Blue Light at the Gallery
Words and Music
Marin Society of Artists, 1515 3rd Street (corner of E Street), San Rafael CA.

Some events are live, others are on Zoom.

Each event's Zoom link is unique. To receive, please RSVP to BlueLightPress@aol.com
For live events, with courtesy to all of us: If you are not feeling well, please stay home!

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Friday, April 3, 2026 – 6 pm: LIVE at the gallery
Come early to enjoy the art!

Diane Frank, author of Prayer to the Invisible and Mermaids and Musicians
Joe DiPrisco, author of My Last Resume, All For Now, and Subway to California

Diane Frank is author of nine books of poems, three novels, and a photo memoir of her 400 mile trek in the Nepal Himalayas. Her new book of poems, Prayer to the Invisible, was an overnight bestseller – #3 for American Poetry, #3 for Poems by Women. While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems won the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry. Diane teaches poetry, flash fiction and memoir workshops at San Francisco State University and Dominican University. Her first novel, Blackberries in the Dream House, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. www.dianefrank.com/

Joseph Di Prisco is mostly famous for being unknown. His most recent book of poems is My Last Resume: New & Collected Poems. He has published four books of poems, two memoirs, six novels and assorted works of nonfiction, as well as being Series Editor of Simpsonistas. He is also the founder of New Literary Project and director of the Joyce Carol Oates Prize for fiction. Among reader favorites are his memoir Subway to California and his novel All for Now, a dark comedy about the Catholic Church and the afterlife. www.diprisco.com/

Saturday, April 18, 2026 – 6 pm: Double Book Launch party at Rebound Bookstore

Rebecca Foust’s eight books include You Are Leaving the American Sector: Love Poems (Blue Light Press 2026) and ONLY (Four Way Books 2022). Her poems appear widely in venues including The Slowdown, Iowa Review, Ploughshares, Poem-a-Day, POETRY, and Southern Review. Her awards include the James Dickey, New Ohio Review, Pablo Neruda, James Hearst, and Poetry International prizes in recent years. She is Poet Laureate Emerita of Marin County.

Diane Frank is author of nine books of poems, three novels, and a photo memoir of her 400 mile trek in the Nepal Himalayas.She is also Chief Editor of Blue Light Press.  Her new book of poems, Prayer to the Invisible, was an overnight bestseller. While Listening to the Enigma Variations won the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry. Her first novel, Blackberries in the Dream House, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

And 7 more Marin County authors, all published by Blue Light Press

• Prartho Sereno, author of Starfall in the Temple
• Emilie Lygren, author of What We Were Born For
  
• Guy Biederman, author of Here's Where We Get Off
  
• Kathy Evans, author of Trespassers Welcome
  
• Rayne O’Brian, author of Living On A Song A Day
  
• Jim Schutz is the author of The Mayor Has a Hammer
  
• Ellerie Akers, author of A Door into the Wild

Saturday, April 25, 2026 – 4 pm: Book Launch party at Sausalito Books by the Bay

Born in the Chihuahua Desert and raised on a stingray in Ventura, Guy Biederman began writing in a goatherder's shack during a civil war in Guatemala. He's the author of seven books and has published over 300 stories and poems in journals in the U.S., England, Italy, and New Zealand. His work also appears in Best Micro Fiction 2024 and Best Micro Fiction 2025. Guy received a B.A. in political science and philosophy from University of Redlands, and an M.A. from San Francisco State where his teaching career began. A husband, father, grandfather, brother, pick-up basketball player, and Dudeist Priest, Guy is a former peace corps volunteer and college writing instructor. He lives part-time on a Sausalito houseboat with his wife where they walk the planks daily, an adobe casa in El Paso, a cabin in New Mexico, and on the road in between. It's all true, especially the fiction.

Also several authors reading from their new books, to celebrate National Independent Bookstore Day:

Shawna Swetech, Standing in Their Fire, Poems from a Hospital Nurse
Kara Vernor, Because I Wanted to Write You a Pop Song, short fiction stories
Robert Rubino, Vanity Unfair, and other poems
along with musical guest Mamadou Badji. 

Friday, May 1, 2026 – 6 pm: LIVE at the gallery
Come early to enjoy the art!

Monica Volker is a poet, author, painter and cohost of Rivertown Poets in Petaluma, California.  A retired critical care nurse, she brings depth, compassion, and a reverence for life into her creative work.  Her writing and art are inspirational, seeking to awaken and uplift the spirit while celebrating love, beauty, and the natural world. Her first published work is Senryu for the Soul. Two additional books, Life as an Adage and You Are a Star (a children’s book) await publication.

Shawna Swetech, a retired RN, is a poet, a mixed-media visual artist and wellness practitioner. Originally from Southern California, she has lived in west Sonoma County for more than 40 years, and currently cohabitates with husband Jay, a dog, one cat and seven laying hens. She  has a large garden in which she grows vegetables, medicinal herbs, and a wide variety of weeds. Her work has been published in Rattle, The Healing Muse, American Journal of Nursing, and Pulse, among others. She is a co-host for the local monthly reading series, Rivertown Poets, and is the author of a brand-new poetry collection, based on her 35 years as a hospital nurse, entitled Standing in Their Fire. 

Tobey Hiller writes poetry, flash, hybrid pieces, and short stories. She can’t resist the world’s constant tendency to transformation, and this makes her interested in myths and edge territory, where melts and collisions can occur with both beautiful and dreadful outcomes. Her work reveres and explores natural processes and the complex ecologies in which we live out our relationships with each other and the world. Her publications include four books of poetry, a novel, and two magic/realist story collections. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart prize, and her current poetry manuscript before anything is dust was a finalist in Catamaran Literary Reader’s Poetry Book Contest.

Brian Martens: Abstract Artist, Poet, Author of Three Raven Gate and Merlin's Wing, Creativity Facilitator, International Speaker, Myth Maker, CA Poets in the Schools Instructor, Podcaster. www.brianrmartens.com

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