FEBRUARY 10
Flash Feb!
Flash fiction by RoseMary Covington, Jim Misner and Maureen O'Leary
performed by Sam Misner and Megan Smith
Flash Feb!
Flash fiction by RoseMary Covington, Jim Misner and Maureen O'Leary
performed by Sam Misner and Megan Smith
RoseMary Covington Morgan retired from a successful career as a transit planning and development executive manager to accept a new challenge as an author. A lifelong writer, she picked up the pen again almost four years ago.
Most recently, RoseMary published the short story “The Song" in the anthology Storytellers: Tales from the Rio Vista Writers’ Group. She also has three short stories — “My Big Red Shadow," “T'was" and “School Shopping” — and two poems published in the Northern California Publishers Anthologies. The Sacramento Branch of the California Writer’s Club published her short story “Minnow Mildred” in their 2022 literary review Visions.
She has completed several other short stories, one novel and one novella. As of this date, she is moving toward publishing more of her work. RoseMary grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and has lived in Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. Presently, she lives in Sacramento.
Check out RoseMary's interview with Sue Staats here.
Jim Misner, native San Franciscan, was first introduced to the literary world as a paperboy for the Independent Journal in Mill Valley, CA. Mr. Belgrade’s Advanced English at Drake High further fueled his interest in writing and the poet Lew Welch’s Introduction to Afro-American Literature at College of Marin in the ’60’s cinched it.
It was late in the game, though, that he returned to writing after taking early retirement from the entertainment world. In consideration of his wife’s words that he better find something to do besides playing tennis and card-room poker, he attended a creative writing class at the local college, which turned out to be just the ticket. Subject never looked back.
Over the next half-dozen years, Jim wrote a thousand words per week in short story form (flash fiction), a size best suited for writing workshops. Public readings followed and eventually several stories were submitted and selected for literary magazines (including the excellent West Marin Review).
When Covid19 caused isolation, many of the stories were compiled in book form and published with the aid of for-mentioned wife’s editing and formatting skills. Much excitement ensued in bringing out A Short Ride in the fall of 2021.
Check out Jim's interview with Sue Staats here.
Maureen O’Leary is a writer and teacher living in California. Her short stories, poems and essays can be found recently and soon in Bourbon Penn, Nightmare Magazine, Reckon Review, Occulum Journal, Flame Tree Press' anthology Alternate History and Sycamore Review, among other places. She has recently been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and serves as the managing editor of The Black Fork Review. She is a graduate of Ashland MFA.
Check out Maureen's interview with Sue Staats here.
Most recently, RoseMary published the short story “The Song" in the anthology Storytellers: Tales from the Rio Vista Writers’ Group. She also has three short stories — “My Big Red Shadow," “T'was" and “School Shopping” — and two poems published in the Northern California Publishers Anthologies. The Sacramento Branch of the California Writer’s Club published her short story “Minnow Mildred” in their 2022 literary review Visions.
She has completed several other short stories, one novel and one novella. As of this date, she is moving toward publishing more of her work. RoseMary grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and has lived in Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. Presently, she lives in Sacramento.
Check out RoseMary's interview with Sue Staats here.
Jim Misner, native San Franciscan, was first introduced to the literary world as a paperboy for the Independent Journal in Mill Valley, CA. Mr. Belgrade’s Advanced English at Drake High further fueled his interest in writing and the poet Lew Welch’s Introduction to Afro-American Literature at College of Marin in the ’60’s cinched it.
It was late in the game, though, that he returned to writing after taking early retirement from the entertainment world. In consideration of his wife’s words that he better find something to do besides playing tennis and card-room poker, he attended a creative writing class at the local college, which turned out to be just the ticket. Subject never looked back.
Over the next half-dozen years, Jim wrote a thousand words per week in short story form (flash fiction), a size best suited for writing workshops. Public readings followed and eventually several stories were submitted and selected for literary magazines (including the excellent West Marin Review).
When Covid19 caused isolation, many of the stories were compiled in book form and published with the aid of for-mentioned wife’s editing and formatting skills. Much excitement ensued in bringing out A Short Ride in the fall of 2021.
Check out Jim's interview with Sue Staats here.
Maureen O’Leary is a writer and teacher living in California. Her short stories, poems and essays can be found recently and soon in Bourbon Penn, Nightmare Magazine, Reckon Review, Occulum Journal, Flame Tree Press' anthology Alternate History and Sycamore Review, among other places. She has recently been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and serves as the managing editor of The Black Fork Review. She is a graduate of Ashland MFA.
Check out Maureen's interview with Sue Staats here.
