RJA member Geneva Gano recently published an essay, “Violence on the Home Front in Robinson Jeffers’s Tamar,” in the interdisciplinary anthology Phantom Past, Indigenous Presence. The anthology, published by the University of Nebraska Press, is available online.
News
Nature Dreaming radio program features Jeffers scholars
RJA members will be interested in the Nature Dreaming radio programming, an off-shoot of Terry Beer’s excellent California Legacy Project.
Long-time RJA’ers will remember Terry’s important early work on Jeffers, and will be impressed with his California Legacy Project. They will also recognize other Jeffers scholars, namely ShaunAnne Tangney and Kevin Hearle, on the program.
As the the publicity for Nature Dreaming on the California Legacy Project says: Listeners will find Nature Dreaming: Rediscovering California’s Landscapes with David Mas Masumoto both entertaining and enlightening. Two one-hour programs draw on dramatic readings of California landscape writing and commentary by prominent humanities scholars. Featured is award-winning writer and Central Valley farmer David Mas Masumoto, whose books include Heirlooms, Letters to the Valley, Four Seasons in Five Senses, Harvest Son, Epitaph for a Peach, and Wisdom of the Last Farmer.
Nature Dreaming focuses on California stories that are grounded in local experience, sensitive to the delicate ecological balance of the planet, suspicious of abstraction, and celebratory of the relationships between human beings and their environment. Listeners will appreciate these main features:
- * Dramatic readings from some of the best writers on California’s natural world, among them John Muir, Mary Austin, Robinson Jeffers, Jack London, and Mark Twain
* Interviews with leading scholars on Californian natural history writing
* Lively readings by David Mas Masumoto
* Sound-rich production with ambient sound, special effects, and music by Bernhard Drax
* A content-rich website that links to video of Nature Dreaming actors and commentators, the working scripts for both segments, and a list of literary sources for the production.
Richly textured sound will lead listeners to ponder their own relationship to the natural world, to recover, at least in part, the enduring pastoral dream of a California Eden.
Nature Dreaming is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and is a production of the California Legacy Project at Santa Clara University.
The two one-hour Nature Dreaming programs were originally broadcast on public radio on California’s central coast (Monterey area) but you can listen to them on-line: http://californialegacy.org/radio_productions/Nature_Dreaming/index.html
Just go to the box that says “playing: Nature Dreaming” and click on the play arrow. The shows, one hour each, will play in order.
The Robinson Jeffers Fall Festival 2011 — October 7, 8 & 9
The annual Robinson Jeffers Fall Festival presents a three-day celebration of one of America’s great poets. The opening event is a sunset celebration, held in the Tor House Gardens Friday, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at 26304 Ocean View Ave, Carmel. Fine wines and hors d’oeuvres will be served in the garden with poetry read by Taelen Thomas and Elise Rotchford. Liyanna Sadowski, harpist, will perform some of Una Jeffers’ favorite music in the Tor House dining room. Reservations are required for this $20 event.
Lectures and presentations will provide four unique views into Jeffers’ life and work, starting at 9 a.m., at The Carmel Woman’s Club, SW corner, San Carlos and 9th, Carmel. Attendees will hear about how Jeffers captured the customs and culture of the Big Sur and Monterey area in his poetry in a presentation by John Walton, Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology, U. of California, Davis. Jeffers influence over other creative minds of his time such as Ed “Doc” Ricketts, John Steinbeck, and Joseph Campbell will be described by Gere diZerega, M.D., Professor, Keck School of Medicine, USC. Renowned Jeffers biographer James Karman, Professor Emeritus, California State University, Chico, will discuss Jeffers Family life at home, with details gleaned from his newly published second volume of Collected Letters, which will also be available for purchase. Tor House Photographic Archivist Joan Hendrickson will present a visual tour of life at Tor House. Lectures Saturday are $60 for the full day pass, with reservations required. A $75 ticket gains entry to the Friday Sunset Celebration and all Saturday’s lectures.
On Sunday morning the traditional Jeffers Poetry Walk will be guided by Jean Grace and Lindsay Jeffers. The free walking tour starts at 9AM at Monastery Beach (aka San Jose Creek Beach), just north of Pt Lobos State Park. Park on the west side of Rt 1 and meet near the south end of the beach. Bring a favorite Jeffers’ poem to share and a bag lunch for a noontime picnic on the beach. Dress in layers for unpredictable weather. Note that this is a change from the usual location at Carmel River Beach due to storm erosion.