Arts & Life

UKIAH – Distinguished poets from Lake County will join Mendocino and Sonoma county poets Saturday, May 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., during "LitFest 2009, A Celebration for Word Lovers."

Readings will take place in the Lowery Library Building at Mendocino College, 1000 Hensley Creek Road. Admission is free.

The event will feature writing workshops, readings by the novelists and poets, and opportunities to meet the authors. Food from Schat’s Bakery and the Mendocino College Latino Club will be available.

For more information about LitFest 2009, call the Mendocino College Library at 707.468.3051 or visit the event website, www.mendocino.edu/litfest. The Mendocino College Foundation, along with the Friends of the Mendocino College Library and additional supporters, sponsors the one-day festival.

A portion of the festival is dedicated to celebrating the work of local poets, according to John Koetzner, head librarian at Mendocino College. He said it is "an honor" to present well-known poets including the current and former poet laureates from Lake County. The scheduled participants are James BlueWolf, Jim Lyle, Mary McMillan, Sandra Wade and Carolyn Wing-Greenlee, all of Lake County.

Short biographies and links to the poets’ Web sites can be found on the LitFest 2009 Web site, www.mendocino.edu/litfest.

Jim Lyle, James BlueWolf, and Carolyn Wing-Greenlee will read from their works at 2 p.m. "Things Seen in the Desert" was Lyle’s first book, released in 2001. He was selected Poet Laureate in Lake County in 1998. He has been a guest lecturer at several colleges.

BlueWolf is an internationally published poet who is also known as a songwriter and storyteller. His book "Speaking For Fire" earned him the honor of WordCraft Circle of Native Writers & Storyteller’s "Children’s Writer of the Year" in 2006. In addition, he is a media editor for the Smithsonian National Museum of The American Indian and senior editor for the online poetry journal Queen: Calliope.

Poet Laureate for Lake County from 2004 to 2006, Wing-Greenlee has written more than a dozen books. She has been a teacher of poetry and creative writing at high schools and colleges, and her poetry appears in several magazines and literary journals. She studied comparative literature with an emphasis on poetry at Occidental College.

Lake County’s current Poet Laureate Mary McMillan will round out the day’s poetry readings along with Sandra Wade at 3 p.m. McMillan published her first collection of poetry, "This Wanting," in 2008 following 10 years of writing poetry. During those 10 years, her poems were published in several publications, including the Santa Clara Review, Tomcat, and most recently accepted in Toyon. Before writing poetry, however, McMillan developed composition skills in journalism and fiction.

Wade preceded McMillan as Lake County’s Poet Laureate, appointed in 2006. She is working on a compact disc of her poetry, hoping to have it completed in time for Saturday’s event. Wade has composed poems over the past 20 years. Her poetry has been published in several journals. She also presents a weekly radio program, "Accent on Words," on Lake County’s community radio station, 88.1 KPFZ-FM.