Previously on MillValleyLit: Feb.–May 2023
“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:
“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.
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…
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
Issues #19—22
Issue #19:
That mysterious Mill Valley scent of foggy redwood, madrone and chaparral. Our history of hikers, hippies and city escapers—to creeks, to waterfalls and canyons, so wild, yet accessible. The Sleeping Lady’s spirit high above, the convergence of harmonious, creative and inspiring energies. That feeling—that omnipresent vibe has prevailed, whispering to us, “Do something! Do something meaningful, something good.” J.Macon King, as quoted in the Marin Independent Journal.
Highlights:
Lindsey Stirling wows Reno – Performance electric violinist.
From an earlier issue: Poetry of San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin click here.
Tongo Interview by Jeff Kaliss here.
***
Previous “Hometown Issue” #21:
Previous hometown issue #21 highlights:
Note: Click on “pie” above left for our tasty menu.
Bay Area Beats, Hippies, Music and War: Scotty DeWolf in blast-from-the-past conversation (below current interview).
An Angel Without Wings: Scotty DeWolf’s San Francisco story based on true events.
Cruising Paradise with Sam Shepard: essay by Michael Corrigan.
Poetry Review: Featuring Hometown Poems by J.Macon King and Jeff Kaliss
Round the Square: poem dedicated to Carrollton, Illinois High School Reunion by J.Macon King.
Previous issue #20:
For National Poetry Month (April): We were pleased to feature San Francisco’s new Poet Laureate, Tongo Eisen-Martin in an interview by Jeff Kaliss, with a three-course sampling of Tongo’s charged poetry.
Jeb Harrison looks at Hemingway, the recent three-part, six-hour documentary film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Hemingway examines the visionary work and the turbulent life of Ernest Hemingway, one of the greatest and most influential writers America has ever produced…
Hemingway in Mill Valley? Several Hemingways lived in Mill Valley, CA. At link scroll past current pieces.
Sneak preview of MillValleyLit editor Jeb Harrison‘s For Want of Grace: Collected Stories.
arrhythmia, latest haiku book by Bruce H. Feingold, reviewed by Poetry Editor, Jeff Kaliss, in On My Nightstand.
Read the interview with MillValleyLit publisher J.Macon King on his debut novel Circus of the Sun from the recent Pacific Sun and Bohemian newspapers pictured below.
Green String Farm organic “forty years ahead of its time.” Report by Drew Stofflet.
“The Mill Valley Literary Review drags the literary journal kicking and screaming into the 21st century.” San Francisco Magazine
Previous Issue #19 features:
Susanna Solomon’s short fiction, Twilight-Zone-esque “The Teddy Bear”—final Parisian story in our debut of three. Explore Susanna Solomon’s fantastical musings through Parisian imagination and delight. Three short stories by one of Marin County’s own and our former correspondent. Additional stories include the time-bending “The Clock”, and the ghostly “Shakespeare & Company.”
Beat Scrapbook—Gerald Nicosia’s latest book of Post-Beat poetry, reviewed by Jeff Kaliss.
Drew Stofflet’s “Dark and Sooty.” A creative Wine, Wine, and Song review. “…the musical landscape of early 1970s-era Davis was a different sort of stalker music, like a lion or tiger was in the room, or just outside of it, in the alley, peering through the window with burning eyes.”
James Doyle’s classic poetics DRAGONSBANE and KOSMOLOGI. Poetry Review by Jeff Kaliss.
