Hi Fellow Booklovers!
In this episode, I chatted with community organizer, author coordinator, and interviewer Corey Roskin about how literature can shape and uplift communities.
Corey dives into his rich background in psychology and social services, detailing his work on the West Hollywood Book Fair, Lambda Lit Fest, and Pride on the Page. He discusses the complexities of fostering vibrant literary communities in diverse environments and how grassroots activism is critical in promoting diversity and social consciousness.
Hear firsthand the challenges and triumphs of organizing literary festivals and get practical advice on creating inclusive and meaningful events. In our final segment, Corey shares his experience adjusting to life in the serene desert setting of Palm Springs and discusses his enduring commitment to social work through volunteer efforts.
We spotlight the dynamic literary and cultural arts scene in Palm Springs, mentioning notable authors like Stephen Rowley and Byron Lane and explore the emotional resonance of well-crafted fiction.
Pride on the Page â Palm Springs
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Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson-Beverly and I'm a
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bibliophile.
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Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast .
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Each week, I present interviews with authors, independent
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bookshop owners and booksellers from around the globe and
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subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to this
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podcast.
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You're listening to episode 262 .
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1962.
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Corey Roskin has worked and volunteered in Los Angeles as a
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literary community organizer and author coordinator for the West
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Hollywood Book Fair, West Hollywood Reads, Pride on the
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Page, Little Tokyo Book Festival , NoHo Lit Crawl and more
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recently, as panel moderator at the Los Angeles Times Festival
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of Books.
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From 2019 through 2023, he was a member of Queer Wise, an LGBTQ
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plus multi-generational writing collective and performance
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group, where he organized the adjunct Queer Wise Book Club,
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featuring book discussions with featured authors.
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As a board member for the Omega Sci-Fi Awards, Corey organizes
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adult and youth contests that explore the art of science
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fiction short story writing.
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He is the author coordinator for Pride on the Page and
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currently lives in Palm Springs, California, where he continues
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to support authors and the local community.
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Hi, Corey, and welcome to the show You're tuning in from a
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rather hot Palm Springs area.
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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, and yes, it's quite hot out
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here.
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Speaker 1: Yes, I noticed you're having record high temps.
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Let's begin by learning about you what brought you to Los
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Angeles from Chicago and how you became involved with the
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literary world.
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From my research, I gathered that community is extremely
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important to you.
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Yeah, that's true.
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Speaker 2: I'll give you an abbreviated version of my
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trajectory that led me to where I am now.
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I'm from just outside of Chicago, a suburb called Skopje,
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which had a bit of infamy in the mid-70s, and I moved to
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California in 1982 when I was 21 .
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I had graduated college from the University of Illinois, a
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degree in psychology, and I lived in San Bernardino for a
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little over a year with some family and I worked in a
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psychiatric facility.
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I was a counselor and I worked with a psychiatric residence
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facility.
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And then I came to LA a year later and I continued some of my
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studies and to then abbreviate much of my adult career until I
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retired a little bit early was in social services.
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I did direct social service work for the AIDS project,
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working with people with HIV and AIDS in the late 80s, early 90s
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as a caseworker, and then I ran volunteer programs.
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And then I worked for the City of West Hollywood for many years
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and in social services I worked on all sorts of community
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events, special programs, health fairs, speaker series,
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prevention campaigns etc.
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And then while I was working for the city, one of the council
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members had a very kind of vague idea about doing a literary
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festival and that was a little bit outside of what I was doing,
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but I was quite intrigued because I've always written and
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I've always been interested in books and authors and so for 10
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of the 12 years of that festival I co-oversaw the programming
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for the West Hollywood Book and Hair, and then that just led
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into other literary events and programs that I helped organize
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or participate in or moderate author panels, and I've
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continued to do that and that's been, I think, around 22 years.
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And when I retired to Palm Springs four years ago it was
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right in the beginning of COVID.
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So I was doing a few things like that online and then when
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things opened up, I started doing some literary events and
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programs out here.
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I started working on them.
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So that's the long abbreviated version.
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Speaker 1: What a wonderful life you're having.
