Words, Wine & Wonder in Lake Tahoe, Tahoe City, CA.
Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025 was the Tahoe Literary Festival annual Literary Salon—an afternoon of readings, music, wine, and connection in support of the Tahoe Literary Festival.
The audience enjoyed live readings from acclaimed authors and poets, including MillValleyLit’s J.Macon King, Bridey Thelen-Heidel, Eve Quesnel, Jesse James Ziegler, Karen Terrey, Kim Bateman, Scott Green, and Priya Hutner. Learn about the Tahoe Literary Festival, how to support great literary events in our community and how to become a sponsor.
This free summer gathering supports the Tahoe Literary Festival, and helps nurture a vibrant literary community in Tahoe City. See enlarged flyer here TLF_Salon-Invite-Flyer_080825
JUNE — JULY 2025 FEATURES:
Author Dennis McNally chats with Paul Liberatore, Mill Valley, CA 5-28-25. JMK.
R.I.P. Bay Area musician Sly Stone passes at 82. Sly Stone changed the face of pop music in the ’60s and ’70s. The Woodstock veteran, who had reportedly been in poor health over the last few years, died “surrounded by family after contending with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other ailments,” Stone’s publicist Carleen Donovan told the Associated Press. See Sly biography by Mill Valley Literary Review editor Jeff Kaliss
Note to young whipper-snappers: this is NOT Sylvester Stallone.
The Graduate poster signed by Dustin Hoffman in his debut role.
The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties— Book review. The book that needed to be written. How did the 60’s happen? Where did hippies come from? Why San Francisco? Why Haight Ashbury?
McNally book inscription for J.Macon King after King’s poetry reading at book release celebration.
Cheyenne Taylor Scott reads at at Laughing Planet Cafe, Reno, 12-3-2024 Credit: Jesse James Ziegler.
Best-selling author and Grateful Dead publicist, Dennis McNally launched his new book May 28 at Mill Valley Community Center. Author of the seminal book, A Long Strange Trip, Dennis presented his newest.
RIP Puff the Magic Dragon. Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known as one-third of Peter, Paul and Mary, recently passed at age 86. Yarrow was MC at the notorious ’65 Newport Jazz Festival, as featured in the movie, A Complete Unknown.
“Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life…” his daughter Bethany said in a statement.
FEATURED for Winter 2024—2025
Courtesy Alta Journal.
CONGRATULATIONS! MillValleyLit Poetry Editor Jeff Kaliss won First Place at the Los Angeles Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Awards 2024. His interview with singer Linda Ronstadt was published in Alta Journal.
First Place: Jeff Kaliss, Alta Journal, “Alta Q&A: ‘Heart Like a Wheel'” for “Personality Profile, Music and Other Arts – Over 2,500 Words, Print.” Judges’ comment: “Revealing and compelling and riveting, hard to do in a Q&A.”
“Denken mit der Hand. Writing by hand is thinking on paper. Thoughts grow into words, sentences and pictures. Memories become stories. Ideas are transformed into projects. Notes inspire insight. We write and understand, learn, see and think – with the hand.” Notebook promo – Leuchtturm Gruppe, Deutschland.
FEATURED for Autumn 2024—
Jesse James Ziegler, Sierra Arts Mixer, Reno, 9-26-24. Credit JMK
The hardest working man in the poetry business!
The ULTIMATE GUIDE to Reno’s Poet Laureate Jesse James Ziegler— Replete with Profile, interview and his poetry.
J.Macon King with Perry King lit up the Tahoe Literary Festival opener with theatrical poetry.
The Tahoe Literary Festival weekend kicked off with a free evening of jazz, poetry and prose Oct. 11 at Tahoe Wine Collective in Tahoe City.
Poetry & Prose was enjoyed by about 80 folks at the Boatworks hosted by Scott Green of Tahoe Poetry Collective. An evening with featured poets and writers included Green, Reno Poetry Laureate Jesse James Ziegler, MillValleyLit publisher and novelist J.Macon King, Karen Terrey, Teresa Breeden, Roxy Hankinson, Edward Manzi, John Merryfield, Cheyenne McGregor and others.
