Events & Activities

2009 CALENDAR AT A GLANCE - A sampling of our past events

Information about 2010 events will be posted when they are scheduled.

Please click on a date below to see details about the event.
 

Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation 2009 Reading Series

This series serves as a part of the fulfillment of the Foundation’s mission to promote the literary and philosophical legacy of Robinson Jeffers for the enrichment and enlightenment of the public and to serve the community as a cultural resource.  The Arts Council for Monterey Council (www.artsformontereycounty.org), with support from the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, has partially funded the Series.

Please note: As the opportunity arises, additional programs or special events may be announced.  Details about or changes to events listed will be added as information becomes available.  If you are a contributor to or a member of the Foundation and provide us with an email address, the Tor House Newsletter editor will keep you informed of any updates, including times and locations of forthcoming events.

Parking near Tor House can be difficult.  We ask visitors to carpool whenever possible and to be careful not to block driveways of neighboring houses.

PROGRAM DETAILS

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Roz Spafford:  Exploring Memory and Imagination through the Arts—a reading of her poetry with slide-illustrated notes on the paintings of Roy Spafford.

An event sponsored by the Tor House Foundation in cooperation with the Carmel Art Association and made possible in part by a generous grant from the Arts Council of Monterey County through funding from the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.

Roz Spafford has been a writer, teacher, and activist for the last three decades, most of that time on the central coast of California.  An early childhood on a cattle ranch in northwestern Arizona was followed by a family move, in the early sixties, to the Monterey Peninsula.  It is these two western landscapes—one remembered, the other present and familiar—that feature in Spafford’s poetry, which draws as well on certain imaginary worlds.  Themes of memory and imagination are evident, too, in the work of Carmel artist Roy Spafford, Roz’s father, a member of the Carmel Art Association during the sixties.  Spafford painted scenes of the Arizona ranch he remembered, the West Coast landscapes of his present, and Mexican bullfights as he imagined them.

Until recently Roz Spafford taught writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  Her graduate work, done at San Francisco State University, focused on teaching writing and on the study of poetry, especially that of Robinson Jeffers.  Her own poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous literary magazines.  Many of her poems speculate on how we should live, given the ubiquity of death.  As poet Carl Dennis remarks in his foreword to Spafford’s Requiem, “part of the amplitude of the book has to do with the way in which death is presented less through a chronicle of personal loss than through an engagement with the cycles of nature.”  Requiem is the recipient of the first Gell Poetry Prize from Writers & Books in Rochester, New York, which published the book in November of 2008.  It is Roz Spafford’s first book.

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Saturday, February 28, 2009

An Evening with Tor House Writers

Robinson Jeffers’ poetry and the mystique of Tor House bring together people from many walks of life, who, as docents, contribute in a variety of ways to the work of the Tor House Foundation.  Because a number of docents are writers themselves, we offer this, now annual, event, at which several of the Tor House writers present a selection of poems by Robinson Jeffers as well as some of their own work.  Participating in this year’s reading will be Simon Hunt, George Lober, Joan Meyers (Hendrickson), Marina Romani, Alan Stacy, Frances Diem Vardamis, and Neal Whitman.

Simon Hunt was born in Zimbabwe and raised in England and the United States. He is an Instructor in English at Santa Catalina School and has been a Tor House docent for six years. He co-edited Renaissance Culture and the Everyday (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999) and contributed an essay to that volume. His poems, primarily formal, have appeared in Troubadour, Court Green, and The Sewanee Review, among other publications; and in the on-line journals 14 by 14 and The Chimaera. New poems are forthcoming this year in The Sewanee Review and Light Quarterly.

George Lober, a Tor House docent for over three years, teaches English at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.  His poems have appeared in Eclectic Literary Forum; Quarry West; Homestead Review; MiPoesias; Lily; Monterey Poetry Review, Sand Hill Review; and in The Anthology of Monterey Bay Poets, edited by Ryan Masters (Chatoyant, 2004).  He is the author of Shift of Light (Hummingbird Press, 2002) and A Bridge to There (Hummingbird Press, forthcoming March 2009).  At this event, George will read some of his “poetic orphans,” new poems that, for various reasons, were not included in his new book.  He will give a separate reading at our March 28 event when he will present work from A Bridge to There.