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Two things came up for me while I was listening to you speak.
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One was how lucky the Palm Springs community is to have you
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there.
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And also you mentioned writing.
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Are you working on a book or do you work more with other
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writers?
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Speaker 2: I have written throughout much of my adult life
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, not terribly diligently, but I've been in many, many writing
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workshops and it's been for just fun and enjoyment.
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I haven't published anything.
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I do have a book that I wrote, that I'm on a second draft of
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that.
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I'm at the point where I'm going to have some people look
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at it.
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But I'm a little slow in that regard and I've tended to be a
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little bit more behind the scenes in terms of things that
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I've done in the literary community, a little lazier with
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my own projects.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps lazy is not the right word, but rather busy
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with life.
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It's difficult when you're working because you need to have
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money to live and to find the time to be creative.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and writers write in so many different ways
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and I find for me I'm a little bit more of a loose jointed
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organic.
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I don't plot things out too much and it just sort of happens
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or comes when it comes, and that's just my style.
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I'm not saying it's the best way to do it, but it's the way
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that I like to do it.
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Speaker 1: As you mentioned, I don't think there's a wrong or a
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right way to be a writer.
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It's about whatever works for you.
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You've spoken a little about the work you've done supporting
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the literary arts in a variety of formats, from being on the
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curatorial team for Literature for Life magazine, co-organizer
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and author coordinator for the West Hollywood Book Fair, west
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Hollywood Reads and QueerWise, and you moderate author panels
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and facilitate writing programs and serve as a board member for
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the Palm Springs Library Foundation.
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Do you feel cities support LGBTQ plus voices through the
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arts and, if not, what do you see as missing?
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Speaker 2: Well, some of those projects and things that you
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mentioned were LGBTQ specific and some of them weren't, but
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may have included some of that.
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And I'll just add that I've also been working the last three
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years on an LGBTQ festival, literary festival, out here in
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Palm Springs called Pride on the Page, which I'm working on
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currently to help program and it'll happen in October.
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I think I've been lucky to be in predominantly two cities
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where there are very large LGBTQ communities, which are West
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Hollywood and Palm Springs, sort of notorious for having large
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LGBTQ communities, which are West Hollywood and Palm Springs
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sort of notorious for having large LGBTQ communities, and the
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communities have been extremely supportive at the level of the
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council to just other folks in the community who are kind of
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actively involved in programs and show up for things and so
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forth.
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So I would say the places I've been yes, I don't think that
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that's the case in many places, but certainly I've been lucky to
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be in communities that have supported those kinds of
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programs in many different ways.
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Speaker 1: When you speak with friends who are doing similar
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work to what you have done or are currently doing within other
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cities, do they feel supported as well?
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Speaker 2: Ironically, I have a close friend who was also a
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colleague for many years in West Hollywood, who doing within
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other cities Do they feel supported as well?
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Ironically, I have a close friend who was also a colleague
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for many years in West Hollywood who moved with his husband to a
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small town in South Carolina and we've been chatting about
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some of the you know interesting things about living there and
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some of the ways that it can be difficult, that we've talked a
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little bit about literary life there because somebody recently
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opened in I forgot where he said not far maybe Charleston an
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LGBT bookstore and he's been really trying to help support
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them and make sure that they stay in existence and talked
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about how brave it is for these two I think it's two women that
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open this door.
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It's not the easiest place, you know.
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We take it for granted.
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Speaker 1: We sure do, don't we?
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While I think of it, please make sure to give your friends
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with a bookstore my information and I'll be happy to get them on
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the show for 2025.
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Speaker 2: Oh, okay For the sex question.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to look at a little bit of backstory.
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Oh, okay, for the next question , I'm going to look at a little
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bit of backstory.
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During the 2008 US elections, we saw a huge surge in
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grassroots activism.
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Street artist and activist Shepard Fairey designed the Hope
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posters in support of then Senator Barack Obama, and every
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time I saw these posters around Los Angeles I truly did feel
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hopeful and grateful that the art community was building this
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platform of grassroots activism.
