GET LIT with CHOICE QUALITY WORDS & LITERARY LATTÉS. Since 2012. New Features added each month.

2024 Winter Special Edition, Anniversary Celebration of:

The LITERARY LATTÉ
And COZY up with a good BOOK.

 

“Beat at the Sweet” flyer January 8, 2012. Design by Daniel Yaryan.

And THE BEAT GOES ON… In celebration of the 10th plus 1 Anniversary of “Beat at the Sweet,” we’re telling the INSIDER STORY of this ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME event for the very FIRST TIME.

And highlighting one of the poets there, the late Jerry Kamstra, our favorite “Literary Outlaw.”

Welcome to the Home of the Literary Latte. Mill Valley Literary Review provides short work, poetry, articles, reviews, interviews, photos and art, from known and soon to be rich and famous creatives alike. Our click-ability allows you to read, for sun-filled days and sleepless nights, our amazing regular offerings as well as changing selections of back issue highlights. 

Previous interviews and stories featured Peter Coyote, Sam Shepard, T.C. Boyle, writer David Harris, Jennifer Egan, The Brotherhood of Love’s trippy LSD Tales, Fantasy Records and CCR backstory, San Francisco’s Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin, Philip K. Dick’s ex-wife Anne, contemporary Irish poets, Marin favorites Catherine Coulter, Susanna Solomon, Christie Nelson and more.  

Get LIT and keep us fired up. NEW Free original-design spiral notebook for a donation of $50.00 or more. While supplies last. Donate via Venmo Venmo profile (perry-king-5) or PayPal  Info on donating and notebook here.

Jerry Kamstra, The Frisco Kid himself. Photo Ken Collins.

The 10th plus 1 Anniversary of “Beat at the Sweet.” A Beat Poetry Reading (and music) in Tribute to Jack Kerouac & movie release of On the Road at Mill Valley CA. Sweetwater Music Hall Jan. 8, 2013:

T’was a night to remember featuring Kerouac’s pal Al Hinkle, Woodstock’s Wavy Gravy, “literary outlaw” Jerry Kamstra, poets Joanna McClure, Clark Coolidge, North Beach’s Sharon Doubiago, Daniel Yaryan, Beat expert Gerald Nicosia, musician Ramblin’ Jack Elliot,* MillValleyLit publisher\poet J.Macon King, Live Poets Society founder\MillValleyLit poetry editor Ari Maslow, and many more. 

Remembering “Literary Outlaw” Jerry Kamstra by Wallace Baine. 

Jerry Kamstra Obituary by Daniel Yaryan.

THE LAST BOHEMIAN WIZARD (in honor of novelist Jerry Kamstra) by Daniel Yaryan. 

 

And then there was this time…”

Poems and kind words by Ari M. Maslow upon the occasion of 10th plus 1 Anniversary of “Beat at the Sweet.”

 

 

Beat at the Sweet photos by poet and “Sparring Artists” founder Daniel Yaryan.

 

 

The Convoluted Backstory of Beat at the Sweet.

 
 

 
 
DONATIONS —  Please keep us LIT and fired up—Ad-free and support us supporting writers here. NEW. Free original-design notebook for donations of $50.00 or more. Info here.
SUBMISSIONS are now open. Send us your best short fiction, memoir, poetry now. Get started by using our GET LIT notebook. 

 

And the Beat Goes On….

 

“The Most Interesting Man” (you never heard of). 30 years after, John DeLorean’s friend and right-hand man, Walter Strycker, revisited the 80’s quintessential corporate tale.

Interview by J. Macon King.

Walter Strycker remembered.

 

 

Ice llama greets Perry at Mt. Rose, NV. Jan. 2024. Photo by King.

December 2023

Morris and his textile art.

“The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.” WILLIAM MORRIS 

Morris’s literary contributions helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, including The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and more. A Victorian British textile designer, he was also a poet and artist.

 

SUBMISSIONS are now open! Send us your best short fiction, memoir, poetry now. 

DONATIONS? Please. GET LIT and keep us LIT —ad-free and supporting supporting writers here.

 

Free original design spiral notebook with donations of $50.00 or more. 

 

 

 

 

Buy our books here. 

 

 

everything with an asterisk: haiku of Bruce H. Feingold.

Five poems from his latest volume.

 

 

 

November:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter is coming. Biscuit and Perry playing snowball near Tahoe Rim Trail, Nov. 2, 23. (photo J.Macon King)

 

 

To Sur, With Love: award-winning poem— ode to Big Sur, surfing, and adventurous life by J.Macon King.

“Sets of waves 1…2…3…4… Calm…
Across the beckoning Pacific Waves 1…2…3…4
They Ride Epoxy Ponies
through bobbing heads of Medusa’s kelp”

 

 
(Painting credit below.)