Joan Meyers (Hendrickson) enjoys writing poetry, children’s stories, and fairy tales.  Her poems have been published in The Cliffs: “Soundings,” a quarterly published by Vertin Press, in upper Michigan.  She has published three chapbooks: Lake Superior Legacy, reminiscences of growing up in northern Michigan; Shadows, poems that look at the darker side of her heritage; and The Andy Wyeth Series: Andy’s Windows, poems with reference to the paintings of Andrew Wyeth.  Joan is a docent at the Monterey Museum of Art.  At Tor House, she coordinates children’s and special tours and serves as an archivist for the Foundation.

Marina Romani returned to poetry after a thirty-year interval of distractions that included teaching, at Monterey’s MIIS and USC, and managing a publications program, at UCLA.  After retiring, she began work on a long-planned family memoir, which led her back, inevitably, to writing poetry.  Since then, she has been sharing poems with fellow writers and friends and began submitting work for publication last year.  Her early poetry appeared in the Peninsula’s Poetry Shell magazine; her recent work was published in the Homestead Review.  Marina is a tour docent at Tor House, where she is also engaged in updating and revising portions of the docent reference manual and is currently one of the organizers of the Tor House Reading Series.

Alan Stacy, who has just passed the one year anniversary of being a regular docent at Tor House, realizes that there is a lifetime of learning about Jeffers still to do.  Before moving to Carmel full-time, he spent twenty-five years in the software marketing profession, convincing corporate executives to buy multi-million dollar enterprise software—as poetically as possible of course.  While still weaving words for technology companies, he spends the hours in-between writing engaging and thrilling screenplays—of which none have been produced.  Still, he hopes that his first and favorite script, a dramatic biography of Robinson Jeffers, will find a producer in the near future.  At this event, Alan will be joined by Deborah Russell, his wife and muse, as they present his favorite “deleted scene” from his screenplay Jeffers’ Ghost.  See www.jeffersghost.com.

Frances Diem Vardamis is the editor of the Tor House Newsletter and the Tor House Membership Chair.  She is the recipient of a Nordic Council translation grant, and is the American translator of the works of the prize-winning Norwegian novelists Sigbjorn Holmebakk and Oystein Lonn.  Her work has been reviewed favorably in the New York Times.  She is the author of four published detective/ international intrigue novels set in Greece and the United States.  The fifth novel in this series, which will appear later this year, or early in 2010, is set primarily in Greece and Russia and deals with anarchy, the dissolution of society, and “the end time.”  Fran will read the opening chapter of her new novel at the Tor House event.  Further information can be found on her website at www.francesdiemvardamis.com.

Neal Whitman’s poems have appeared in Pedestal Magazine, The Monterey Poetry Review, The Vermont Literary Review, The MacGuffin, The International Journal of Health Care & Humanities, and Getting Something Read.  He is the author of a chapbook, Chapter & Verse, and is an editor for Pulse, a literary journal that fosters the humanistic practice of medicine (www.pulsemagazine.org).  Neal is member of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society and has been invited to teach a haiku workshop at the Stebbins Summer Conference at Asilomar on July 28, 2009.  Neal, a Tor House tour docent, will also make an appearance with his wife, Elaine, at our April 25th event at Point Lobos.

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Saturday, March 28, 2009

A Bridge to There:  A Reading by George Lober

George Lober is a former winner of the Spectrum Prize for Poetry and the Ruth Cable Memorial Prize for Poetry.  His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals including Eclectic Literary Forum; Quarry West; Homestead Review; MiPoesias; Lily; Monterey Poetry Review, Sand Hill Review; and in The Anthology of Monterey Bay Poets, edited by Ryan Masters (Chatoyant, 2004).  George Lober’s first book of poems, Shift of Light, was published by Hummingbird Press in 2002; his new book, A Bridge to There, is scheduled for publication, also by Hummingbird, in early March 2009.