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What I'm hearing from independent bookshop owners and
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booksellers is that they're grateful to the literary
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community who are now standing up and becoming part of that
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grassroots activism.
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I think small and medium presses have helped support this
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idea in that they are willing to take a chance on writers with
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diverse voices.
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So my question is do you see literature as a strong and
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trusted voice in the arts regarding political, ethnic and
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sexual diversity and climate change in 2024?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good question.
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I think in terms of fine arts, physical art, public art, yeah,
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it's always great when you see things out in the world and you
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notice them on a poster, mural, piece of sculpture etc.
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And I think sometimes some of that is more this is just my
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perspective a little more hidden , because things don't end up,
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you know, sort of out in the public arena as much in the art
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world as they might be in galleries or inside places.
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But I agree with you, I always think it's wonderful when you
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see things out in the world that sort of intersect the artistic
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and things that have to do with social consciousness, education,
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you know, informing people about what might be going on,
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getting people to think about things that we want them to
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think about In the literary world, yeah, I feel like it's
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just ongoing, like it's never really ended and I think it will
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always.
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I hope it will always continue that writers and authors will
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continue to write about things, whether it's nonfiction or
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fiction, but that will stimulate people to think about important
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issues, to really be attentive to what's going on in the world,
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to encourage people to find out about social service issues,
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politics etc.
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And to just be deeper thinkers.
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Does that make sense?
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Speaker 1: Yes, it makes absolute sense to me.
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I believe the arts are how we make change, how we reach out to
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people and, as you mentioned, encourage all people to become
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thinkers.
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For any writers listening, I would encourage you to join
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Writers for Democratic Action and I will put the link to this
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organization in the show notes.
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They are doing terrific work supporting social justice and
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democracy globally.
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You mentioned something about Shepard Fairey's mural in Los
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Angeles.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we were talking about that before we
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started recording.
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When I work for the City of West Hollywood, there is a
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Shepard Fairey mural that is part of the West Hollywood
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Library Complex.
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So when that complex was built gosh how many years ago, about
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15 or so years ago there were a number of commissioned murals
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and there's a beautiful one that's inside, where the
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auditorium is for the library complex.
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So folks are in West Hollywood.
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You should check it out.
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Speaker 1: That's a great idea.
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Now, as a literary event planner, what would you suggest
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to anyone wanting to put on a literary festival in their
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community?
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What are the steps they need to take and in what order?
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Speaker 2: It's a huge question, I know, not for the faint
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hearted I'd say you know, get people on the committee to be
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supportive, to brainstorm with.
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Look at things that you might have to support you in terms of
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you know, financial resources.
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If you're bringing people from out of town, maybe you can look
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at partnerships to put people up in hotels.
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See if you can get different sponsors.
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See if you can get different sponsors.
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Do your homework, or find out people who really know what's
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going on in the literary community or know how to find
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out about what's happening, books that are coming out,
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things that are interesting.
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I always have worked very hard with the literary festivals.
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I've worked on to really keep in mind diversifying them as
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much as possible and making them interesting in terms of topics,
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in terms of who participates, in terms of different age ranges
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, etc.
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So there's not really one thing , but it's a lot of work, but
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it's really gratifying and most authors love having
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opportunities to participate in things where they can talk about
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their books and be exposed and think about the authors as well
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in terms of how you can best support them, because so often
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authors participate in things and maybe they're not paid or
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they're doing things on their own time and their own dime and
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don't take that for granted and do your best to try to figure
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out how to do something like that and be as supportive not
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only to the community coming to attend but to the authors who
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are participating.
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That's my long, short answer.
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Speaker 1: That's a lot of wonderful information, corey,
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thank you.
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I was looking at putting on a literary festival in Ojai, where
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I live, for 2025 and to continue it throughout the years
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.
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I live for 2025 and to continue it throughout the years.
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However, after months and months of research and figuring
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out numbers and everything else, I realized that I didn't think
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the city of Ojai had the infrastructure to sustain an
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event the way I designed it.
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So that's what I learned.
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And getting back to something that you mentioned, it was
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important to me to be supportive financially to the authors.
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What is often forgotten is that most authors aren't making a
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fortune from selling their books .
