If you happen to be fifteen minutes north of New York City on Wednesday, December 3, please join the Submerged contributors and editor Lauren Gonzalez at Sarah Lawrence College, in Bronxville, New York for two pre-holiday events. Our first event takes place at 2 p.m. in the Pillow Room of the Esther Raushenbush Library. The Art as Activism panel will include Lauren Gonzalez, Rebecca Johnson, and Jean Kahler, discussing the writer’s role as a public intellectual as well as the challenges and rewards of publishing a charity-focused anthology.

Stick around if you’re on campus, because at 6:30 p.m. the graduate writing program will host a Submerged reading/wine party in the Slonim Living Room, followed by a Fiction 4 X 4 reading from graduate students currently enrolled in the fiction writing program. Submerged readers include Gretl Claggett, Rebecca O. Johnson, Carla Porch, Anne Wenzel, Stella Fiore, Emily Macel, Kara Westerman, Skye Van Saun, and Jean Kahler. Lauren Gonzalez will host.

For more information, e-mail lauren (at) laurengonzalez (dot) com.

Today we learned that the US economy has officially been in a recession since December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Perhaps this isn’t really a surprise to many of us, but seeing it calculated and acknowledged, officially, has given me pause.

SO

We’re extending all our sales! In case you’re looking for smart, beautiful gifts at significant savings, we’re extending all the sales through January 3. This includes our 30% off six-pack deals with free shipping. You can also follow me on twitter to get updated discount codes for the books (additional savings on top of the deals that are already there), which I’ll be posting for limited times throughout December. Stop by the store soon and keep us posted in the comments section if you have any other ideas for weathering the economy with books!

On October 28, 2008, Submerged: Tales From the Basin’s East Coast contributors hit the save button on their barackobama.com Neighbor-to-Neighbor swing state call logs and dragged themselves out into the world to do something other than canvass for the president-elect. The Park Slope Community Bookstore, owned and managed by the lovely Catherine Bohne, hosted a party and reading for Submerged that night. Eight Submerged contributors, including Shannon Kelley who was in town from Santa Barbara, shared their stories and music with a Gin Fizz happy crowd dressed in Mardi Gras beads to honor of New Orleans and Katrina victims. Singer/guitarist/contributor Alyssa Robbins played a short set in between the readings to an appreciative crowd that clamored for her CDs after the event. Editor Lauren Gonzalez dedicated the reading to the resident bookstore iguana, Gomez, who was sadly not in attendance because she’d unexpectedly passed on the day of the event. We will miss you, Gomez!

Lauren Gonzalez introduced the book. Emily Macel read from Big Bangs Theory, Shannon Kelley read Something Worth Saving, her essay about volunteering in New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity, Jean Kahler read One Braid, Carla Porch read from A Haircut in the Kitchen, Kara Westerman read an excerpt from Architecture, and Ellen Hagan concluded the event by reading two of her poems from Submerged, and a final poem about the irascible and dim-witted, yet dangerous, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin that turned the evening’s tone back to politics one week before the election. Submerged contributors Kelly Gola, Lissette Pena, and Stella Fiore were on hand for morale support. Many thanks to Catherine and Rebekah for the terrific planning and space, and for Emily Anne’s warm and thoughtful introduction. Submerged also thanks the enthusiastic, standing room only crowd. Brooklyn, you’re second to none!

Turning to the West, Submerged was welcomed by bookstore owner Joel Enos, who hosted at party and reading for the anthology at the Soma Grand on Mission Street in San Francisco on November 13. With a bevy of Trader Joe’s libations Submerged contributors from the West Coast mingled with SF magazine editors, journalists, bookstore owners, documentary filmmakers, and our favorite attendees…fans of literature.

