Lyrics & Dirges at Pegasus Bookstore Downtown Berkeley was the best place to be on a stormy Wednesday evening. A huge thank you to series cofounder and host Sharon Coleman for setting the tone, which is always welcoming and encouraging of the writers and the audience.

Surrounded by books, writers and an appreciative audience was wonderful. Kimi Sugioka, Sara Mumolo, Joseph Lease took us on journeys of the heart and mind. What teachers and students need in public education, motherhood, loving friendship interrupted by death, and the wisdom of lizard in the face of law enforcement were some of the journeys we writers took with audience members.

Libraries and independent bookstores and the books they offer to us have been places of peace for me and I hope that they continue to be for as many of us as possible despite the current landscape of chaos, confusion and change.

I encourage you to visit and purchase used or new books and catch the annual calendar sale (one of my favorites) at Pegasus and attend a Lyrics & Dirges reading. You can find out about the February Lyrics & Dirges here You can find out more about Pegasus bookstores here

Long live Lyrics & Dirges and its cofounders and co-hosts Mk Chavez and Sharon Coleman and long live independent bookstores.

And if you haven’t yet purchased my book How it Happens, hop on over to the Nomadic Press website and do so here