Event MC Poet Scott Green.Tahoe Literary Festival founders Priya Hutner and Katherine Hill with Reno Poet Laureate Jesse James Ziegler.
MillValleyLit was a proud sponsor of this exciting inaugural event.
King read poetry “deconstructed” from his novel CIRCUS OF THE SUN at the Tahoe Literary Festival, Tahoe City, Lake Tahoe, Oct 11. With Jesse James and other presenters.
Circus of the Sun MillValleyLit publisher J.Macon King’s debut novel of 1979 San Francisco’s cultural, sexual and political maelstrom. Available from Amazon.
Penny Bear, 205,000 pennies, 1.5-ton. at Heritage Plaza, Tahoe City, by Lisa and Robert Ferguson. Big hugs from our editor Perry King and writer Tom Fitzmorris, June, 2024. Credit JMK
“I now head to Varanasi, a city located on the Ganges River where Hindu dead are taken to be burned or cleansed by the river. The 1500-mile river is considered sacred and spiritually pure, although one of the most polluted in the world.”
“Denken mit der Hand. Writing by hand is thinking on paper. Thoughts grow into words, sentences and pictures. Memories become stories. Ideas are transformed into projects. Notes inspire insight. We write and understand, learn, see and think – with the hand.” Leuchtturm Gruppe notebook promo. Deutschland.
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 VenmoVenmo profile(perry-king-5) or PayPal Info ondonating and free notebook here.
Circus of the Sun MillValleyLit publisher J.Macon King’s debut novel of 1979 San Francisco’s cultural, sexual and political maelstrom. Available from Amazon.
In the wake of his girlfriend leaving him, young musician Jack has sworn off women, yet the reforming bad boy cannot resist the incandescent, liberated artist Bretta and her creative entourage. The pair sense they have found their Masterpiece of Love—until the return of Bretta’s enigmatic friend unveils disturbing secrets.
“…an ambitious and poetic story of love and creativity. At times racy and poignant… King deftly includes details that bring the book’s characters and events to life.” —Pacific Sun.
“More than a love story, this is a portrait of the city of San Francisco… The prose leans towards the poetic, which results in gorgeous, Kerouac-ian vignettes…seeming like a movie played on fast forward…” Kirkus Reviews.
“A great, lyrical portrait of an era…a spot-on recreation about a great time of history…and I enjoyed the sheer trip of it. Beautifully observed writing—the emotions in the story are true and moments of life are rendered with clarity.” —Louis B. Jones, author of four New York Times Notable Books, including Ordinary Money and Particles and Luck.
“…sets forth a story-within-a-memoir so skillfully that you forget this is a work of fiction. …Captures the ups and downs of an intense relationship deftly. —Rick Dale, The Daily Beat.
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.
Jerry Kamstra, The Frisco Kid himself. Photo Ken Collins.
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.
“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.
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…”
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.
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.
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 Bohemiannewspapers pictured below.
“The Mill Valley Literary Review drags the literary journal kicking and screaming into the 21st century.” San Francisco Magazine
Previous Issue #19 features:
Ezra Pound, as Teddy Bear, in Paris shop window. Photo: Susanna Solomon.
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.”
“A Journey Through Chaos and Beauty: Uzbekistan to Kashmir, 1987″—Travel Adventure memoir and photos by Gene Fischer
The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties— Book review. The book that needed to be written. How did the 60’s happen? Where did hippies come from? Why San Francisco? Why Haight Ashbury? 
Penny Bear, 205,000 pennies, 1.5-ton. at Heritage Plaza, Tahoe City, by Lisa and Robert Ferguson. Big hugs from our editor Perry King and writer Tom Fitzmorris, June, 2024. Credit JMK
” And then there was this time…”
“I Was a Teenage Runaway: Haight-Ashbury 1968” memoir by Carol Green.
Poet Bryan Franco profile by Jeff Kaliss, Poetry Editor.
Kenneth Steven poetry book, Iona, reviewed by Jeff Kaliss.
