Gray Lodge and Cubanabooks

Become a Gray Lodge tour leader
I received a press release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announcing two free workshops: Wetland Wildlife ID, on Oct. 12, and a Tour Leader workshop, on Oct. 15, at the Gray Lodge Wildlife Area (outside of Gridley). Both workshops run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Space limited; reservations required. Call 846-7505 to reserve your spot. Go to www.tinyurl.com/graywild to learn more.

Make art for Querencias
Cubanabooks is calling for submissions from local artists for a Book Cover Art Contest, according to Chico State Spanish professor Sara Cooper, who founded the small nonprofit press that publishes Cuban women writers. The winning artwork will be used in the promotion of Cubanabooks’ forthcoming bilingual book of poetry, Homing Instincts/Querencias, by Afro-Cuban writer Nancy Morejón, and most likely for its cover as well. (Morejón and translator Pamela Carmell will help determine the winning art and its ultimate fate.)

“Submissions should be inspired by Morejón’s identity and poetry—as well as the theme of this collection: love in all its forms—romantic, familial, of one’s self, of country, and of nature,” Cooper wrote in a recent email.

Each artist may submit up to three entries. The winner will receive $50 and be featured on the Cubanabooks website (go to www.csuchico.edu/cubanabooks to access) and elsewhere as part of the book’s promotion.

For more info and to submit high-resolution jpg files, write to Cooper, who is Cubanabooks’ editor, at scooper@csuchico.edu. Entries must be received by Oct. 1.

The first section of the title poem:

HOMING INSTINCTS

Not the sky but its shadow lying back on the water

Not the sea but its shadow submerged in its depths

Not the sands but their friendly shadow

Not the friendly mountain but its shadow deep inside the night

Not the fire but the shadow of its metallic tongue

Not the wind but the damp arc of the islands

Not the ghost of the abandoned houses but the shadow

of an afterlife …

QUERENCIAS

No el cielo sino su sombra tumbada sobre el agua

No el mar sino su sombra hundida en las profundidades

No las arenas sino su sombra amiga

No el monte amigo sino su sombra dentro de la noche

No el fuego sino la sombra de su lengua metálica

No el viento sino el húmedo arco de las islas

No el fantasma de las casas abandonadas sino la sombra de

un trasmundo …

Wake for Peter Boyle
I heard from Paige Gimbal that the Celtic Knights of the Sea are inviting all members and friends to join them “at the wake of our beloved founding member Peter Boyle. We will meet at Duffy’s Tavern, 337 Main St., on Saturday, September 21, at 1 p.m.” Boyle—a well-known and -liked figure around town—passed away on July 4.

When countries stratify themselves into a wealthy few and an impoverished many, they go down the tubes. –Marshall Ganz, community organizer and Harvard Kennedy School of Government senior lecturer