“Hosting a private reading for Submerged was a perfect way to introduce a more intimate group to the project and the contributors. Holding a salon rather than a formal reading gave everyone a chance to talk with Lauren and the writers. All the feedback I’ve had from guests was excellent!” -Joel Enos, Owner Limelight Books, San Francisco

Few of the West Coast writers have been able to join us for New York and Chicago events, so we were thrilled to hear them. Hope Kavoosi read her poem Dread (while holding her gorgeous and brilliantly-behaved infant son Miles on her hip), Shannon Kelley joined us again from Santa Barbara to read Something Worth Saving, Allison Yates read her poem I Dream Again, Jessica Palmer read Hair Ties, and Dafna Kory performed a lovely reading of Take Off, even though she was battling a cold. Lauren Gonzalez introduce the book and read a brief excerpt from the introduction. Thank you Joel for furnishing the space and for bringing the San Francisco literati to our doorstep.

If you are in the New York area, join Submerged: Tales From the Basin at Sarah Lawrence College on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 2 p.m. for an “Art as Activism” talk, and again at 6:30 p.m. in the Esther Raushenbush Library’s Pillow Room for a reading, including readings by alumnae Lauren Gonzalez, Gretl Claggett, Stella Fiore, Anne Wenzel, Rebecca O. Johnson, Emily Macel, Kara Westerman, Skye Van Saun, and Carla Porch.

With the turning of the last ‘08 calendar page, several contributors will read from Submerged at Revolution Books in Manhattan in January ‘09. Check this space in the coming weeks for details. We are also lining up salon readings and many more bookstore events for the coming year! If you’d like to schedule a Submerged event, please write to us: stepsisterpress (at) gmail (dot) com.

Lastly, and most importantly, we want to wish Shannon Kelley and her friends and family in Santa Barbara the very best as they work to recover from the fire that devastated the region on the day of the reading and into the weekend. She wrote on Tuesday, November 18:

I took the train back to Santa Barbara [Monday], and arrived to the news that the fire is 100% contained. I have a couple of close friends and many acquaintances who lost their homes, but they are are all safe and alive and in good spirits, which serves only to remind me how amazing they are. Which serves only to remind me how lucky I am–”luckiness” which has nothing to do with the fact that my house made it through just fine; burning embers spared the trees on my street, and the fire itself never made it to my neighborhood, although it was under evacuation for a time. Just lucky to be surrounded by so many awesome people. We’re pulling together a little event for the weekend to cover their immediate needs: clothes, shoes, towels, blankets, and etc., and then we’ll see what we’re able to do next week.

Our hearts are with you, Shannon! If anyone is interested in helping out with donations, please contact Shannon Kelley directly: shannonshenanigans (at) gmail (dot) com. Many of the locals have infants and young children, so baby and kids’ clothes are particularly needed!

We’re proud to announce that Submerged: Tales from the Basin is featured in the November edition of the Midwest Review of Books, in the Small Press Bookwatch section. Please give it a read and share any feedback with us. The review is glowing, and we so appreciate that the folks at MRB spent time with our book. Visit our online store to get your single copy OR to indulge in the Submerged Six-Pack for holiday gifts.

from election night in Grant Park.

election night

Winter is approaching, and with it many holidays and gift-giving occasions. Personally, I always try to make carefully individualized purchases, creative solutions that involve something made by me with a certain person in mind, those little touches that tell your loved ones you’re thinking about them specifically and planning a way to make their holidays special. THEN I realize that’s what BIRTHDAYs are for, and it’s much better to get several thoughtful but repeated items for everyone at work, home, and parties.

This is where the Submerged Six-Pack comes in.

We happen to know from customer feedback that Submerged: Tales from the Basin is one of those books that a reader will keep on her nightstand for a week or two, reading a story or set of poems each night. We also learned that the men who have purchased our book do something similar, and come back to us with stories about how they never knew that stories by women, for women, on the topic of hair, could be so entertaining. So you see the appeal. . . . Add to that the spirit of advocacy and assistance that comes with the project, and you have a perfect gift.

But since it’s tricky to drop $19.95 on each copy when you’re buying in six-pack bulk, the Submerged Six-Pack reduces the price by almost 30%, a $120 value for $85. That’s six gifts to cross off the list; six people who go home happy, enjoy their book, and tell you how much it means to them; and six donations going to help out Louisiana-based Hurricane Relief efforts. This is something that the eminent Michael Scott would call win-win-win. Check it out now at our store.

