On October 28, 2008, Submerged: Tales From the Basin’s East Coast contributors hit the save button on their barackobama.com Neighbor-to-Neighbor swing state call logs and dragged themselves out into the world to do something other than canvass for the president-elect. The Park Slope Community Bookstore, owned and managed by the lovely Catherine Bohne, hosted a party and reading for Submerged that night. Eight Submerged contributors, including Shannon Kelley who was in town from Santa Barbara, shared their stories and music with a Gin Fizz happy crowd dressed in Mardi Gras beads to honor of New Orleans and Katrina victims. Singer/guitarist/contributor Alyssa Robbins played a short set in between the readings to an appreciative crowd that clamored for her CDs after the event. Editor Lauren Gonzalez dedicated the reading to the resident bookstore iguana, Gomez, who was sadly not in attendance because she’d unexpectedly passed on the day of the event. We will miss you, Gomez!

Lauren Gonzalez introduced the book. Emily Macel read from Big Bangs Theory, Shannon Kelley read Something Worth Saving, her essay about volunteering in New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity, Jean Kahler read One Braid, Carla Porch read from A Haircut in the Kitchen, Kara Westerman read an excerpt from Architecture, and Ellen Hagan concluded the event by reading two of her poems from Submerged, and a final poem about the irascible and dim-witted, yet dangerous, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin that turned the evening’s tone back to politics one week before the election. Submerged contributors Kelly Gola, Lissette Pena, and Stella Fiore were on hand for morale support. Many thanks to Catherine and Rebekah for the terrific planning and space, and for Emily Anne’s warm and thoughtful introduction. Submerged also thanks the enthusiastic, standing room only crowd. Brooklyn, you’re second to none!

Turning to the West, Submerged was welcomed by former Limelight Books owner and current Senior Editor at Viz Media, Joel Enos, who hosted at party and reading for the anthology at the Soma Grand on Mission Street in San Francisco on November 13. With a bevy of Trader Joe’s libations Submerged contributors from the West Coast mingled with SF magazine editors, journalists, bookstore owners, documentary filmmakers, and our favorite attendees…fans of literature. Few of the West Coast writers have been able to join us for New York and Chicago events, so we were thrilled to hear them. Hope Kavoosi read her poem Dread (while holding her gorgeous and brilliantly-behaved infant son Miles on her hip), Shannon Kelley joined us again from Santa Barbara to read Something Worth Saving, Allison Yates read her poem I Dream Again, Jessica Palmer read Hair Ties, and Dafna Kory performed a lovely reading of Take Off, even though she was battling a cold. Lauren Gonzalez introduce the book and read a brief excerpt from the introduction. Thank you Joel for furnishing the space and for bringing the San Francisco literati to our doorstep.

If you are in the New York area, join Submerged: Tales From the Basin at Sarah Lawrence College on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 2 p.m. for an “Art as Activism” talk, and again at 6:30 p.m. in the Esther Raushenbush Library’s Pillow Room for a reading, including readings by alumnae Lauren Gonzalez, Gretl Claggett, Stella Fiore, Anne Wenzel, Rebecca O. Johnson, Emily Macel, Kara Westerman, Skye Van Saun, and Carla Porch.

With the turning of the last ‘08 calendar page, several contributors will read from Submerged at Revolution Books in Manhattan in January ‘09. Check this space in the coming weeks for details. We are also lining up salon readings and many more bookstore events for the coming year! If you’d like to schedule a Submerged event, please write to us: stepsisterpress (at) gmail (dot) com.