 

 

 

The “Algonquin Round Table” literary luminaries, included Dorothy Parker. Painting by Maxfield Parrish, still hanging above the Algonquin Hotel bar. 

The acerbic Dorothy Parker, poet, writer, wit, was a rare female member of the Algonquin Round Table, a compendium of early 20th-century literary luminaries who collected at the historic 1902 Midtown Manhattan hotel.

Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright George S. Kaufman, along with Harpo Marx, and Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Benchley—grandfather of Jaws author Peter Benchley—were some members of what they christened “the Vicious Circle.”  

Martini acrylic painting by Annika Hemming-e, Truckee, CA.

SUBMISSIONS are now open. Short fiction, memoir, poetry. Details here.

Are you a writer, poet, artist, photographer? Submit your work here. 

DO YOU WANT TO ENCOURAGE THE ARTS? Help us GET LIT supporting writers. Click here to donate or for sponsorship.

 

October:

Halloween Story : The Gravedigger’s Score
by J.Macon King

“So, what was that weird thing that happened here last Halloween?” Gerard asked.

“Couple of guys were in this same graveyard. One of them totally freaked. Maybe permanently. Had to be sent away to…someplace.”

Gerard shone the light in the grave and they peered in. A body was six feet down in a twisted position with the shovel on top of it.

 

20 Feet from Enlightenment: A Coming of Sage Story   

memoir humor by J.Macon King

I met a cute young thing in the Santa Monica mall who invited me to a nearby Nichiren Shōshū event. I naively thought it was going to be martial arts demonstration. Karate and “Kung Fu Fighting” studios were popping up in L.A. like, well, like Scientology branches. N.S. turned out to be incessant, swarm-of-bees Buddhist chanting to a Gohonzon (fancy piece of paper) in an Altar (box). Chanting mostly for money...

September:

RIP. Late author David Harris with one of the redwood trees in his garden. (Photo: J.Macon King)

David Harris Interview — activist, author, journalist  by J.Macon King. David discusses the war, dope smuggling, Hunter S. Thompson, his ex-wife, “Queen of the Scene” Joan Baez, and how Bill Walsh’s 49ers saved San Francisco. “Davis Harris wrote for Rolling Stone Magazine during its original years in San Francisco (folded with no staples), The New York Times, and penned twelve non-fiction books…”

August:

Landscape of Marin County, CA. Paintings by Jeb Harrison.

 

Dickens in Appalachia. The first sentence serves as a warning: “First I got born.” Demon Copperhead review by Jeb Harrison

 

 

 

 

July 2023:

 

 

How to Sing the Blues

 

 

 

 

Kurt before Einstein hair, 1964.

 

 

Kurt Vonnegut—Self-assessment

 

 

 

 

 

June 2023:

THE LITERARY UNITED STATES: A MAP OF THE BEST
BOOK FOR EVERY STATE

Illustration by Sarah Lutkenhaus, list by Kristin Iverson, courtesy Brooklyn Magazine.

 

Cover illustration Summer Issue 2015 by J.Macon King in style of New Yorker.

 

Missionaries give bread to war-weary Ukraine people. Courtesy: NYT.

 

 

Three short, stunning poems from Vyacheslav Konoval, a poet living in Kyiv, the capitol of Ukraine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nevada Nature photography by Eric Dennison.

 

 

 

 

Previously on MillValleyLit: Feb.–May 2023

When you’ve run out of wall space for your books. Courtesy of Dozen Best Books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Where God, Anchovies, and Flamenco Reside — Two Tales of Jerez” by Lisa Alpine.

 

 

 

 

 

“Alan Watts and Woodacre” — a flash memoir by Christie Nelson.

 

 

 

Paris Beckons. Susanna Solomon launches her delightful new short story collection.

 

 

 

 

Winter 2022-23 Issue #23 . . . . . . . . . . available here

 

10th Anniversary Issue. Choice quality words since 2012.

Summer Issue #22 (2022) is jam-packed with features and writers. Who? Who? Take a peek:  

 Ever get the feeling you’re being watched? “Love on a Rooftop—Barn Owls in San Francisco” photo essay from Kathleen Volkmann.

 

 

 

 

 “I Was a Teenage Runaway: Haight-Ashbury 1968” memoir by Carol Green.

 

 

 

“Spokes, Saddles and Cranks” England bicycling adventure.

 

 

“The Orange Peeler Meets Johnny Wadd” fiction by J.S. Ryan.

 

 

 

“Salonica” memoir by Marcel Alalof, translated from the French.

