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| June 25th, 2010 Cynthia Mitchell Speakman read Naomi Williams' "Sunday School" and Bonnie Antonini read Zoe Keithley's "A Little Foreign Travel"
| FEATURED WRITERS & PERFORMERS | 
| Naomi Williams was born in Japan and spoke no English until she was 6 years old. A recent graduate of the MA program in Creative Writing at UC Davis, Naomi's short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Southern Review, A Public Space, American Short Fiction, and One Story. She's received a Pushcart Prize and Honorable Mention in Best American Short Stories 2009. For the last five years, she's been working on a collection of linked short stories about the La Pérouse expedition, an 18th-century French voyage of exploration. She lives in Davis with her husband and two sons. | 
| Zoe Keithey is the 2006 TallGrass winner in prose. Her stories have appeared in the North American Review, American Fiction, F3 and 7 and Dogwood. Her fiction won an Illinois Arts Council fellowship in prose and finalist awards from Zoetrope, American Fiction, and Hyphen. Her first novel, A Life For A Life and short story collection, Fourteen Faces of Love, are circulating. She leads monthly writing workshops and quarterly public prose readings in Sacramento, teaches privately, and edits. | 
| Cynthia Mitchell Speakman has been performing on Sacramento stages since 1994 when she joined Ed Claudio's Actor's Workshop. She performs with Story Voices, four spoken word artists that perform for benefits across the country, inspiring people to take on their lives with passion. Her 17 year old son keeps her thinking young and she thanks him for being an inspiration to her. She will read Naomi Williams' "Sunday School." |  | Bonnie Antonini returned to acting five years ago after taking a long hiatus to raise her children. She hit the ground running and has been in 20 stage plays, numerous commercials, TV shows, and industrials. She also is a poet and has had three of her poems published in the Sacramento News and Review. She will read Zoe Keithley's "A Little Foreign Travel." |
May 21st, 2010 Pamela Metzger read Elise Winn's "Picture Our Mother" and Victoria Goldblatt read Megan Harlan's "Minor Goddesses" | FEATURED WRITERS & PERFORMERS | 
| Megan Harlan lives in Berkeley. Her short stories have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Cimarron Review, Meridian, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Sycamore Review. Her first collection of poems, Mapmaking, won the 2009 John Ciardi Prize for Poetry and will be published in October, 2010 by the University of Missouri’s BkMk Press. She has a master’s degree from NYU’s Creative Writing Program, where she completed theses in both fiction and poetry. For links to her writing, you can visit her website, meganharlan.com. |  | Elise Winn grew up in Missouri. A recent graduate of UC Davis' MA program in Creative Writing, she lives in Davis with her husband, two chickens, and a turtle, and is at work on a short story collection and a longer, more nebulous thing. Her story "Picture Our Mother" appears in the current issue of Hobart; "Cloud, Egg, Bird, Box" was a finalist in American Short Fiction's short story contest and will be published in the fall issue. | 
| Pamela Metzger was a radio announcer in the Sacramento area for 20 years. She fine tuned her story telling skills by making up nightly stories of dragons and magic to her two sons Dominic and Gabriel. She has always enjoyed a good read on road trips, with each passenger giving their interpretation as they read aloud.The second child of 9 brothers and sisters made storytelling a necessary element in her well rounded personality. She resides in Sacramento and is in the Television advertising business. Pam will read Elise Winn's "Picture Our Mother." |  |
Victoria Goldblatt has been performing for over 25 years. She has done a variety of work from films, commercials and voice overs for TV and Radio. In addition, Victoria has performed here in Sacramento's Community Theater and in the private sector, where she performs her Cabernet Night with Victoria and Friends show. She has also performed Stand Up Comedy at the Hiltons Palm Springs, Clarion and Laughs Unlimited. You can preview one of her films here. Victoria will read Megan Harlan's "Minor Goddesses."
