. at the de Saisset Museum.

She gives her artist's talk as part of the exhibit Life Cycle, which includes some of the magical stuff you'll see on our pages (print and digital versions) and much, much, more. One of our favorites: this here flame scallop above, its lovely tentacles unfurled.

Special note to parents: roaming through Middleton's work online not only thrilled this jaded editor but enchanted his 9-year-old son like few things can. It's even better in person.

--Steven Boyd Saum

Editor, Santa Clara Magazine

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You think that's bad: Jim Shepard at SCU

Monday, May. 9, 2011

How would you describe Jim Shepard's writing? "With a near spooky sense of empathy and a wit that finds its mark like lightning" opine the folks at Vanity Fair. There's lots more praise where that came from here.

But more to the point: This author of six novels and four story collections, including the new You Think That's Bad, Shepard will be reading on the Mission Campus on Tuesday, May 10 at 5:45 p.m. The place to be: the Mission Gardens — where the longstanding SCU literary journal, The Santa Clara Review, will be hosting a publication party for the new issue.

SCM readers might have caught Shepard's essay on "Violence in the Movies" or his interview with NFL ref Mike Carey '71. Expect humor of the unflinching sort, and follow as Shepard leads his characters (and readers), as the LA Times puts it, "right up to the point of obliteration, leaving us exhilarated and despairing at once."

He's headed for Seattle and NYC and Cambridge, Mass., next.

-- Steven Boyd Saum

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Everything Everywhere: A Night of Poetry

Thursday, May. 5, 2011

In the past two years Carroll Kearley ’52 has published two collections of poetry: Deity-Alphabets and The Armenian Watchmaker (Tebot Bach, 2009 and 2010), which both portray vivid portraits of humanity from varied spectrums.

In the first, Kearley depicts the homeless on the streets of Los Angeles and evokes themes of endurance, creativity, and beauty. For his second collection, he takes to a global stage to emphasize the fortitude of the human spirit amid a century strife with tragedy.

Kearley is an emeritus professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, where he taught for 30 years and currently resides in Los Angeles.

Folks in the LA area: Hear Kearley read on May 7 at 7:30 p.m. at Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center located at 681 Venice Blvd, Venice, CA 90291. General admission for the event is $7, students/seniors/children are $5 and members are free.

Here's a taste of Kearley's work, from Deity-Alphabets:

Sleeping Arrangements

I have known numerous homeless:

here for a while, most move on.

If you talk about them,

Tell it right or tell it not.

Just find an overhang,

a space for crawling in,

a doorway to an establishment

where somebody says, “Okay.”

Pulled each day by necessity’s

gravitation, each lodger

seeks a place for night-long rest,

before getting on the next day.

Like boy scouts on a weekend trip,

many sleep in the open air.

A few have a bed inside somewhere,

but many roll up in a sleeping bag.

Billy D is not a pleasant person.

“Life sucks,” is his appraisal.

“You ask where I sleep a night?

Right here, in my godamned wheelchair.”

He leans back rigidly defiant,

speaks his mind, keeps

direct eye contact, beyond deception,

no frills of customary propriety.

“Right here on this stinking sidewalk.

Nobody takes care of me.

An extra buck would be a sign

of your genuine concern.”

— Liz Carney '11

Santa Clara Mag intern

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