Sam Misner is happy to be part of Stories on Stage Sacramento for the first time. His regional theater credits include Indiana Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Geva Theatre Center, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and four seasons with Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Local credits include Sacramento Theatre Company and Capital Stage. Sam is also a songwriter and tours regularly with the Americana/folk duo Misner & Smith. They have released five critically-acclaimed albums and have composed original music for productions at Sacramento Theatre Company (The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird) and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (As You Like It). They tour extensively in both the U.S. and England and are currently in the studio recording their new album, due out later this year.
Megan Pearl Smith is an actor and musician based out of Davis, California. She's worked in productions at many theaters over her career such as Capital Stage, Sacramento Theatre Company, California Shakespeare Theater, Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco Playhouse, Colorado Shakespeare Festival and many more. She is also half of the band Misner & Smith, which plays its own brand of story-driven, harmony-filled, acoustic folk/rock music. Check out Jessica Laskey's interview with Megan here.
Check out Misner & Smith at www.misnerandsmith.com!
Megan Pearl Smith is an actor and musician based out of Davis, California. She's worked in productions at many theaters over her career such as Capital Stage, Sacramento Theatre Company, California Shakespeare Theater, Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco Playhouse, Colorado Shakespeare Festival and many more. She is also half of the band Misner & Smith, which plays its own brand of story-driven, harmony-filled, acoustic folk/rock music. Check out Jessica Laskey's interview with Megan here.
Check out Misner & Smith at www.misnerandsmith.com!
APRIL 15
Literary Death Match
A special Saturday event in partnership with
Literary Death Match and the Chills at Will Podcast
Literary Death Match
A special Saturday event in partnership with
Literary Death Match and the Chills at Will Podcast
Literary Death Match, co-created by Adrian Todd Zuniga, marries the literary and performative aspects of Def Poetry Jam, rapier-witted quips of American Idol’s judging (without any meanness), and the ridiculousness and hilarity of Double Dare.
Each episode of this competitive, humor-centric reading series features a thrilling mix of four famous and emerging authors (all representing a literary publication, press or concern — online, in print or live) who perform their most electric writing in seven minutes or less before a lively audience and a panel of three all-star judges. After each pair of readings, the judges — focused on literary merit, performance and intangibles — take turns spouting hilarious, off-the-wall commentary about each story, then select their favorite to advance to the finals.
The two finalists then compete in the Literary Death Match finale, which trades in the show’s literary sensibility for an absurd and comical climax to determine who takes home the Literary Death Match crown.
It may sound like a circus — and that's half the point. Literary Death Match is passionate about inspecting new and innovative ways to present text off the page, and the most fascinating part about the LDM is how seriously attentive the audience is during each reading. We've called this the great literary ruse: an audacious and inviting title, a harebrained finale, but in-between the judging creates a relationship with the viewer as a judge themselves.
Our ultimate goal is to perform the Literary Death Match all over the world, and to continue to showcase literature as a brilliant, unstoppable medium.
Check out Adrian's interview with Sue Staats here.
Each episode of this competitive, humor-centric reading series features a thrilling mix of four famous and emerging authors (all representing a literary publication, press or concern — online, in print or live) who perform their most electric writing in seven minutes or less before a lively audience and a panel of three all-star judges. After each pair of readings, the judges — focused on literary merit, performance and intangibles — take turns spouting hilarious, off-the-wall commentary about each story, then select their favorite to advance to the finals.
The two finalists then compete in the Literary Death Match finale, which trades in the show’s literary sensibility for an absurd and comical climax to determine who takes home the Literary Death Match crown.
It may sound like a circus — and that's half the point. Literary Death Match is passionate about inspecting new and innovative ways to present text off the page, and the most fascinating part about the LDM is how seriously attentive the audience is during each reading. We've called this the great literary ruse: an audacious and inviting title, a harebrained finale, but in-between the judging creates a relationship with the viewer as a judge themselves.
Our ultimate goal is to perform the Literary Death Match all over the world, and to continue to showcase literature as a brilliant, unstoppable medium.
Check out Adrian's interview with Sue Staats here.
Meet the LDM Sacramento lineup!
AUTHORS
Drama: Anthony D’Juan is a Sacramento, California, director-playwright who has been active since 1996. He served as assistant and protégé to Ed Claudio from 1997-2005. Playwriting credits include THEORY OF THE DREAM, SAFE AT HOME: THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY, KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE, MEN IN RIFFS, 3: BLACK GIRL BLUES (with Danielle Moné Truitt), THIS IS HOW IT HAPPENED, THE PURVEYORS, US & THE REST OF ‘EM, BIRDMOCKING and ANY’PERSON. Directing credits include SUBURBIA, OTHELLO, FIVE WOMEN WEARING THE SAME DRESS, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (THE MUSICAL), ENDGAME (Best Drama, 2004), BASH, OUR TOWN, THE SEAGULL, THE DUMB WAITER, A TIGER WITHOUT MERCY (world premiere), BOOTYCANDY & SKELTON CREW (both at Big Idea Theatre), THE MOUNTAINTOP, PASS OVER and THE ROYALE (all three at Capital Stage), TOPDOG/UNDERDOG and DIRECT FROM DEATH ROW: THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS (both at Celebration Arts Theater) and 3: BLACK GIRL BLUES (the Sofia, Home of B Street Theatre).