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Most work second or third jobs to support their writing life,
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and publishing companies often don't have the marketing budgets
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needed to support a book and the author for longer than you
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know, maybe six to eight weeks prior to and after publication.
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So, if you are considering putting on a book fair, find
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sponsorship and put your authors up in a nice hotel.
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They deserve it.
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Speaker 2: And I think that's more and more the case.
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Even authors who are bigger publishers it used to be people
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would go on a book tour throughout the country even, and
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now that's less likely to happen just because of finances.
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The other thing I want to mention is I worked on the
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Lambda Lit Fest, which was an LGBTQ literary festival in
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conjunction with Lambda Literary National Organization for a few
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years in LA and we did some interesting things with the way
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we did that festival.
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It was kind of throughout LA County and we worked with some
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folks, a lot of people in LA in the literary community, to
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submit ideas, and then we also asked people to submit ideas
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with like spaces they might have in mind, people they knew.
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So we had this big, huge collaborative effort where we
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weren't necessarily like doing all the infrastructure work.
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So there's lots of different ways you could look at festivals
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.
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There's I don't know if you've ever been part of a lid crawl,
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but some communities do that or different businesses and events.
00:16:06
So there's a lot of different ways to think about it.
00:16:09
Speaker 1: That's great advice, and that way you're sharing the
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burden and sharing the love.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about the cultural arts scene in
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Palm Springs and how institutions such as the Palm
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Springs Art Museum support creativity.
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For anyone listening who plans a visit to Palm Springs, please
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go to the Palm Springs Art Museum.
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It is absolutely wonderful.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I could probably speak a little less to
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the fine arts community, but I will a little bit.
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Yeah, the Art Museum is beautiful, wonderful place.
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There's a lot of, in general, artists out here.
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A lot of people have retired, have become artists.
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There seems to be more galleries or spaces that people
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are hopping on.
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In terms of fine arts, there's the big Desert X festival that
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happens every two years, which is public art all throughout the
00:16:58
Coachella Valley and that's pretty cool.
00:17:01
I don't know if you've been out here for that, but it's pretty
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amazing.
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There's some enormous pieces like right out in the middle of
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the desert and stuff like that, that.
00:17:09
So that'll happen, I think, next year.
00:17:11
It's every two years here and aside from that, you know I've
00:17:15
been out here for four years.
00:17:16
I mean visited here before, but I've lived out here for four
00:17:19
years, beginning of COVID and then as it started to shift
00:17:22
after that, and so many more people have come out here to
00:17:26
live, to spend more time here since COVID actually, and a lot
00:17:30
of those people that I've met are artistic folks.
00:17:33
There's more going on with things having to do with the
00:17:36
theater, storytelling, music, film.
00:17:39
I mean there's always stuff going on here much more than I
00:17:43
anticipated when I first moved out here and I think it's a real
00:17:46
kind of a hot time out here right now.
00:17:48
Speaker 1: Corey, what do you love most about living in Palm
00:17:51
Springs?
00:17:52
Speaker 2: I love all of that.
00:17:53
You know I love anything that's good, that's interesting and
00:17:56
creative.
00:17:57
So that's been really exciting.
00:17:59
It's a friendly community, you know, still a fairly small
00:18:03
community, so it feels a little more folksy, easy to get around.
00:18:07
It's beautiful out here.
00:18:09
When it's not, you know, blistering hot, it's just, you
00:18:13
know, gorgeous and that's a good chunk of the year.
00:18:16
So, yeah, many things, it's a really lovely place to be.
00:18:20
Speaker 1: Was it a difficult decision for you to move from
00:18:22
Los Angeles to the desert?
00:18:24
Wasn't?
00:18:24
Speaker 2: that difficult.
00:18:25
It was a little bit of a I'm trying to think of the word I'm
00:18:28
trying to say, not a shot in the dark.
00:18:32
I took chance.
00:18:33
You know, I wasn't completely sure and it was in the works,
00:18:35
pre-covered, as was my retirement, but it ended up all
00:18:38
dovetailing with the beginning of covet.
