N.L. tries to define the Bakersfield literary and writer scene - By N.L. Belardes
Tomorrow I will be heading to Heyday Book’s 2006 Great Valley Books Writers Conference. I will be covering the event in a huge write-up in Paperback Writer and with exclusive interviews for the Buck City Podcast… I recently spoke with Fresno native, Patricia Wakida from Heyday Books about the conference. We spoke about how the Central Valley is a strange place for writers. If anything, the San Joaquin Valley consists of a disjointed, balkanized group of people from Sacramento, Stockton, Merced, Fresno, Bakersfield, and all the little valley towns in between. Really, Sacramento doesn’t even consider itself a part of the Central Valley, whereas towns like Merced, Fresno and Bakersfield tend to rib each other so much that there is little cohesion between any groups.
Bakersfield itself seems just as balkanized as the Central Valley. I’ll keep you posted on the development of a new writing group coming soon. From what I can gather, the Bakersfield literary/writing scene can be summed up as follows:
1. Journalists and reporters: Bakersfield Californian, Renegade Rip, The Blackboard, Roadrunner, Mas Magazine, Bakersfield Magazine and various other local magazines who collectively make up a diverse pool of local writers. Not sure if there are any novelists in the mix though I have heard that Robert Price has a manuscript about the Lords of Bakersfield.
2. Bloggers: range from journalists to Joe on the street.
3. The Writers of Kern: I will be speaking to the Writers of Kern on May 20th at a luncheon.
4. (Me) N.L. Belardes and a hodge-podge group of bloggers and writers, the slowly growing Noveltown empire and this Paperback Writer blog. New Noveltown website is coming soon that will really help change the face of local literary arts. The Baksersfield and Central Valley Book Blog is getting an overhaul as well as it will become the company blog for Noveltown, promoting not only Noveltown, but in an unprecedented move, all local writers.
5. Whoever it is that attends the creative writing classes at Bakersfield College and the few instructors who teach it: David Moton, B. Mooney, and N. Edwards. M. Brago used to teach the course at one time as well. I have no contact with them… yet.
6. Academics who publish books and journal articles. This is a large group of individuals who largely don’t know each other and would take a long time to discover just who at CSUB and Bakersfield College has published works. I have read probably 5-10 local academic works that have been of incredible quality and great contributions to their fields of study: Oliver Rink, J.A. Maynard, Forrest Wood, J. Stanley, Randal Beeman, Kathryn Burke... and some I just haven’t thought of…
7. Theatre writers: Oh yes, there are active folks constantly writing plays, one acts, and so on…
8. Local Filmmakers: a group of talented folks. Look for a website coming soon from this talented group in Hollywood’s Backyard. Noveltown is going to hold a cinema contest. That’s right around the corner.
9. Russo’s Poetry Group: More to come from the Russo's Poets. They just published their first collection of poems titled, On Any Given Wednesday. Oh yeah...!
10. Book Clubs: There are book clubs like the local Chicana Book Club who is bringing writer Ana Castillo to Bakersfield.
11. Literary Journals: Cerro Coso has one called Metomorphoses. I hear there is Orpheus and one other through CSUB.
If you know of more people in a Bakersfield literary scene, or of local writers. Let me know! nl@nlbelardes.com
Bakersfield itself seems just as balkanized as the Central Valley. I’ll keep you posted on the development of a new writing group coming soon. From what I can gather, the Bakersfield literary/writing scene can be summed up as follows:
1. Journalists and reporters: Bakersfield Californian, Renegade Rip, The Blackboard, Roadrunner, Mas Magazine, Bakersfield Magazine and various other local magazines who collectively make up a diverse pool of local writers. Not sure if there are any novelists in the mix though I have heard that Robert Price has a manuscript about the Lords of Bakersfield.
2. Bloggers: range from journalists to Joe on the street.
3. The Writers of Kern: I will be speaking to the Writers of Kern on May 20th at a luncheon.
4. (Me) N.L. Belardes and a hodge-podge group of bloggers and writers, the slowly growing Noveltown empire and this Paperback Writer blog. New Noveltown website is coming soon that will really help change the face of local literary arts. The Baksersfield and Central Valley Book Blog is getting an overhaul as well as it will become the company blog for Noveltown, promoting not only Noveltown, but in an unprecedented move, all local writers.
5. Whoever it is that attends the creative writing classes at Bakersfield College and the few instructors who teach it: David Moton, B. Mooney, and N. Edwards. M. Brago used to teach the course at one time as well. I have no contact with them… yet.
6. Academics who publish books and journal articles. This is a large group of individuals who largely don’t know each other and would take a long time to discover just who at CSUB and Bakersfield College has published works. I have read probably 5-10 local academic works that have been of incredible quality and great contributions to their fields of study: Oliver Rink, J.A. Maynard, Forrest Wood, J. Stanley, Randal Beeman, Kathryn Burke... and some I just haven’t thought of…
7. Theatre writers: Oh yes, there are active folks constantly writing plays, one acts, and so on…
8. Local Filmmakers: a group of talented folks. Look for a website coming soon from this talented group in Hollywood’s Backyard. Noveltown is going to hold a cinema contest. That’s right around the corner.
9. Russo’s Poetry Group: More to come from the Russo's Poets. They just published their first collection of poems titled, On Any Given Wednesday. Oh yeah...!
10. Book Clubs: There are book clubs like the local Chicana Book Club who is bringing writer Ana Castillo to Bakersfield.
11. Literary Journals: Cerro Coso has one called Metomorphoses. I hear there is Orpheus and one other through CSUB.
If you know of more people in a Bakersfield literary scene, or of local writers. Let me know! nl@nlbelardes.com
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Friday, April 14, 2006.
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Francis Mayer is/was a writer. but he is a radio guy now.
Francis also works in TV too as a writer for Damaged TV. I'm guessing he might appear in skits too on the program. That would make him a sort of jack of all trades... writer, radio guy, actor...
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