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Saturday, April 4, 2009

Spring into the Prose Poem:  A Writing Workshop with Patrice Vecchione.

This workshop is made possible in part by a generous grant from the Arts Council of Monterey County.

Patrice Vecchione has taught poetry and creative writing for many years, to children and adults, through her program “The Heart of the Word: Poetry and the Imagination,” a writing and literature program.  She is an eloquent speaker on the writing process and on writing as spiritual practice and has presented her work throughout the United States.

Patrice Vecchione’s books include Territory of Wind, a poetry collection, and the nonfiction book Writing and the Spiritual Life: Finding Your Voice by Looking Within; she has recently completed a new manuscript of poetry, The Knot Untied.  Patrice is also the editor of many acclaimed anthologies of poetry and prose for adults and young people.  Her collections include the poetry anthologies for young adults: Truth & Lies, Revenge & Forgiveness, and Whisper and Shout: Poems to Memorize for Children; and for grown-ups: Storming Heaven’s Gate: An Anthology of Spiritual Writings by Women.  Her most recent anthology, Faith & Doubt, from Henry Holt, was nominated as a best book of the year by the American Library Association and appeared as a best book on the New York Public Library’s list.

The workshop at Tor House is open to poets at all levels of experience as well as to beginners.  Ms. Vecchione explains that “we’ll (loosely) take spring as our subject and work with the prose poem form.  Just what is a prose poem?  How is it similar to and different from poetry that’s based on the line?  We’ll expand into the prose poem just like the light that’s expanding the day.  Kenneth Patchen and Gertrude Stein along with the work of other prose poets will serve as inspiration.”

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Friday, April 24, 2009

"John Muir and Robinson Jeffers: Nature's Soul Friends":  A Talk by Ron Dart
 

Ron Dart, professor of political science, philosophy, and religious studies at the University of the Fraser Valley in the Canadian Cascade mountains and a mountaineer, will speak about the ways Muir and Jeffers viewed nature.  "Both men saw in Nature a deeper and more satisfying medicine for the soul and society than that offered by the poisoned chalice of urban existence.  But Muir and Jeffers interpreted the healing power of Nature in different ways.  This lecture will examine the points of concord and discord between Muir and Jeffers as they interpreted the role of Nature as solace for the soul."

Dart was on staff with Amnesty International in the 1980s and is on the national executive committee of the Thomas Merton Society of Canada.  He has published more than twenty books, including Thomas Merton and the Beats of the North Cascades and Mountaineering and the Humanities.  Dart is currently doing research for a book on Muir, Jeffers, William Everson and Merton.

 

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Saturday, April 25, 2009

Rediscovering Point Lobos:  A Guided Walk with Poetry Readings and Musical Interludes.

With State Park Ranger Matt Buonagudi, poets Lisa Meckel and Neal Whitman, and wood flutist Elaine Whitman.

An event cosponsored by the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation and the California State Parks and the Point Lobos Association.
 

Matt Buonaguidi is a California native and has been a California State Park ranger for seven years.  He manages the volunteer programs at Point Lobos, which includes coordinating over 160 docents who help at the park.  Matt is a former tour docent at Tor House; he enjoys leading interpretive walks and encouraging docents to incorporate poetry into their public presentations at the Reserve.

Lisa Meckel, Carmel Valley poet and former Point Lobos docent, has been published in various anthologies including A Community of Voices, When We Were Young, and Carmel Valley Country; and in journals such as Rattle and Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry.  She has been awarded the Prize for Excellence in Poetry on behalf of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference.  With extensive experience as well in theater, Lisa is known on the Monterey Peninsula for her sensitive reading of Robinson Jeffers’ poetry.  She is currently working on a collection of poems titled Moments.