Creative Nonfiction: Clare Frank started firefighting in California at 17 and was promoted up the ranks, becoming the state’s first and only female Chief of Fire Protection. Along the way, she earned a BS in fire administration, an MFA in creative writing and a JD. She has lectured at colleges, universities and state and national fire conferences, and lives near Lake Tahoe with her husband and two dogs. Burnt: A Memoir of Fighting Fire is her first book — an inspiring, richly detailed and open-hearted account of an extraordinary life in fire.
Poetry: Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is the author of Children of the Land: a Memoir (Harper Collins), which received acclaim from Vanity Fair, LA Times, Wall Street Journal and New York Times and was a finalist for the International Latino Book Award. His first book of poems, Cenzontle, was the winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. prize (BOA editions). He is a founding member of the Undocupoets, which successfully eliminated all citizenship requirements from every major first book poetry prize in the nation, for which he received the Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers award. He was a distinguished fellow for the Marshall Project’s Art For Justice initiative from the University of Arizona, which advocates for prison reform, and he teaches in the St. Mary’s College MFA Program and the Ashland University Low-Res MFA program.
Fiction: Naomi J. Williams is the author of the novel Landfalls (FSG), long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals, garnering a Pushcart Prize and a Best American honorable mention. Distinctions also include a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant and residencies at Hedgebrook, Djerassi and Willapa Bay AiR. Educated at Princeton, Stanford and UC Davis, she teaches creative writing with Saint Mary's College and the low-residency MFA program at Ashland University. A biracial Japanese-American, Williams was born and partly raised in Japan. She currently lives in Sacramento, California.
Creative Nonfiction: Clare Frank started firefighting in California at 17 and was promoted up the ranks, becoming the state’s first and only female Chief of Fire Protection. Along the way, she earned a BS in fire administration, an MFA in creative writing and a JD. She has lectured at colleges, universities and state and national fire conferences, and lives near Lake Tahoe with her husband and two dogs. Burnt: A Memoir of Fighting Fire is her first book — an inspiring, richly detailed and open-hearted account of an extraordinary life in fire.
Poetry: Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is the author of Children of the Land: a Memoir (Harper Collins), which received acclaim from Vanity Fair, LA Times, Wall Street Journal and New York Times and was a finalist for the International Latino Book Award. His first book of poems, Cenzontle, was the winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. prize (BOA editions). He is a founding member of the Undocupoets, which successfully eliminated all citizenship requirements from every major first book poetry prize in the nation, for which he received the Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers award. He was a distinguished fellow for the Marshall Project’s Art For Justice initiative from the University of Arizona, which advocates for prison reform, and he teaches in the St. Mary’s College MFA Program and the Ashland University Low-Res MFA program.
Fiction: Naomi J. Williams is the author of the novel Landfalls (FSG), long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals, garnering a Pushcart Prize and a Best American honorable mention. Distinctions also include a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant and residencies at Hedgebrook, Djerassi and Willapa Bay AiR. Educated at Princeton, Stanford and UC Davis, she teaches creative writing with Saint Mary's College and the low-residency MFA program at Ashland University. A biracial Japanese-American, Williams was born and partly raised in Japan. She currently lives in Sacramento, California.
JUDGES
Performance: Vicki Gonzalez is a Murrow and Emmy Award-winning journalist with nearly 15 years of experience as a reporter, news anchor and producer. Prior to her role as CapRadio’s Insight host, Vicki spent five years as a reporter at NBC’s Sacramento affiliate KCRA, where she produced daily assignments, special reports, breaking news and a documentary. She also worked as a reporter, news anchor and producer at KSNV-TV in Las Vegas, KXFV-TV in Texas and KABC-TV in Los Angeles. Born in Los Angeles, Vicki is a California native and proud of her roots. Her abuelos (grandmother and grandfather) are from Guadalajara, Mexico, her grandmother from Kobe, Japan, and her English grandfather was born and raised in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and a member of Mensa International. Vicki loves calling Sacramento home with her husband and cats. When she’s not working on Insight, you can find Vicki at the farmer’s market, floating down the American River, on the Jedediah Smith bike trail or bouncing around local restaurants. Outside of town, Vicki is usually exploring the endless trails, lakes and rivers Northern California has to offer.