Terri L. Russ

Check out the new Saint Mary’s College profile on Terri (complete with the Fox Morning Show interview about Bitchin’ Bodies)!

For those of you who enjoyed Lorien Jordan’s previous post about the Chicago Publishers Gallery, there’s now a fantastic podcast capturing the evening from Kathryn Born at Bad at Sports. Kathryn introduces you to, among others, Chicago publishing heroes Audrey Niffenegger, Haki Madhubuti, and Jonathan Messinger. And at the end, you can hear yours truly talk with Kathryn about StepSister’s approach to making books. To get the full effect, you can listen to the podcast in the setting where it was recorded, in the Cultural Center’s beautiful Chicago Publishers Gallery at 77 East Washington Street.

While the rest of you settled in on October 18 to watch old girl Palin make a fool of herself on SNL, Submerged contributor Kelly Gola (“Freelance Fashion and Other Fairytales”) was busting out her serious fundraising skills by collecting more than $1700 for Barack Obama during her Updos for Obama event at Medusa Hair Salon in Park Slope, Brooklyn. For a $75 donation to Obama’s campaign, Kelly and her team of kick-ass volunteer stylists gave local Obama supporters Gidget-y Sarah Palin-style updos in one of three styles: The Maverick, the Huntress, or the Reformer (the most popular). While the stylists were teasing and spraying, a packed house full of attendees from the media, to participants and various walk-ins and other onlookers drank wine (swill, baby, swill!), mingled, and talked politics like the good East Coast elitists that we are! The excellent Jessica Rose and the HighLife band performed a 9 p.m. set, followed by a reading from Submerged: Tales From the Basin, including Lauren Gonzalez, Jean Kahler, Carla Porch, and Ellen Hagan, who unexpectedly shared her forceful poem about a dangerous and unfortunately very real moose-shootin’ bikini wearin’ Russia seein’ no Supreme Court understandin’ Sarah Palin. Ellen performed this poem for the first time during the Poets for a Better Country event at St. Marks Church in New York City last week.

Lauren González & Kelly A. Gola

Updos for Obama was widely publicized in The New York Times, Guardian U.K., New York Magazine, TimeOut NY, and a variety of local papers and magazines, with follow-up coverage and photos (!!) in the New York Daily News, Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Paper, and arts/culture magazine Patrol. Requests for interviews and stories are still coming in as of the time of this writing. Beat that, Karl Rove!

Ellen Hagan reads from Submerged

Kelly concluded about the event: “It felt great to be in the pro-America part of the country with pro-Americans celebrating the right to do with our bodies what we please, including getting updos.” Is Kelly our hero? You betcha!

Jean Kahler reading from Submerged

Submerged contributors Carla Porch and Kelly Gola competed in the Palin look-alike contest, although the winner was Lori Ungemah from Park Slope, who came outfitted with a fake baby Trig, a toy handgun strapped to her hip, and a bible–just like the real deal. The runner up was Yvonne Gumowitz from White Plains, who is editor Lauren Gonzalez’s partner on Heckuvajobgeorge.com.

Kelly A. Gola

Lori and Yvonne won gift certificates for local restaurants, Medusa Hair Salon, a copy of Submerged, a bottle of Palin Syrah, hair product, coffee, and much more. But the real winner, of course, was and will be Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood, which Kelly offered an additional donation in Sarah Palin’s name. Get out and vote, kids!

Submerged: Tales From the Basin will celebrate New Orleans style on October 28, 2008, at the Park Slope Community Bookstore on 7th Avenue and Garfield in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Join us for readings from many of the New York contributors, music by lovely Submerged contributor Alyssa Robbins, Mardi Gras beads, Nawlins cookin’ and Sazeracs at 7 p.m.

Also, if you’re in San Francisco, join Submerged at the Soma Grand on Mission at 7 p.m., November 13th for cocktails and a reading with the West Coast gang! Check the StepSister Press web site for details and check back soon for many more upcoming events!

Photos courtesy David Kuizenga

Note: No moose were injured during the course of this writing.

Lauren González