00:18:40
So it was hard for me to really get a feel for what it would be
00:18:44
like when I first moved here, because I was may 2020 was when
00:18:47
I was first here.
00:18:48
It was nice to be here then because it was really quiet and
00:18:52
nobody in the world knew what life was going to be like.
00:18:54
But I just got to sit and kind of ponder a little bit and, like
00:18:59
everybody was just doing some things online, it wasn't that
00:19:02
hard, but I had no idea what it would be like really living here
00:19:05
for a while.
00:19:06
Speaker 1: Now.
00:19:06
You studied psychology and then you worked as a social worker.
00:19:10
Are there times when you missed that part of your life?
00:19:14
Speaker 2: Well, I wasn't a licensed person but I've been a
00:19:16
caseworker before and I've done work that was pretty close to
00:19:20
what you might do as a licensed person.
00:19:21
I don't miss it because I still have a strong volunteer life
00:19:29
and I would say that some of that is related to things I do
00:19:33
in the community have nothing to do with the literary stuff but
00:19:36
that are, I would say, social service oriented and that are
00:19:40
service oriented.
00:19:41
So I think I will always have that.
00:19:44
I'm sort of of two, you know kind of of two things within me.
00:19:48
One is like the social service piece, which is always a strong
00:19:52
part of kind of who I am and what I want to do in the
00:19:54
community, and the cultural arts piece, and so I try to keep
00:19:58
those in my life in different ways, if that makes sense.
00:20:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, it does.
00:20:03
Now let's chat about local authors in the Palm Springs area
00:20:06
.
00:20:06
Who are they, what do you enjoy about their writing and what
00:20:10
draws artists to the Coachella Valley?
00:20:13
Speaker 2: Golly, I guess.
00:20:14
I think what draws people here is there's something, there's a
00:20:17
mystique of the desert, and it's hard to explain, but I think
00:20:21
when you're here you understand it.
00:20:23
There's something beautiful, slightly mysterious, and I don't
00:20:27
know.
00:20:27
It fosters a sense of creativity.
00:20:29
I think that's my impression at least.
00:20:32
I've met a lot of different types of artists, writers.
00:20:34
There's a number of writers that I've met out here have been
00:20:37
published.
00:20:37
There's a lot of people I know who are writing, who haven't.
00:20:39
There are people who are part of the Palm Springs Writers
00:20:43
Guild, more self-published, or people that are tinkering
00:20:46
writing.
00:20:46
And, yeah, I mean, I've met a lot of great writers here.
00:20:50
There's a few that are, you know, pretty prominent in the
00:20:54
community, like Stephen Rowley is probably like our biggest
00:20:57
name out here and he's wonderfully generous in the
00:21:00
community, as well as his husband, byron Lane.
00:21:02
And then there's some other people like Michael Craft and
00:21:06
Rebecca Walker and Rachel Harper they're out here part time and
00:21:10
a bunch of other writers.
00:21:11
It's hard for me to say what I like specifically about one or
00:21:14
the other, but all really interesting people.
00:21:16
I would say that.
00:21:18
Speaker 1: I enjoyed the panel you moderated at the Los Angeles
00:21:21
Festival of Books earlier this year and Stephen Rowley was on
00:21:24
that panel.
00:21:25
Stephen is going to be an author guest at the Lunch with
00:21:29
an Author literary series at El Encanto in Santa Barbara that I
00:21:33
schedule and host, and that event is scheduled for Tuesday,
00:21:37
august 6th.
00:21:37
Now in July we had author Annie Barrows, who's written a lot of
00:21:42
children's books, but she also co-wrote with her auntie the
00:21:46
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
00:21:49
Lovely, lovely lady.
00:21:50
And before I was in conversation with Ania, I was sitting with a
00:21:53
group of women of all ages and the lady next to me, I guess,
00:21:57
was probably in her 80s and I said to her what are you reading
00:22:02
?
00:22:02
She said, oh, I just finished Stephen Rowley's the Gunkle
00:22:06
because I wanted to get ready for the next luncheon in August
00:22:17
when he'll be talking about the Gunkle Abroad.
00:22:18
And I said to her what did you think of the book?