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April 30th, 2010 Kent Gray read Renee Thompson's "Old Will Road," Marni Webb read "In the Kitchen She Wakes" and Tim Kahl read "James Brown is Alive and Doing Laundry in South Lake Tahoe," both by Stefanie Freele.
| FEATURED WRITERS & PERFORMERS | 
| Stefanie Freele's short story collection Feeding Strays is a 2009 Book of the Year Award Finalist. Her recent work can be found in Glimmer Train, American Literary Review, Night Train, and Vestal Review. Stefanie is the Fiction Editor of the Los Angeles Review and has an MFA from the Whidbey Writers Workshop Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. You can watch her read "Every Girl Has an Ex Named Steve" here, and read an interview about her work here. For more, visit her website.
|  | Renee Thompson lives in Folsom. Her writing has received praise from Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Robert Olen Butler and Larry McMurtry. Her short stories have appeared in Narrative Magazine and Chiron Review, and she has placed in writing competitions sponsored by Glimmer Train and Writer’s Digest. She recently returned from the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy, where she worked with Ron Carlson. The Bridge at Valentine, her first novel, debuts on August 1. You can read her story "Farallon" here. |  | Kent Gray is a man of many interests. He returned to Sacramento after attending law school in Des Moines, and is a member of the California and Iowa Bars. Kent has been in the theatre for 20 years. He holds a master’s degree from Humboldt State University and has appeared in numerous productions including playing Bo Decker in Bus Stop and Horatio in Hamlet. His directing credits include An Act of the Imagination and No Exit. In addition, Kent spent 10 years as a radio announcer working in the midwest and California. Kent will be reading Renee Thompson's "Old Will Road." |  | Marni Webb is a nationally acclaimed voice over talent with credits ranging from animation to commercials, documentaries, audio books and more. She was CBS radio host on the national show “Entertainment Update,” has acted in films for director William Friedkin and Ron Howard, and was an on-camera spokesperson for a national company. Marni performs with Story Voices, a group that includes other Stories on Stage performers. She will be reading Stefanie Freele's "In the Kitchen She Wakes." |  | Tim Kahl is the author of the poetry collection Possessing Yourself. He has published work in Prairie Schooner, Indiana Review, and Ninth Letter, among others. Tim is VP and events coordinator of the SPC. He translates the work of German and Portuguese writers, and is an editor with Bald Trickster Press. He appears as Victor Schnickelfritz at The Great American Pinup and the poetry and multimedia site Linebreak Studios, where you can see his performance skills in action. He will be reading Stefanie Freele's "James Brown is Alive and Doing Laundry in South Lake Tahoe." |
March 26th, 2010 Victoria Goldblatt read Megan Cummins' "Morning Company" and Cynthia Mitchell Speakman read Lucy Corin's "My Favorite Dentist" | | FEATURED WRITERS & PERFORMERS | 
| Lucy Corin's fiction has appeared in journals including Ploughshares, Conjunctions, Tin House
Magazine, and American Short Fiction, and Penguin's forthcoming anthology of contemporary fairy tales My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me. Her novel, Everyday Psychokillers: A History for Girls was published by FC2 in 2004. Her collection of stories, The Entire Predicament, was published by Tin House Books in 2007. You can read her story "Eyes of Dogs" here. |  | Megan Cummins lives in Sacramento. In May 2009, she completed undergraduate degrees in Literature and French from the University of Michigan. She is now working toward a Masters in Creative Writing at UC Davis. Her story "The Geologist" appeared in the June 2008 issue of Freight Stories, which you can read here. | | Cynthia Mitchell Speakman has been performing on Sacramento stages since 1994 when she joined Ed Claudio's Actor's Workshop. She has played some great characters, such as Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman and Amanda in The Glass Menagerie. She also performs with StoryVoices, four spoken word artists that perform for benefits across the country, inspiring people to take on their lives with passion. Her 17 year old son keeps her thinking young and she thanks him for being an inspiration to her. Cynthia will read Lucy Corin's "My Favorite Dentist." | | |
Victoria Goldblatt has been performing for over 25 years. She has done a variety of work from films, commercials and voice overs for TV and Radio. In addition, Victoria has performed here in Sacramento's Community Theater and in the private sector, where she performs her Cabernet Night with Victoria and Friends show. She has also performed Stand Up Comedy at the Hiltons Palm Springs, Clarion and Laughs Unlimited. You can preview one of her films here. Victoria will read Megan Cummins' "Morning Company."
