Whatever you choose to see first, second, or last, make sure that you don’t miss what’s going on at the Ink Spot from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. this Saturday. Drop-ins are welcome for writing groups and prompts hosted by instructors and So Say We All friends Judy Reeves and Rob Williams. Make sure to also check out one of San Diego’s most gifted photographers, Andrew Printer, whose work will be on display at the Ink Spot.

Venture downtown, meet some great writers at a fantastic organization, and get your creativity flowing with San Diego Writers, Ink.

Open Spaces East Village Arts and Culture Event

When: Saturday, September 4th, 2010 from 4:00 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: The Ink Spot, Art Center Lofts
710 13th Street, Studio 210
San Diego, CA 92101

So Say We All is currently looking to book poets, writers, comedians, storytellers, musicians, animators and more to perform pieces on the theme of “The Future“.  We’re taking submissions for stories of futuristic happenings in September. This is an open theme to interpretation, send us your stories, true, fictional, or otherwise involving jetpacks.

Got something? E-mail us your piece at info@sosayweallonline.com by September 10th.

VAMP at Whistle Stop
VAMP (Video, Art, Music, Performance) is a multi-media variety show that gives artists across the full spectrum of mediums a forum to showcase their work on specific, monthly themes. Currently producing shows on the last Thursday of every month at Whistle Stop, beginning promptly at 8:30 pm. Artists from any medium, including musicians, animators, video artists, film makers, writers, poets, circus freaks, storytellers, photographers, painters, mimes, balloon artists and more who have a short (5-10 minutes) piece on theme are greatly encouraged to contact us at info@sosayweallonline.com.

Thursday, September 30th @ 8:30pm
Deadline: RSVP, written materials (stories, lyrics, etc.) must be received by September 10th.
Workshop: Written pieces (stories, poems, etc.) will be work-shopped on September 23rd.

“The cream of the crop as far as San Diego writing and performance goes.” – Seth Combs.

So Say We All’s August, 2010 VAMP, “Trouble With Authority” was included in the coverage of weekend events on Maureen Cavanaugh’s “Morning Edition” with guest Seth Combs, Editor, Pacific San Diego Magazine.

Read or listen to the entire interview and the kind words there-in here: http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/aug/26/events-timkens-art-fashion-949-independence-jam-an/

Born and raised in San Francisco, CA, Yesenia Padilla packed her backpack and high-tailed it to San Diego to attend UCSD’s fantastically quirky undergraduate Literature-Writing program, where her focus is flash fiction and prose poetry (but really, it was totally for the weather). Whiskey in one hand, pen in the other, Yesenia attempts to make the internet into a wild west show on her blog: yesipadilla.tumblr.com.

• View works from Yesenia Padilla.

Barbara Davenport has been following Reality Changers for three years, and and first wrote about them in a cover story for the Reader, http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/dec/23/cover/ . Now she’s hip-deep in writing a book about them.

She’s written for San Diego alt weeklies Citybeat and the Reader, for Stanford’s and the University of San Diego’s alumni magazines, and back when they did book reviews she reviewed nonfiction for the San Diego Union-Tribune .

Her book The Worst Loss, How Families Heal from the Death of a Child (Henry Holt 1994, written as Barbara Rosof) remains in print, and is praised by professionals and parents as one of the best books written on this difficult topic. It’s been translated into German, Dutch, and Japanese.

She lives and grows pretty good vegetables in Normal Heights.

• View works from Barbara Davenport.

Performance poet, playwright, acapella vocalist… Stacy Dyson has spent her life performing, singing, designing, and producing her way around the world of spoken word poetry. “It’s not enough to say “We sing because we want to..we fly because we can. (the motto of her arts consortium, DragonsWing). You have to actively live that life, otherwise it’s all just fancy wordplay”.

Poet Laureate for the Imagination Celebration in Colorado Springs, 2009 Nominee for Poet Laureate for the State of Colorado, 2000 Colorado Women’s Playwriting Festival winner for her play Fannie’s Girls:A 4-1-1 in 5-Part Attitude, she is the author of six chapbooks, four CDs, and does one-woman shows, workshops, and literary program design all over the country.

Based in San Diego (“for the moment”) Stacy is working on her fifth CD 13 Days in Purgatory.

Her website: http://www.saintwinterraines.webs.com/

• View works by Stacy Dyson.

Dear storytellers, poets and writers,

So Say We All is embarking on a very exciting food-themed show in collaboration with Jay Porter, owner of The Linkery and El Take It Easy, and the Suture Gallery downtown. We want you to participate.

“Edible Thought” is where the slow food movement meets the slow arts movement, a multimedia gallery mixing live performance, local cuisine and installation art revolving around the stories behind our food and how food creates our stories.

We’re looking to book six spoken word artists to perform original 2-6 minute pieces, the only criteria of which is this: at least one specific recipe must play a role in the work presented. Works are not restricted to non-fiction, but reality-based stories are more likely to fit with the ensemble of the evening.

That’s it. The rest is up to you. You must be able to commit to perform your piece at the show on October 22nd, from 6pm to 10pm and attend at least one of the rehearsals (date and time TBA) prior. As funding permits, stories accepted for the show may be published in a chapbook specially created for the occasion with a free contributor’s copy going to the writers.

To submit, you must send a written copy of your poem, story, or essay to info@sosayweallonline by midnight, Friday September 17th. Submission implies you are familiar with our guidelines.

We’re looking forward to reading your work and collaborating on what’s looking to be the biggest and wildest SSWA venture yet.

- Justin Hudnall
Executive Director

Lisa Fugard was born in South Africa and came to the United States in 1980. After working in the theater, performing in New York, London and South Africa, she turned her attention to writing. Her short fiction has been published in Story, Outside and literary magazines. Her many travel articles, essays and book reviews have been published in the New York Times.

Skinner’s Drift her first novel has been published in the USA, UK and South Africa. Named a notable book of 2006 by the New York Times, Skinner’s Drift was also a finalist for the LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the runner-up for the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.  She lives in Southern California and is working on a second novel.

Her website can be found at http://www.lisafugard.com/

• View works from Lisa Fugard.

If you threw John Henry, Mark Twain, and Steve Martin into a blender, you’d come close. And make a hell of a mess of the kitchen. By day, Robert Dagnall turns job searches into success stories as president of ResumeGuru.com. After 18 years of corporate storytelling, he’s fulfilling a New Year’s resolution to write and perform purely as an artist. Robert holds degrees in English and Anthropology from UC Berkeley, including concentrations in Folklore and Native American Literature. He’s also an armchair Mark Twain scholar; forever changed how Mr. T. relates to the media with one conversation; and for two months in 1982, was world champion at the Tron arcade game.

• View works from Robert Dagnall.

Bonnie ZoBell was born and raised in San Diego, California. She has received an NEA for her fiction and a PEN Syndicated Fiction Award for a story that was later read on NPR. Recently included on Wigleaf’s 2009 Top 50 list for very short fiction, she also won the Capricorn Novel Award and an  Honorable Mention for the James Jones Novel Contest. Her work has been included in or forthcoming in Night Train, American Fiction, The Bellingham Review, The Greensboro Review, Art & Understanding: America’s AIDS Magazine, Cosmopolitan Magazine, elimae, Rumble and Word Riot. She’s held  residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, VCCA, and other colonies. She attended Palomar Community College, received a B.S. from San Diego State University with Honors, and an MFA from Columbia University on fellowship. At San Diego Mesa College, she’s the Creative Writing Coordinator. Though she’s tried to move away a few times, she always winds up back to San Diego, where she lives with her husband, two dogs, and two cats.

Follow her website.

• View works from Bonnie Zobell.