Intangibles: Neketia Henry is a professional actress, model, host and voiceover artist whose previous experience includes over 10 years of commercial, print, voiceover and TV/film. She can be seen/heard on Disney Pixar's animation series Doug Days, Finding Happy and the upcoming ABC series The Prank Panel. Aside from entertainment, her passion for life and fitness also landed her the coveted role of an Official Adidas Ambassador. She is a wife, mother and advocate who truly believes in being a voice for the voiceless and never giving up on YOU.
Literary Merit: Robert S. Nelsen became Sacramento State’s eighth president on July 1, 2015. As the first in his family to attend college, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science before earning his doctorate at the University of Chicago’s John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought. Dr. Nelsen served in various faculty and administrative roles before being named president of the University of Texas-Pan American. Dr. Nelsen enjoys reading and watching Westerns if he ever finds a moment of leisure. His zeal for theatre and dance makes him a loyal supporter for his students. At Sacramento State, President Nelsen is committed to ensuring that Sacramento State’s students are able to graduate on time with less debt. He is a sports enthusiast who loves to support the University’s athlete students. He wants students to become lifelong learners and critical thinkers and have an inclusive, safe and healthy experience on campus.
Intangibles: Neketia Henry is a professional actress, model, host and voiceover artist whose previous experience includes over 10 years of commercial, print, voiceover and TV/film. She can be seen/heard on Disney Pixar's animation series Doug Days, Finding Happy and the upcoming ABC series The Prank Panel. Aside from entertainment, her passion for life and fitness also landed her the coveted role of an Official Adidas Ambassador. She is a wife, mother and advocate who truly believes in being a voice for the voiceless and never giving up on YOU.
Literary Merit: Robert S. Nelsen became Sacramento State’s eighth president on July 1, 2015. As the first in his family to attend college, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science before earning his doctorate at the University of Chicago’s John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought. Dr. Nelsen served in various faculty and administrative roles before being named president of the University of Texas-Pan American. Dr. Nelsen enjoys reading and watching Westerns if he ever finds a moment of leisure. His zeal for theatre and dance makes him a loyal supporter for his students. At Sacramento State, President Nelsen is committed to ensuring that Sacramento State’s students are able to graduate on time with less debt. He is a sports enthusiast who loves to support the University’s athlete students. He wants students to become lifelong learners and critical thinkers and have an inclusive, safe and healthy experience on campus.
JUNE 9
(Former) Directors Night
New work by former SOSS directors Valerie Fioravanti, Sue Staats,
Dorothy Rice and Shelley Blanton-Stroud
(Former) Directors Night
New work by former SOSS directors Valerie Fioravanti, Sue Staats,
Dorothy Rice and Shelley Blanton-Stroud
Valerie Fioravanti founded Stories on Stage Sacramento to foster community among prose writers and challenge the notion that Sacramento wasn’t a supportive art town. She’s the author of the award-winning linked story collection Garbage Night at the Opera, but must confess she’s not currently writing much.
Garbage Night at the Opera is the winner of the 2011 Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction from BkMk Press (pronounced Bookmark Press) of the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Garbage Night at the Opera received the IPPY Bronze Medal in Short Fiction, was a finalist for Late Night Library’s Debut-litzer Prize in Fiction, and was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Story Prize.
Valerie’s short stories have appeared in North American Review, Cimarron Review, Hunger Mountain, and others. These stories have received eight Pushcart Prize nominations and Special Mention in Pushcart Prize XXVIII. Valerie received a Fulbright Fellowship in Creative Writing to Italy. Her story “Loud Love” won the inaugural Tillie Olsen Short Story Award from the Tishman Review. Her essays and prose poems have been published in Portland Review, Eclectica, Silk Road, r.kv.r.y, and others.
Valerie worked as a writing coach and facilitated workshops across the country and in Europe. She's also taught for the UCLA & UC Davis Extension Writers Program, National University’s MFA program and New Mexico State University. She has appeared at AWP, Napa Valley Writers Conference, UCLA Writers Faire, Litquake SF and elsewhere.
She received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Fiction from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces where she learned both craft and the art of mentoring from writing luminaries Robert Boswell, Kevin McIlvoy and Antonya Nelson. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts from the New School in New York City, where she was born and raised. Valerie was named a “Best Friend to Fiction Writers” by Sacramento News & Review in the 2011 Best of Sacramento issue. It remains one of her proudest accolades.
Read Valerie's 2022 interview with Sue Staats here.