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February 26th, 2010 Eric Baldwin read Adam Russ' "Toll Man" & Martha Omiyo Kight read Lori Ostland's "Talking Fowl with My Father" | FEATURED WRITERS & PERFORMERS
|  | Lori Ostlund's The Bigness of the World won the 2008 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and was recently named a Notable Book by the Story Prize committee. Her work has appeared in New England Review, Bellingham Review, The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Hobart, and Prairie Schooner, among other journals. She lives in San Francisco with her partner, the novelist Anne Raeff. You can read "The Bigness of the World" here, and you can watch Lori read her story "All Boy" here.
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Adam Russ has worked as a Peace Corps volunteer, an economist, a high school math teacher, and currently as a full-time dad and part-time writer. His short stories have won awards from Writer’s Digest, The Baltimore Review, and New Millennium Writings. Adam is the Assistant Editor of the Blue Moon Literary & Art Review and is in the final throes of completing his first novel. He lives in Davis with his wife and son. You can read "Elevation" here.
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Martha Omiyo Kight has performed at many area theatres, including Artistic Differences, Synergy Stage, City Theatre, and River Stage. She wears many theatrical hats: actor, director, costumer, prop builder, producer, and graphic designer. She has been nominated for several of Sacramento’s theatrical Elly Awards and received two. You can watch her sing here, or see her perform in the Woodland Opera House's production of Noises Off, beginning March 5. Martha will read Lori Ostlund’s “Talking Fowl with My Father.”
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Eric Baldwin's acting credits include Romeo, Macbeth, and Ralph Clark in Our Country's Good (Backstage West Garland Award). He was the Artistic Director of the Quantum Theatre Company in Los Angeles. Since returning to his hometown of Sacramento, he has appeared as Biff in 0Death of a Salesman, Joe Pitt in Angels in America and Shylock in Merchant of Venice. This was followed by role as Lee Atwater in the one-man show ATWATER: fixin’ to die. Eric was last seen as Richard Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross. Eric will read Adam Russ' "Toll Man."
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January 29th, 2010 Cynthia Mitchell Speakman read Naomi Williams' "Snow Men" and William Kay read Jodi Angel's "The Skin from the Muscle"
FEATURED WRITERS & PERFORMERS
| Jodi Angel’s collection of short stories, The History of Vegas, was published by Chronicle Books. The collection was named as a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book as well as a LA Times Book Review Discovery. Her short story “Portions” was selected for Special Mention for the 2007 Pushcart Prize and has also been adapted into an independent short film. Her work has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, Sycamore Review, and Carve Magazine, among other publications. She currently teaches literature and fiction writing at UC Davis and Sacramento City College. Jodi lives in Midtown with her daughter. You can read "Portions" here. | 
| Naomi Williams was born in Japan and spoke no English until she was 6 years old. A recent graduate of the MA program in Creative Writing at UC Davis, Naomi's short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Southern Review, A Public Space, American Short Fiction, and One Story. She's received a Pushcart Prize and Honorable Mention in Best American Short Stories 2009. For the last five years, she's been working on a collection of linked short stories about the La Pérouse expedition, an 18th-century French voyage of exploration. She lives in Davis with her husband and two sons. You can listen to Naomi reading her story "Sunday School" here. | 
| William Kay began acting in 2000 with Sacramento's Modern Theater Ensemble. He has appeared in several supporting roles at River Stage, including The Chicago Conspiracy Trial and Gun Fighter. He also appeared as Fortinbras in Hamlet at Capitol Opera. He has directed and appeared in several Christmas productions at SLC. He is currently a member of the Midtown Players, where he works both on stage and behind the scenes. |
| Cynthia Mitchell Speakman has been performing on Sacramento stages since 1994 when she joined Ed Claudio's Actor's Workshop. She has played some of the great characters in American Theater, such as Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman, Veta Louise in Harvey and Amanda in The Glass Menagerie. She also performs with StoryVoices, four spoken word artists that perform for benefits across the country, inspiring people to take on their lives with passion. Her 17 year old son keeps her thinking young and she thanks him for being an inspiration to her. |
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