Upwelling

Mario Dell' Olio's award-winning memoir, Letters from Italy, tells his parents' love story across continents and oceans through the letters they wrote to each other. It chronicles the struggles of immigration and finding their place in America. Elizabeth Kirpatrick-Vrenios', Concerto for an Empty Frame explores the pain of maternal loss and the healing she found in her music and poetry.

Ericka Lutz reads from her short story collection San Andreas. In this collection of stories set in the fictional town of San Andreas de Pacifico, Ericka Lutz captures the quintessential culture of Northern California coastal communities. Lutz also describes her publishing journey and her plans for more short story collections. Poet and herbalist Karin C. Uphoff reads from her new collection Wild Heart. Her poetry reflects her love of nature, while capturing childhood moments and the heartbreak of a clear-cut forest. Wild Heart takes you on a journey of discovery. 

Local journalist and historian Malcolm Macdonald reads from his collection of stories about colorful Mendocino settlers from his 2022 book, Mendocino History Exposed. Local musicians Gwyneth Moreland and Morgan Daniel discuss songwriting and their 2022 release, Foxglove. This episode is from season one and was originally released on November 30th, 2022.

Fran B. Schwartz discusses her novel, Mila Eclipsed. A story about a child hidden during the Holocaust discovering her family history sixty years later. Local poet C. Rowen Hawthorn will read three of her provocative poems touching on female empowerment, living through today's geopolitical chaos, and the difficulty of keeping a loved one's last wishes. 

Mendocino historian Malcolm Macdonald discusses his recent book, The Mendocino Outlaws, and local poet Joycelyn Trigg reads from her poetry collection Vital Records. 

The Mendocino Outlaws chronicles a gang of outlaws who murdered and terrorized Mendocino coastal residents in 1879 and 1880, and the heroic locals, including Doc Standley, who pursued them and brought them to trial. 

Vital Records melds the two worlds of the South and the Northern Pacific Coast. It explores family dynamics, tragedy, and the combination of two cultures.

Internationally known author Jean Hegland from Season 2, reading from her book Still Time.  Still Time is a book about a man and his family coming to terms with dementia and the end of life. And Fort Bragg fiduciary Maggie Watson from Season 4, about her end-of-life planning workbook, A Graceful Farewell.

Lori Pappas and Blake More, two rebels with something to say.  Pappas reads from her inspirational memoir, The Magic of Yes, about childhood trauma, being an entrepreneur, and starting an NGO in Ethiopia. It's a book about finding the wise woman within you.  More explores the human condition with her poetry collection, Dystopia Unplugged, a collection of searing poems and imagery that capture the pandemic and the division of our times.

Michelle Blackwell interviews Alyssa Ballard about her long-running video series on TikTok and YouTube, and her recent feature at the Mendocino Film Festival. Frei Barty, the Mendocino County Youth Poet Laureate, will share some of his recent work. And Maggie Watson will talk about the workbook she published that helps people prepare for the end-of-life. Upwelling brings the richness of local literature to the airwaves. 

Two local authors David Holper and Maureen Eppstein tackle difficult subjects.  David Holper’s Church of the Very Last Chance combines political satire and magical realism.  It follows the rise of a middle-class Russian student from lost soul to international religious leader.  Maureen Eppstein’s most recent poetry collection, Daughter is memoir through poetry.  The three poems she’ll read are about the difficult and painful loss of a stillborn daughter.  Maureen grieves on the page, and we grieve with her.   

Phillip Zwerling’s Hollywood tell-all, In Search of the Thin Man, explores the lives and work of William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Dashiell Hammett as well as the censorship and politics of old Hollywood. Zwerling writes about how fascism in Germany infiltrated Hollywood in the 1930s. Mendocino County’s first poet laureate Devereaux Baker. Reads three new poems including the award-winning poem The War Tunnel, which explores the loss of those whose every possession is obliterated in war and was partly inspired by the Middle East conflict.