California Community College literary art movement in journals and web collectives, and a look at Gary Enns' dreampop empire - By N.L. Belardes

Premiere Junior College lit and art journal

There's a literary arts flowering in the community colleges of California and Gary Enns is right in the middle of it. Enns is one of those rare individuals who contributes to Bakersfield and Kern County culture in a big way: through music, literature and academics. He’s even part of a local Brit Car Club—talk about a subculture of car enthusiasts who eat, breathe and dream in terms of Brit cars. Could such enthusiasm have anything to do with Brit music? Read on…


Cortnie and Gary Enns at my house before a breakfast road trip


Has anyone named this car? I'm calling it "The Brit Banana"

As a creative writing and English composition professor, Gary runs the Metamorphoses (Met) literary and arts journal out of Cerro Coso Junior College in nearby Ridgecrest/Lake Isabella. Hands down, it’s the nicest lit journal out of Kern County, better than the Orpheus journal out of CSUB (The link only goes to the 2002-2003 edition, although I saw a printed copy of the latest edition. The layout was nice, but the printing wasn’t).



Met is about Kern County Writers. That’s important. My story Pinay is in there, as well as art, photos, poetry and literature from Janet Thorning, Jennifer K. Ellis, Angela M. Bell, Valyrie Ice, Joan Desmond, Angela Rose, R. D. Hermansen, J. Hermansen, Karen L. Mitchell, Melinda Sue Hutchings, and Dan Tuttle. Matildakay has some pieces within, and you can too. Met has a new hip website and will be taking new submissions through November 27th. You better believe I’m writing something special for the next edition of Metamorphoses. I’m thinking something more of a memoir piece, or a ‘streets of Bakersfield’ kind of literary exploration of the urban senses…




chingpea often steals CDs and books

I talked to Gary today and we spoke about the online creative writing community going on through the Met website. They’ve got a big poet coming in to do a free online workshop. I’ll be announcing here who the writer-poet is. So stay tuned.

You can also find some great local writings by the Russo’s Poets here in Bakersfield. The printing isn’t as good as the work within. But we’re talking a shoestring budget compared to the shoebox budget of Met. Support them all. Met is free. Just ask for a copy.

The nearest literary journal rival is Lee Herrick’s In The Grove out of Fresno College. He also publishes books of poetry. You’ll be hearing more and more about Valley poets in the coming weeks and months. I tried to find something going on at Bakersfield College in creative writing. I couldn’t come up with anything in my search. I need to track down David Moton of Bakersfield College creative writing department to see what he knows…

On another side note, where Lee Herrick is a Fresno City College professor making a literary splash, and Gary Enns is a Cerro Coso professor making a splash, Brad Listi is another community college professor causing a splash, only he is in LA with thenervousbreakdown.com, a nationwide literary collective in the vain of RiotLit and LitPark.


Gary found Cortnie's paint-by-number keyboard at a similar garage sale

What makes Gary Enns a mover and shaker is not only his creative writing talents and academic know-how. He’s also in Fresno/Bakersfield band, The Dalloways. They made a splash with their album Penalty Crusade, and now they’re recording 15 tracks for a new Brit Pop album. They call themselves California Dream Pop. I just call it good music in an 80’s vain. XTC, Morrissey, Lloyd Cole all ring a closeness to their own unique stylings. I’ll be helping them bring a show to the Silver Fox on November 2nd. More on that later. Let me finish with a link to a post from the Dalloways…


At the skatepark...


On a what??


Rock it...

Enns wrote in a recent blog article, “Dalloways in Studio with Marlon Brando”:

Cortnie and I drove to Fresno this morning for a frigid Friday studio session at Royal Dutch Company--Aaron's Fresno studio. The room is housed in a solid slab of a building. Burgundy paint covers some walls, gray carpet covers the rest, black ceilings press down from above--it feels like the sound lab it is. Posters of Marlon Brando as the godfather and Marilyn Monroe as a floosy keep us company.

We built what Cortnie called a carnival booth--a square corner of the room draped with tacked up blankets and comforters--in order to isolate the vocals. Then we went to work. I sipped orange ginger tea with honey as I sang in order to keep those vocal cords loose.

For this recording, the band scored a top of the line Neumann mic from the 1970's--the creme de la creme of pro studio mics, and coupled it with a Nieve preamp for an incredibly warm and distinctive sound. I could tell you more specs, but then I'd have to kill you. (Read the full article)

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Saturday, September 23, 2006. You can leave your response.