00:22:19
And she said, oh, I loved it.
00:22:20
I laughed the whole time.
00:22:20
I chuckled, I just thought it was wonderful.
00:22:22
Now, right, there is one of the wonderful things about Stephen
00:22:28
Rowley His stories reach out to a large, diverse age population.
00:22:34
Speaker 2: I think that's true.
00:22:35
I think that's true.
00:22:36
I mean, you could, if you just sort of read about it quickly,
00:22:39
you might peg it as oh, these are books that are just
00:22:42
appealing to gay men, for you know.
00:22:44
But I will say that that's not the case at all with Stephen.
00:22:47
I mean, he's really translated to a really wide audience and as
00:22:51
really successful, and he is a great guy.
00:22:55
He's a great writer, as is his husband, byron both of them.
00:22:58
Speaker 1: Yes, byron's books are on my TBR list.
00:23:01
Before I move on to my next question, one of the other
00:23:04
things that I like about reading Stephen's books is the reader
00:23:08
has empathy for the characters in the books, and that's one of
00:23:12
the reasons I love fiction.
00:23:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, you said something earlier about fiction
00:23:18
and empathy and it really kind of I can't remember how you
00:23:21
phrased it but it helps people to become more empathetic.
00:23:24
Maybe, and I think I agree with you there.
00:23:27
I tend to read more fiction than nonfiction, even though I
00:23:30
do read fiction and a beautifully written piece of
00:23:33
fiction with great characters, even if you have characters you
00:23:36
don't always love, like I always think of oh my God, why am I
00:23:39
just blanked on her name?
00:23:40
It'll come to me in a minute.
00:23:43
They made a TV movie with Frances McDormand on her book.
00:23:46
Oh, olive Kitteridge.
00:23:48
Speaker 1: Yes, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stroup.
00:23:50
Speaker 2: I mean a tough character, but you were such a
00:23:54
beautifully written character that you got to the point where
00:23:58
you could see underneath the toughness.
00:24:00
Not that you fell in love with her, but you fell in love with
00:24:03
the writer.
00:24:04
You know and had a lot of empathy for her, even this
00:24:07
difficult character.
00:24:09
Speaker 1: And honestly, Corey, that's one of the things that I
00:24:11
hope teachers and people in education look at, because I
00:24:16
think there needs to be some more thought around the
00:24:19
suggested reading for middle schoolers and high schoolers and
00:24:23
, instead of working the kids through the bone, give them some
00:24:26
time to read books they want to read and to talk about them in
00:24:30
class.
00:24:30
Having taught in middle school and high school and taught AP
00:24:35
art, I've seen the pressure these kids are under, and one of
00:24:39
the ways we can reduce stress is by sitting down and reading
00:24:43
something.
00:24:44
That's going to take us away on a journey somewhere, away from
00:24:48
where we are right now, away from the pressures of life.
00:24:51
I've seen children even by fourth grade I hate to say it,
00:24:55
but that little light, that love of learning, starts to fade, so
00:25:00
that by the end of middle school I'm into high school.
00:25:02
It's all about statistics and what they have to learn to maybe
00:25:05
get into college or university.
00:25:07
We need to take time and nurture these children.
00:25:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I don't work with a lot of kids, but I'm
00:25:14
on the board of the.
00:25:15
It's called the Omega Sci-Fi Awards and there's been an adult
00:25:19
contest.
00:25:19
But for the last two years we've only focused on LA County
00:25:22
teenagers and they submit stories sci-fi and we pick
00:25:25
winners and they get prizes and stuff, and so I read a lot of
00:25:29
their stories and it was so interesting to see what was on
00:25:32
these teenagers' minds.
00:25:34
Forget about the fact that they were sci-fi, but it was just so
00:25:37
fascinating to see what they were thinking about the world.
00:25:41
Speaker 1: Can you give us a little insight or an idea of
00:25:43
what they're writing about?
00:25:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, some of them, a number of them, were
00:25:47
kind of dystopian, you know sci-fi, but there were a number
00:25:52
of environmentally themed.
00:25:52
We encouraged some environmentally themed stories.