The former director of Stories on Stage Sacramento (2013-2019), Sue Staats’s fiction and poetry have been published in Tulip Tree Review, The Los Angeles Review, Graze Magazine, Farallon Review, Tule Review, Late Peaches: Poems by Sacramento Poets, Sacramento Voices, and others. She earned an MFA from Pacific University and was a finalist in the “Wild Women” contest in Tulip Tree Review, runner-up for the Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction and a finalist for the Nisqually Prize in Fiction.
Her stories have been performed at both the Sacramento and Davis reading series Stories on Stage, and she has read her work at the SF-Bay Area reading series Why There Are Words, Babylon Salon, and Litcrawl. Her short story collection, Hardpan, was a recent finalist for the Acacia Fiction Prize. She’s currently working on a novel and continues be involved in Stories on Stage Sacramento as a board member, author interviewer, and chief cookie baker.
Read Sue's 2022 interview with herself (!) here.
Shelley Blanton-Stroud grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She recently retired from teaching writing at Sacramento State University and still consults with writers in the energy industry. She serves as President of the Board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna College.
She recently stepped down from co-directing Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors. She interviews mystery and thriller authors for the Mystery Review Crew. Copy Boy is her first Jane Benjamin Novel. Tomboy is her second. The third, Poster Girl, will come out in November 2023 (She Writes Press).
Her writing has been a finalist in the Sarton Book Awards, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award, the American Fiction Awards, and the National Indie Excellence Awards. She and her husband live in Sacramento, surrounded by photos of their out-of-town sons, their wonderful partners, and a lifetime of beloved dogs.
Read Shelley's 2022 interview with Sue Staats here.
Dorothy Rice has published two memoirs with small presses, Gray is the New Black (Otis Books, June 2019) and The Reluctant Artist (Shanti Arts, 2015). She was also the editor of the first Stories on Stage Anthology, TWENTY TWENTY: 43 Stories From a Year Like No Other. Dorothy is the Managing Editor of the Sacramento-based nonfiction and arts journal Under the Gum Tree and works part-time as a freelance developmental editor and writing coach and as a creative writing workshop facilitator with 916 Ink, a youth literacy nonprofit serving the Sacramento region.
Her essays and fiction have been published in The Rumpus, Hippocampus and the Brevity blog, among many others. At 60, after retiring from a 35-year career with the California EPA, she received an MFA from UC Riverside’s low-residency program.
Read Dorothy's 2020 interview with Sue Staats here.
Garbage Night at the Opera is the winner of the 2011 Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction from BkMk Press (pronounced Bookmark Press) of the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Garbage Night at the Opera received the IPPY Bronze Medal in Short Fiction, was a finalist for Late Night Library’s Debut-litzer Prize in Fiction, and was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Story Prize.
Valerie’s short stories have appeared in North American Review, Cimarron Review, Hunger Mountain, and others. These stories have received eight Pushcart Prize nominations and Special Mention in Pushcart Prize XXVIII. Valerie received a Fulbright Fellowship in Creative Writing to Italy. Her story “Loud Love” won the inaugural Tillie Olsen Short Story Award from the Tishman Review. Her essays and prose poems have been published in Portland Review, Eclectica, Silk Road, r.kv.r.y, and others.
Valerie worked as a writing coach and facilitated workshops across the country and in Europe. She's also taught for the UCLA & UC Davis Extension Writers Program, National University’s MFA program and New Mexico State University. She has appeared at AWP, Napa Valley Writers Conference, UCLA Writers Faire, Litquake SF and elsewhere.
She received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Fiction from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces where she learned both craft and the art of mentoring from writing luminaries Robert Boswell, Kevin McIlvoy and Antonya Nelson. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts from the New School in New York City, where she was born and raised. Valerie was named a “Best Friend to Fiction Writers” by Sacramento News & Review in the 2011 Best of Sacramento issue. It remains one of her proudest accolades.
Read Valerie's 2022 interview with Sue Staats here.
The former director of Stories on Stage Sacramento (2013-2019), Sue Staats’s fiction and poetry have been published in Tulip Tree Review, The Los Angeles Review, Graze Magazine, Farallon Review, Tule Review, Late Peaches: Poems by Sacramento Poets, Sacramento Voices, and others. She earned an MFA from Pacific University and was a finalist in the “Wild Women” contest in Tulip Tree Review, runner-up for the Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction and a finalist for the Nisqually Prize in Fiction.
Her stories have been performed at both the Sacramento and Davis reading series Stories on Stage, and she has read her work at the SF-Bay Area reading series Why There Are Words, Babylon Salon, and Litcrawl. Her short story collection, Hardpan, was a recent finalist for the Acacia Fiction Prize. She’s currently working on a novel and continues be involved in Stories on Stage Sacramento as a board member, author interviewer, and chief cookie baker.
Read Sue's 2022 interview with herself (!) here.