 

 

 

 

“The Pole” memoir of Reno by Kevin Lavely.

 

 

 

 

Chasing Byron excerpt from Jeb Harrison’s latest novel.

 

 

 

 

 

Washington Irving’s influence in SoCal essay by Gary Frueholz. 


 

 

Book Reviews by Nick King

Plus MEMORY BABE: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac, by Gerald Nicosia.

 

Poet Bryan Franco profile by Jeff Kaliss, Poetry Editor.

  Kenneth Steven poetry book, Iona, reviewed by Jeff Kaliss.

 

 

 

 

Humor? or curiosity?         You be the judge…

 

King reads poetry with Don Alberts Renaissance Band, featuring Jeff Kaliss, at 7 Mile House, Brisbane, CA.

Reflections Ten Years After
Foreword from Mill Valley Literary Review’s Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, J.Macon King

This magazine’s ten-year-journey began innocently enough, with my wife Perry, at our weekly Friday night “Martini Talk.” I had been baptized into the classic cocktail (try to visualize that) by the legendary Bruno at his San Francisco “Persian Aub Zam Zam” bar, and hence spoiled by the best, prefer to shake my own (2nd best) at home.

Relaxing on our horsehair-stuffed corbeille (inherited from a writer), surrounded by numerous pets and appetizers, Perry and I hold our “Martini Talk.” We brainstorm creative (enthusiastically naïve) ideas. After forgetting to remember the big money-makers and Midas touches, Perry started taking notes, and later recording ideas. Ideas like climbing the Golden Gate Bridge, starting our own tech, marketing, and fitness businesses, figuring out a way to spend time at Skywalker Ranch, becoming leaders of our community improvement club, reviving a dormant community theatre and producing shows, publishing a novel, and hosting monthly meditation gatherings. BTW, these all somehow happened. However, note that I am not a life coach so cannot legally prescribe martinis for brainstorms.

That fabled night, during our second martini (where the fun begins), I conjectured, “It would be great to publish a literary review.” And Perry, always positive (to a fault?), murmured, “A lovely idea. How soon?”

Thus, within a couple of weeks, in May, 2012, the Mill Valley Literary Review was born. Our 22nd issue is now released, which makes the average 2.2 issues per annum or .00580 issues per diem.

Our literary mission:
1. Support and encourage writers. The key premise that makes MillValleyLit unique —proactively encourage writers by soliciting memoirs, stories, poetry that might otherwise not be printed, or even written. (Plus include the occasional photographer or artist.)

2. Interview both well-known and unsung writers, and persons of interest. Like the Mill Valley Film Festival, we have presented works from all over the world.

3. Make it colorful, quirky, fun, and different from the traditional dry, pictureless, colorless print review\journal. (Yes, because of this, we were issued a few warning tickets by the Literary Police.)
4. Keep production costs minimal while making widely accessible (hence one of the first e-zines with zero paper), with minimal advertising, by donations, voluntary subscriptions, and sponsorships. We would appreciate it if you would contribute or subscribe now.

With early support from local businesses — Famous4 fashion store (Larry the Hat), Book Passage, Mill Valley Book Depot Café (thanks, former manager Ari Maslow), Throckmorton Theatre, and Paul Liberatore’s kickoff article in the Marin Independent Journal — we became, overnight rich and famous in the cut-throat business of literary journals. Kidding. 

We interviewed creative people from best-selling writers like T.C Boyle and Catherine Coulter, to exquisite little-known Irish poets and tattooing-godfather Lyle Tuttle. (Salon list here.) We “discovered” writers such as Susanna Solomon (well-versed with the local literary circuit who led my introductions), effervescent novelist Christie Nelson, and multi-talented Jeb Harrison, who would all become frequent contributors, as they continued thriving as imaginative and prolific authors. We created some poppin’ fresh covers for our home pages. 

In celebrating this 10th Anniversary Issue we continue our mission by debuting diverse tales such as: a tourist discovers his family’s shocking past in the Death in Venice-esque “Salonica”; the “Curious Yellow” high-life of a road less traveled in “I was a Teenage Runaway”; unsettling droll events on a European bicycle trip in “Spokes, Wheels, and Cranks”; a surprisingly sentimental story about a piece of wood in “The Pole”; and a writer’s illusions in “The Orange Peeler Meets Johnny Wadd.” And our Poetry Editor extraordinaire Jeff Kaliss presents two outstanding poets and their work.

Subscribers will note some style and posting transitions in this issue. What is next for the little Lit magazine that could? The game is afoot. Thanks for your readership and please support our ongoing mission by contributing or subscribing now.

Cheers,
J.Macon King, 2022


Previous Issue Winter 2021-22 #21 here:

See recent issues here.