00:25:55
We encouraged solution-oriented things as well, so it wasn't
00:25:58
all sort of doom and gloom.
00:25:59
A lot of people were writing about artificial intelligence,
00:26:04
but there was a lot of compassion in the stories.
00:26:06
There was some.
00:26:07
Some of them really moved me, you know, and these were all
00:26:10
teenagers and really great to see what they were thinking
00:26:13
about.
00:26:13
You know, interesting to think about what they were reading.
00:26:16
You know that got them thinking about that.
00:26:18
Speaker 1: Oh, I find that so exciting.
00:26:20
I hear quite a few people poo-pooing Gen Zers and last
00:26:25
year I put on a panel with a couple of Gen Zers and two
00:26:28
psychologists one from UCSB and one from UCLA and honestly I
00:26:33
found these kids or young adults super smart, kind, empathetic
00:26:41
and, yes, they were outspoken, but they have a lot of things to
00:26:44
say.
00:26:45
Now things in the last couple of weeks have changed within the
00:26:48
political world, but for anyone prior to that saying, oh, these
00:26:53
Gen Zers just aren't going to vote, I suggest you ask them why
00:26:57
they don't want to vote and listen to their answers.
00:27:00
So, yes, they are outspoken, they have a lot to say and we
00:27:05
need to start listening.
00:27:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you sit down one-on-one with someone,
00:27:08
you just get a, you get a whole different sense.
00:27:12
You know, I often say I like to be proven wrong about people,
00:27:14
and what I mean by that is when I go to that place where I make
00:27:17
this quick assessment like oh, that teenager over there,
00:27:20
whatever you know, and then I talk to them and they're
00:27:23
fascinating and they're interesting.
00:27:25
I think that's the case with most people, you know.
00:27:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I completely agree with you, and I shall put
00:27:31
a link to Gen Z for Change in the show notes.
00:27:34
It's a website worth looking at .
00:27:35
Okay now, Corey, we have talked about a lot of literary events
00:27:40
in California.
00:27:41
What are your favorite literary events?
00:27:44
Or is there one that rises above and you think, yeah, this
00:27:48
has got to be my favorite.
00:27:49
This rises above all the others .
00:27:52
Speaker 2: I don't know that I'd say rises above, but I mean,
00:27:55
the LA Times Book Fest has been going on for years and it's, you
00:27:59
know, it's just a huge event and you get to see a ton of
00:28:02
authors and have so many different experiences, if you
00:28:05
choose, so that always, you know , rises pretty high.
00:28:09
I haven't had a chance to go, but I know a lot of people
00:28:12
working on the pasadena lit fest I I went years back, which is
00:28:16
now lit fest in the dina and people seem to in altadena speak
00:28:20
really highly of that.
00:28:21
The live talk series is really really pretty, pretty great.
00:28:26
Those are like really proud and big name authors that they
00:28:29
feature.
00:28:29
Um ted, I always pronounce his last name wrong I think it's
00:28:34
pronounced hopaptagaba.
00:28:36
He runs that series and that's pretty great.
00:28:38
Speaker 1: And that's done out of LA.
00:28:40
Yeah, yeah.
00:28:41
Speaker 2: Live talks and that's more about, you know, a paid
00:28:44
event or whatever, but they'll get like really special big name
00:28:48
authors in conversation and then there's just lots of little
00:28:51
things always happening.
00:28:53
You know, I have a friend who does an incredible storytelling
00:28:56
series in LA called Strong Words Live and it's all people who've
00:29:00
written personal stories and I've participated and read some
00:29:04
stuff there in the past.
00:29:05
But I don't know.
00:29:07
You know, as I think one thing, it makes me think of another,
00:29:10
and there's a lot of great stuff , and then you know out here
00:29:13
more things are starting to happen as well.
00:29:16
Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's talk about books.
00:29:17
What are you currently reading?
00:29:20
Speaker 2: I'm reading a book that's a memoir.
00:29:22
That's part of the Pride on the Page.
00:29:24
Lgbtq Fest that I'm working on called Everything I Learned.
00:29:28
I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant and it's quite good.