Photo by Anita Alan

Elaine and Neal Whitman visited Tor House and Point Lobos for many years as winter migrants, and they now feel fortunate to be year-round birds!  They are Life Members of the Tor House Foundation and Tor House volunteers: Neal is a tour docent, while Elaine is an archive/collections docent.  Elaine plays her Native American flute for chronic pain and hospice patients.  The Whitmans also give volunteer performances as the “Poetry Profs,” using a combination of words and music to “profess” their beliefs about poetry. Neal has published his poetry in several print and on-line journals.

Photo by Anita Alan

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Saturday, May 23, 2009

A Reading by Sean Nevin, Winner of the Robinson Jeffers Tor House 2008 Prize for Poetry.
 

Sean Nevin teaches creative writing at Arizona State University where he directs the Young Writers Program and is assistant director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.  His poetry has appeared in numerous journals, including The Gettysburg Review, North American Review, 42 Opus, JAMA, Hayden’s Ferry Review; and anthologies, including Family Matters: Poems of Our Families (Bottom Dog Press, 2005) and Beyond Forgetting: Prose and Poetry about Alzheimer’s (Kent State University Press, 2008).  His poetry has recently been featured on NPR’s nationally syndicated shows "Speaking of Faith" with Krista Tippett and "The Story" with Dick Gordon.  He is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts and fellowships from the Eastern Frontier Education Foundation and the Arizona Commission on the Arts.  He is the author of A House That Falls, winner of the 2005 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Prize; and of Oblivio Gate, selected for the Crab Orchard Award Series First Book Prize (Southern Illinois University Press, 2008).

Oblivio Gate is an original collection of poetry focused on Solomon, an aging Korean War veteran suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.  Oblivio, loosely translated from the Latin, means forgetfulness and suggests a profound sense of being lost. It is one of the earliest labels connected to senile dementia.  The poems, in several voices, explore the way the mind, the body, language, relationships, and the physical world all begin to disarticulate under the ravages of the disease.  Collectively, the poems speak to each other through recurring themes and images that work to create an arc through the whole collection.  The poems document not only the shifting and surreal landscapes of the victim but also the long plight of the family and caregivers around him.  Oblivio Gate chronicles both what is lost and what is found—what is beautiful, pure, and even funny in all of our fleeting lives.

Sean Nevin’s prize-winning poem Sundowning can be read on our Poetry Prize page, which also provides guidelines for entries to the Tor House Poetry Prize for 2009.

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Saturday, June 27, 2009

“Envying the Quietness of Stones”:  A Reading of the Poetry of George Sterling and Robinson Jeffers, and of His Own Work by Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts.

A Fund-Raising Program in Support of the Tor House Foundation

        “Than Robinson Jeffers, there is no deeper voice in the choir
        that sings [humanity’s] glories and its shames.”
                                George Sterling, “Robinson Jeffers: The Man and the Artist”

        “The Carmel woods because he had wandered there
        Were yet misted with gold when he returned.”
                                Robinson Jeffers, “George Sterling”
 

Jeffers and Sterling near Tor House.  Photo courtesy of Jeffers Literary Properties.
 

Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts will discuss the relationship, both personal and poetic, between Robinson Jeffers and George Sterling, reading some of Sterling’s poems that Jeffers especially admired, and some Jeffers’s poems on similar themes.  He will conclude by presenting some of his own work.

Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts is co-author of Bowing to Receive the Mountain: Essays by Lin Jensen and Poems by Elliot Roberts and co-editor/co-translator of two works of poetry from the Telugu: Chalam’s Sudha (Nectar) and Selected Verses of Vemana.  He has published two chapbooks of poetry, and his poems have appeared in various anthologies and journals, most recently Dancing on the Brink of the World: Selected Poems of Point Lobos, The Anthology of Monterey Bay Poets: 2004, caesura: the 25th anniversary edition, and The Homestead Review.
 

Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts.  Photo by Tey Roberts.
 

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