Shelley Blanton-Stroud grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She recently retired from teaching writing at Sacramento State University and still consults with writers in the energy industry. She serves as President of the Board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna College.
She recently stepped down from co-directing Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors. She interviews mystery and thriller authors for the Mystery Review Crew. Copy Boy is her first Jane Benjamin Novel. Tomboy is her second. The third, Poster Girl, will come out in November 2023 (She Writes Press).
Her writing has been a finalist in the Sarton Book Awards, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award, the American Fiction Awards, and the National Indie Excellence Awards. She and her husband live in Sacramento, surrounded by photos of their out-of-town sons, their wonderful partners, and a lifetime of beloved dogs.
Read Shelley's 2022 interview with Sue Staats here.
Dorothy Rice has published two memoirs with small presses, Gray is the New Black (Otis Books, June 2019) and The Reluctant Artist (Shanti Arts, 2015). She was also the editor of the first Stories on Stage Anthology, TWENTY TWENTY: 43 Stories From a Year Like No Other. Dorothy is the Managing Editor of the Sacramento-based nonfiction and arts journal Under the Gum Tree and works part-time as a freelance developmental editor and writing coach and as a creative writing workshop facilitator with 916 Ink, a youth literacy nonprofit serving the Sacramento region.
Her essays and fiction have been published in The Rumpus, Hippocampus and the Brevity blog, among many others. At 60, after retiring from a 35-year career with the California EPA, she received an MFA from UC Riverside’s low-residency program.
Read Dorothy's 2020 interview with Sue Staats here.
Gay Cooper has read many times over the years for Stories on Stage and is excited to be back this evening. She has acted with many theater companies in town, including Resurrection Theater, Big Idea Theater, KOLT Run Creations and California Stage. Some of her favorite rolls include Sally in Talley’s Folly, Hattie in Women of Lockerbie, Porter and Witch in Macbeth, Luella in The Diviners, and Nurse in Anouilh’s Antigone. She has also worked in commercials and industrial films, both here in Sacramento and her native East Tennessee. She also enjoys nature photography, a more solitary endeavor, which was a perfect creative outlet during the pandemic years. She would like to thank her husband, Karl, for all of his love and support.
Read Gay's interview with Jessica Laskey here.
Justine Lopez studied Theatre Arts at Cosumnes River College and was involved in several plays as an actor, assistant director and stage manager. For the past 8 years, Justine has devoted her performance career in comedy. She currently teaches Improv 101 and Improv 201 at the Sacramento Comedy Spot and leads corporate team building improv workshops in the Sacramento area. She can be seen regularly performing improv on Lady Business (Sacramento’s longest-running, all-female improv troupe), Masters of Rap Improv, and Anti-Cooperation League. Justine also co-produces and co-stars on Capitol PUNishment, Sacramento’s only monthly pun tournament show.
Read Justine's interview with Jessica Laskey here.
Read Gay's interview with Jessica Laskey here.
Justine Lopez studied Theatre Arts at Cosumnes River College and was involved in several plays as an actor, assistant director and stage manager. For the past 8 years, Justine has devoted her performance career in comedy. She currently teaches Improv 101 and Improv 201 at the Sacramento Comedy Spot and leads corporate team building improv workshops in the Sacramento area. She can be seen regularly performing improv on Lady Business (Sacramento’s longest-running, all-female improv troupe), Masters of Rap Improv, and Anti-Cooperation League. Justine also co-produces and co-stars on Capitol PUNishment, Sacramento’s only monthly pun tournament show.
Read Justine's interview with Jessica Laskey here.
SEPTEMBER 8
Fall-unteers Night
Stories from longtime SOSS volunteers and authors Joella Aragón and Ana Cotham
Fall-unteers Night
Stories from longtime SOSS volunteers and authors Joella Aragón and Ana Cotham
Joella Aragón is a retired elementary school teacher and a retired labor union representative for the California Teachers Association. She spent much of her childhood living in different countries around the world, including Belize, with her father, mother, brothers, sister, and her Mamacita Ella.
She spends much of her retirement life writing about growing up with a blind, mentally ill mother, her immigrant father from Belize, and her Mamacita Ella, also from Belize.
As a child, Joella often felt deep shame about her family circumstances, but no longer. Her unique childhood is inspiration for almost every story she writes. It’s the lessons she learned while watching her family maneuver difficult times that inspires her writing today.
Read Joella's interview with Sue Staats here.
A. K. Cotham lives in downtown Sacramento, CA. Her fiction has appeared in places such as MicroLit Almanac, 50-Word Stories, Microfiction Mondays, CommuterLit, 101 Words, and Every Day Fiction. Two short stories have been performed by Stories on Stage Sacramento, and her piece “Driving by Moonlight” won third place in — and earned a Pushcart Prize nomination for — Brilliant Flash Fiction’s 2022 writing contest.