00:29:32
Yeah, it's a queer guy.
00:29:36
Growing up in Detroit, his family had a Chinese restaurant
00:29:38
and just sort of his trajectory to coming out and being second
00:29:43
generation.
00:29:44
The best fiction I think I read lately, which a lot of people
00:29:47
are reading, is the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James
00:29:50
McBride.
00:29:50
Beautiful Love that.
00:29:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm about a quarter of the way through that
00:29:54
book and absolutely have fallen in love with it.
00:29:57
Speaker 2: Beautiful book, yeah.
00:29:59
Speaker 1: You have spent a lot of your life giving back to
00:30:01
communities.
00:30:02
I always think that one of the best things to do if you're
00:30:06
depressed, so long as you are in a good and healthy frame of
00:30:10
mind, is to give back to your community in different ways.
00:30:13
So what would be your advice to people wanting to volunteer in
00:30:19
the Palm Springs area?
00:30:20
You know it just depends.
00:30:22
Speaker 2: People ask me all the time like, well, they'll say to
00:30:24
me oh, you know, you're doing stuff out there, I want to do
00:30:28
something.
00:30:28
And I always say, well, those are the two key words do
00:30:31
something and ask around.
00:30:33
Look around, what might you be interested in?
00:30:37
What kind of population?
00:30:38
I mean, there's great volunteer opportunities at the library,
00:30:42
at the Mizell Senior Center, at the animal shelter, at cultural
00:30:47
centers.
00:30:47
So there's just so many things that people can get involved
00:30:50
with and I think you just have to take, make the effort to
00:30:55
check around, to ask around.
00:30:55
And I'd also say I think sometimes people think take,
00:30:56
make the effort to to check around, to ask around.
00:30:56
So, and I'd also say I think sometimes people think, oh, I've
00:30:59
got to make a commitment, like every week, and there are things
00:31:02
like that.
00:31:02
But there's plenty of things out there where you don't.
00:31:04
I mean, like there's an organization that's national now
00:31:07
called Gay for Good, and you don't have to be LGBT, although
00:31:12
most of you are, and you just sign up with them, the local
00:31:15
chapter, and they partner with all sorts of different
00:31:18
organizations and they'll send you oh, we're doing a feeding at
00:31:21
this church, or we're helping with this non-profit event to
00:31:25
set up or to staff tables or whatever, and it's great because
00:31:28
you can just kind of do individual things.
00:31:30
And there's other stuff out there like that, where you don't
00:31:34
have to say, okay, I'm committing, you know every week.
00:31:36
So but I agree with you, it's good for the soul.
00:31:43
Speaker 1: Well, I have thoroughly enjoyed chatting with
00:31:44
you, Corey, and once again I do want to thank you for
00:31:46
everything you've done over the decades, support the cultural
00:31:49
arts and literary arts.
00:31:51
And I'm off to go check out the Shepherdepard Ferry mural at
00:31:55
the West Hollywood Library.
00:31:56
And a big shout out to your mom , because you told me she would
00:32:00
be listening.
00:32:01
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
00:32:02
I appreciate it and thanks for what you're doing as well.
00:32:04
You know, people hear about things that are going on and
00:32:08
different voices, and you're doing a wonderful job of sharing
00:32:11
that with the world, because people can listen to these
00:32:14
things all over the place.
00:32:16
Speaker 1: You've been listening to my conversation with Corey
00:32:18
Roskin, literary and cultural arts community organizer and
00:32:22
author coordinator.
00:32:23
To help the show reach more people, please share episodes
00:32:27
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00:32:31
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00:32:34
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00:32:35
To find out more about the Bookshop Podcast, go to
00:32:38
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00:32:43
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00:32:45
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00:32:54
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00:32:57
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00:33:01
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00:33:04
The Bookshop Podcast is written and produced by me, mandy
00:33:08
Jackson-Beverly, theme music provided by Brian Beverly,
00:33:12
executive assistant to Mandy, adrienne Otterhan, and graphic
00:33:16
design by Francis Farala.
00:33:18
Thanks for listening and I'll see you next time.
