Ridge Writers Donna Rosenthal–
Award-winning poet Eva Poole-Gilson has delighted Ridge Writers audiences with past programs and a “Read the Book, Meet the Author” visit. The author of the beautiful “Love Letter from a Poet to the High Sierra” will speak at the Thursday, February 1, general meeting that starts at 6:30 pm in the meeting room of Ridgecrest Presbyterian Church, 633 W. Las Flores. Public invited. No admission fee.
She will update members on “my life as a writer in a rural backwater, what I’ve done over the past 50 years or so, and what I’ve published and how. I’ll bring along copies of the books I’ve published via Amazon for possible sale, the most recent (August 2023) ‘A Spark in Slow Motion.’”
She will add a reading of her work now in progress: “A dig into memory; I’ll also create a writing prompt to encourage those in the audience to write…and share.”
Poole-Gilson has degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Mexico’s Institute Allende. For 20 years, she taught writing and literature for Cerro Coso College. With California Arts Council grants, she served as poet-in-residence at two High Sierra high schools. Looking back, she has no trouble identifying her favorite job as a teaching poet via California Poets in the Schools. Through California Poets, she taught in four counties and found ways to bring over 70 illustrious poets to Bishop to work with children during three-day poetry conferences each spring for 18 years.
A book signing and Q&A will follow. Ridge Writers is the East Sierra Branch of the 115-year-old California Writers Club (calwriters.org) that traces its roots to Jack London and friends in the Bay Area and has 22 branches throughout the state.
