First Book Author Event at Carpinteria Arts Center

The Carpinteria Writers Group presented its first book and author event titled, Carpinteria Festival of Books, on Saturday, March 23rd, at the Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center. Suzanne Ahn from the Carpinteria Writers Group has been the volunteer lead on the event, working with the Carp Arts Center to put it on, along with Lantern Tree Books. The authors participating were required to become members of Carp Arts Center.

The event showcased 31 local authors including Bee Bloeser, Victor Borda, Jana Brody, Vince Burns, Caryn Chavez, Gary Delanoeye, Leah Evert-Burks, Brad Fleener, Van Fleisher, Michael Fryd, Chuck Graham, Betsy J. Green, Elisabeth Haggblade, Phoenix Hocking, Connard Hogan, Brecia Kralovic-Logan, Deborah Larkin, Annette Matrisciano, Carrie Miles, Debbie Murphy, Steve Nicolaides, Sue Perry, David Powdrell, Leanne Roth, Rick Shaw, Monica Sherlock, Madison Snider, Eric von Schrader, Louis Torres, Clifford Wiggins,and Holly Woolson.

Meeting up with the Carp Arts Center Executive Director Kristina Calkins, Board Member and Founder Lynda Fairly, and Suzanne Ahn, we talked about the event. Calkins explained, “We are delighted to hold the 1st Annual Carpinteria Arts Book Festival, which was inspired and led by the Carpinteria Writers Group and volunteer Suzanne Ahn. The book fair is a nice lead to National Poetry Month, and we have our poetry contest submissions going on now.” 

Ahn added, “In our writers group we have some authors who have published and are always looking for a way to get known to the public. We had a lot of people in the local area from Carp to Goleta interested to get publicity. We are really happy to provide them with the chance to do that and let the community know about the writers here.”

The event saw many book sales, photo ops with the authors, and book signings. Everyone who attended spent time at each author table in conversation. As I wandered through the fair, some authors’ books seemed to jump off the pages in uniqueness. 

The wife and husband duo of Calla Gold and Jeremy Gold, both authors separately, were a mutually supportive team. Calla, a jewelry designer, wrote a book with photographs of her jewelry creations titled, Design Your Dream Wedding Rings: From Engagement to Eternity. Jeremy wrote a satirical novel based on his son’s journey through Carpinteria High School, titled Death at Carp High: Driftwood Wasn’t All the Tide Brought In. I couldn’t help but wonder – as Calla said, “I love journalists, please have a signed copy of my book on me” – that it is a sign from the universe at long last my life partner is due to arrive soon.

Catching the sunlight was a gold-plated Chinese dragon perched on top of a pile of books titled Dragons of Aeronoth by fantasy fiction writer Victor Borda. He shared that he loves dragons and wrote the book while traveling on trains between Italy, France, and England. It is the first in a trilogy. Borda also writes ambient music as Avahara. His inspiration is from shamanic traditions. 

Author and award-winning high school swim coach Brad Fleener had his book The Letter for sale. He was named the California State Coach of the Year in 1998, and was one of 18 National Finalists honored by the Positive Coaching Alliance in 2007. The book is a collection of letters he wrote to his athletes upon graduation, which became their inspiration, reflection, motivation and direction.

A cool book titled Wandering Ojai, by Holly Woolson, is her first collection of Japanese tanka poetry and photographs she created while walking around Ojai. She is an art educator, artist and writer living in Ojai since 1996, working for Art Trek Inc. as the academic coordinator. 

Check the author list and let’s get literary local together.

411: The Carpinteria Writers Group supports the efforts of local authors with discussion and feedback sessions, readings, and other events. Meetings are weekly, 10 am to noon, in the Carpinteria Library Community Room. New members are always welcome.

The Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center is a community arts and events center in the heart of downtown Carpinteria, CA. As a mission-driven 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, they serve the community by providing a venue for creative arts education, exhibition, and appreciation as well as providing a city-center location for the community to gather. https://carpinteriaartscenter.org