Read Ana's interview with Sue Staats here.
She spends much of her retirement life writing about growing up with a blind, mentally ill mother, her immigrant father from Belize, and her Mamacita Ella, also from Belize.
As a child, Joella often felt deep shame about her family circumstances, but no longer. Her unique childhood is inspiration for almost every story she writes. It’s the lessons she learned while watching her family maneuver difficult times that inspires her writing today.
Read Joella's interview with Sue Staats here.
A. K. Cotham lives in downtown Sacramento, CA. Her fiction has appeared in places such as MicroLit Almanac, 50-Word Stories, Microfiction Mondays, CommuterLit, 101 Words, and Every Day Fiction. Two short stories have been performed by Stories on Stage Sacramento, and her piece “Driving by Moonlight” won third place in — and earned a Pushcart Prize nomination for — Brilliant Flash Fiction’s 2022 writing contest.
Read Ana's interview with Sue Staats here.
Kellie Raines is a local actor, director, writer, and visual artist. She has performed with and directed for local theatre companies, including KOLT Run Creations, Green Valley Theatre, Big Idea Theatre, Theater Galatea, and Resurrection Theatre. She has shown her visual art at Archival Gallery and in the PBS KVIE Art Auction and the Crocker Art Museum’s Big Names, Small Art Auction. She has a bachelor’s degree in Dramatic Art and a minor in English from the University of California, Davis. Kellie can be seen on-air for PBS KVIE. Elle essaie aussi d'apprendre le français. Bonne soirée! kellierainesart.com
Betsaida LeBron is a talented storyteller, comedian, and award-winning improviser. She is the founder of ImprovEQ, where she helps teams learn how to collaborate, improvise, and have fun. Betsaida has performed at various comedy clubs and theaters across the United States, and has won several awards for her work in improvisation. Her passion lies in using humor and creativity to bring more joy and humanity to the work world.
Betsaida LeBron is a talented storyteller, comedian, and award-winning improviser. She is the founder of ImprovEQ, where she helps teams learn how to collaborate, improvise, and have fun. Betsaida has performed at various comedy clubs and theaters across the United States, and has won several awards for her work in improvisation. Her passion lies in using humor and creativity to bring more joy and humanity to the work world.
OCTOBER 13
Friday the 13th Horror Night
Eerie tales from SOSS Artistic Director p joshua laskey and veteran reporter Jonathan Mumm
Note on "Horror": These literary stories are creepy and psychological, not gory or explicit.
Friday the 13th Horror Night
Eerie tales from SOSS Artistic Director p joshua laskey and veteran reporter Jonathan Mumm
Note on "Horror": These literary stories are creepy and psychological, not gory or explicit.
Originally from Fair Oaks, p joshua laskey misses all eight other far-flung cities he’s called home over the years, including Dallas, where he recently presented his original translation of Federico García Lorca’s Mariana Pineda last year. He is Associate World Literature Editor for The Literary Review, a former Fellow at the Center for Translation Studies, and Artistic Director of both Stories on Stage Sacramento and Theater Galatea. He has published creative work including original, adapted, and translated plays as well as original and self-translated short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. He is the recipient of multiple awards across genres including Sacramento News & Review’s Best Original Play, Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Baumeister Scholarship in Creative Writing, Toyon Literary Magazine’s Multilingual Award in Translation, and Reunion: The Dallas Review’s Robert Bone Memorial Prize for short fiction. Before taking the helm of Stories on Stage Sacramento, he had read many times for SOSS and its sister series, Stories on Stage Davis, where he also volunteered at events.
Jonathan Mumm was a 17-year-old junior in high school when he got his first job in broadcasting. The "Johnny Mumm" show aired Monday through Friday at 4:00 on country music radio station WBRG in his hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia. By the time he graduated from college, Jonathan had worked at all five radio stations in Lynchburg. Majoring in Speech and Drama at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.—Susan Sarandon was a senior there his freshman year—he helped pay his way through school as an announcer with WASH-Radio in Washington. After graduation, he went to work as a booth announcer for WETA-TV and PBS. That, however, turned out to be the year President Nixon vetoed funding for PBS, and, without a job, Jonathan headed for Hollywood.
Able to join the Screen Actors Guild because of his time in broadcasting, he snagged small parts in episodes of television shows such as Medical Center and Movin' On and made a living doing voice-overs. However, when a promised gig as spokesman for Brookside Winery went instead to movie star and wine connoisseur Vincent Price, Jonathan went back to broadcasting. He worked for 30 years for KXTV-Television in Sacramento. His California Postcard feature-travel series earned him five Emmy Awards. A story he did on Vikingsholm Castle at Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay inspired him to write his ghost story novel Stop it. You're Scaring Me. Jonathan's Hollywood background also led to him becoming KXTV's resident movie critic and entertainment reporter with the weekly feature Mumm at the Movies.
