KATE ASCHE’S WORKSHOP
with
Barbara Brandes, Susan Dlugach, Karen Durham, Deborah Shaw Dickerson, Kathy Les, Laura Rosenthal, and Beth Suter
Monday May 13, at 7:30 PM
Sacramento Poetry Center 1719 25th Street
Over a period of eight months in 2018-19, Kate Asche led a group of women poets on a journey of (re)discovery into poetry by American women published over the last century. As we reconnected with familiar inspiring voices and found ourselves also astonished by women poets tragically lost to obscurity—and grappled with the whos and the whys of these near-absences—we offered our own poems up to each other and discussed where and how our work responds to and extends American women poets’ rich creative conversation(s). Join this incredible group of writers at Sacramento Poetry Center to celebrate the challenges, discoveries and triumphs they experienced during this humbling and inspiring journey to poetry’s roots! Reading starts at 7:30 p.m., with the customary open mic to follow.
BARBARA BRANDES is new to poetry. This class last year was her first foray. Watch for themes from the natural world. She is not new to writing; she and several colleagues formed a writing group ten years ago, where she has focused on family memoir. Barbara works as a psychologist in private practice.
SUSAN DLUGACH was a Las Vegas Daily Optic (New Mexico) reporter long ago covering such breaking news as Mickey Mouse’s train stop in town to publicize his 50th birthday. As an English teacher, she coordinated Power of the Pen, a literary contest for students at her school, because she wants everyone to love literature as much as she does.
KAREN DURHAM lives and writes in Sacramento. She reads spoken-word stories and poetry at
Writers On the Air and has published short stories and non-fiction in American River Review.
When her friends ask, “why poetry,” she says, “because it’s impossible, and I’m a contrarian.”
DEBORAH SHAW HICKERSON is a fifth generation Californian. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where she studied cultural anthropology. She taught social sciences for many years.
Deborah began studying poetry six years ago. She hosted Winters Out Loud, a poetry open mic for four years. Her work has appeared in The Yolo Crow, the Winters Express, Moonshine Ink, and in Poetry Now. She is currently working on two chapbooks.
KATHY LES decades ago earned a B.A. in English, thinking herself an analytical reader but never a writer. She circled her way into writing in many forms over the course of her various careers until she found her way to poetry and fiction, where she now spends her writing days. He work has been published in Soul of the Narrator and Tule Review.
LAURA ROSENTHAL began to walk the poetry path before taking a detour into the practice of law for close to forty years. She has returned to her first love, and has been published in Poetry Now, Brevities, Sacramento Voices, and Tule Review. Laura attended the 2017 poetry workshop at Squaw Valley and is grateful for the many local opportunities to collaborate with, and be inspired by, other writers.
BETH SUTER studied Environmental Science at U.C. Davis and has worked as a naturalist and
teacher. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee with recent or forthcoming poems in Colorado
Review, Natural Bridge, and CALYX, among others. She lives in Davis, California with her
husband and son.
KATE ASCHE, M.A., is a writer, teacher, editor and literary community builder working in Sacramento. Her first poetry collection, the chapbook Our Day in the Labyrinth, was published a few years ago by Finishing Line Press