Always enamored with the idea of making movies himself, he put together a crew from the TV station to make the low-budget horror film Blood of the Chupacabras. It was featured at the New York International Film and Video Festival and distributed by Silver Nitrate and Spartan Home Entertainment. Despite the fact the movie was made so cheaply it was practically stuck together with chewing gum, it was a success and led Jonathan and his crew to make the sequel, Revenge of the Chupacabras. Both films have currently been re-released as a Blu-Ray set by Visual Vengeance.
After nearly 30 years at KXTV, Jonathan retired, writing and directing plays at his wife Roberta's little theatre, the Roseville Performing Arts Studio. Currently, he makes educational and rehabilitative films for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation at the California Institution for Women in Chino.
Jonathan Mumm was a 17-year-old junior in high school when he got his first job in broadcasting. The "Johnny Mumm" show aired Monday through Friday at 4:00 on country music radio station WBRG in his hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia. By the time he graduated from college, Jonathan had worked at all five radio stations in Lynchburg. Majoring in Speech and Drama at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.—Susan Sarandon was a senior there his freshman year—he helped pay his way through school as an announcer with WASH-Radio in Washington. After graduation, he went to work as a booth announcer for WETA-TV and PBS. That, however, turned out to be the year President Nixon vetoed funding for PBS, and, without a job, Jonathan headed for Hollywood.
Able to join the Screen Actors Guild because of his time in broadcasting, he snagged small parts in episodes of television shows such as Medical Center and Movin' On and made a living doing voice-overs. However, when a promised gig as spokesman for Brookside Winery went instead to movie star and wine connoisseur Vincent Price, Jonathan went back to broadcasting. He worked for 30 years for KXTV-Television in Sacramento. His California Postcard feature-travel series earned him five Emmy Awards. A story he did on Vikingsholm Castle at Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay inspired him to write his ghost story novel Stop it. You're Scaring Me. Jonathan's Hollywood background also led to him becoming KXTV's resident movie critic and entertainment reporter with the weekly feature Mumm at the Movies.
Always enamored with the idea of making movies himself, he put together a crew from the TV station to make the low-budget horror film Blood of the Chupacabras. It was featured at the New York International Film and Video Festival and distributed by Silver Nitrate and Spartan Home Entertainment. Despite the fact the movie was made so cheaply it was practically stuck together with chewing gum, it was a success and led Jonathan and his crew to make the sequel, Revenge of the Chupacabras. Both films have currently been re-released as a Blu-Ray set by Visual Vengeance.
After nearly 30 years at KXTV, Jonathan retired, writing and directing plays at his wife Roberta's little theatre, the Roseville Performing Arts Studio. Currently, he makes educational and rehabilitative films for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation at the California Institution for Women in Chino.
Kelley Ogden is a performer, director and producer whose work has been seen throughout the area. She has performed with Capital Stage, Davis Shakespeare Festival, Sacramento Shakespeare Festival, Main Street Theatre Works, and Theater Galatea, and was a co-founder of acclaimed fringe theater company KOLT Run Creations. Kelley earned her BFA in Performance from The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago.
Analise Langford-Clark has been involved in community theatre in the Sacramento area for the last 20 years—maybe more? Who’s counting? Some of her favorite roles include Janet van de Graff in The Drowsy Chaperone with Fair Oaks Theatre Festival, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Woodland Opera House, and Marie-Therese in Adoration of Dora with KOLT Run Creations. She is a survivor of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and she and her father help raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While her first love is theatre, she is an avid reader and is thrilled to get to participate in Stories on Stage!
Analise Langford-Clark has been involved in community theatre in the Sacramento area for the last 20 years—maybe more? Who’s counting? Some of her favorite roles include Janet van de Graff in The Drowsy Chaperone with Fair Oaks Theatre Festival, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Woodland Opera House, and Marie-Therese in Adoration of Dora with KOLT Run Creations. She is a survivor of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and she and her father help raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While her first love is theatre, she is an avid reader and is thrilled to get to participate in Stories on Stage!
Performances are held at
The Auditorium at CLARA
1425 24th Street
Sacramento, CA 95816
Doors open at 6:30 pm. All performances begin at 7 pm.
Tickets are available for presale and at the door.
The Auditorium at CLARA
1425 24th Street
Sacramento, CA 95816
Doors open at 6:30 pm. All performances begin at 7 pm.
Tickets are available for presale and at the door.