Lastly, and most importantly, we want to wish Shannon Kelley and her friends and family in Santa Barbara the very best as they work to recover from the fire that devastated the region on the day of the reading and into the weekend. She wrote on Tuesday, November 18:

I took the train back to Santa Barbara [Monday], and arrived to the news that the fire is 100% contained. I have a couple of close friends and many acquaintances who lost their homes, but they are are all safe and alive and in good spirits, which serves only to remind me how amazing they are. Which serves only to remind me how lucky I am–”luckiness” which has nothing to do with the fact that my house made it through just fine; burning embers spared the trees on my street, and the fire itself never made it to my neighborhood, although it was under evacuation for a time. Just lucky to be surrounded by so many awesome people. We’re pulling together a little event for the weekend to cover their immediate needs: clothes, shoes, towels, blankets, and etc., and then we’ll see what we’re able to do next week.

Our hearts are with you, Shannon! If anyone is interested in helping out with donations, please contact Shannon Kelley directly: shannonshenanigans (at) gmail (dot) com. Many of the locals have infants and young children, so baby and kids’ clothes are particularly needed!

We’re proud to announce that Submerged: Tales from the Basin is featured in the November edition of the Midwest Review of Books, in the Small Press Bookwatch section. Please give it a read and share any feedback with us. The review is glowing, and we so appreciate that the folks at MRB spent time with our book. Visit our online store to get your single copy OR to indulge in the Submerged Six-Pack for holiday gifts.

from election night in Grant Park.

election night

Winter is approaching, and with it many holidays and gift-giving occasions. Personally, I always try to make carefully individualized purchases, creative solutions that involve something made by me with a certain person in mind, those little touches that tell your loved ones you’re thinking about them specifically and planning a way to make their holidays special. THEN I realize that’s what BIRTHDAYs are for, and it’s much better to get several thoughtful but repeated items for everyone at work, home, and parties.

This is where the Submerged Six-Pack comes in.

We happen to know from customer feedback that Submerged: Tales from the Basin is one of those books that a reader will keep on her nightstand for a week or two, reading a story or set of poems each night. We also learned that the men who have purchased our book do something similar, and come back to us with stories about how they never knew that stories by women, for women, on the topic of hair, could be so entertaining. So you see the appeal. . . . Add to that the spirit of advocacy and assistance that comes with the project, and you have a perfect gift.

But since it’s tricky to drop $19.95 on each copy when you’re buying in six-pack bulk, the Submerged Six-Pack reduces the price by almost 30%, a $120 value for $85. That’s six gifts to cross off the list; six people who go home happy, enjoy their book, and tell you how much it means to them; and six donations going to help out Louisiana-based Hurricane Relief efforts. This is something that the eminent Michael Scott would call win-win-win. Check it out now at our store.

Terri L. Russ

Check out the new Saint Mary’s College profile on Terri (complete with the Fox Morning Show interview about Bitchin’ Bodies)!

For those of you who enjoyed Lorien Jordan’s previous post about the Chicago Publishers Gallery, there’s now a fantastic podcast capturing the evening from Kathryn Born at Bad at Sports. Kathryn introduces you to, among others, Chicago publishing heroes Audrey Niffenegger, Haki Madhubuti, and Jonathan Messinger. And at the end, you can hear yours truly talk with Kathryn about StepSister’s approach to making books. To get the full effect, you can listen to the podcast in the setting where it was recorded, in the Cultural Center’s beautiful Chicago Publishers Gallery at 77 East Washington Street.

While the rest of you settled in on October 18 to watch old girl Palin make a fool of herself on SNL, Submerged contributor Kelly Gola (“Freelance Fashion and Other Fairytales”) was busting out her serious fundraising skills by collecting more than $1700 for Barack Obama during her Updos for Obama event at Medusa Hair Salon in Park Slope, Brooklyn. For a $75 donation to Obama’s campaign, Kelly and her team of kick-ass volunteer stylists gave local Obama supporters Gidget-y Sarah Palin-style updos in one of three styles: The Maverick, the Huntress, or the Reformer (the most popular). While the stylists were teasing and spraying, a packed house full of attendees from the media, to participants and various walk-ins and other onlookers drank wine (swill, baby, swill!), mingled, and talked politics like the good East Coast elitists that we are! The excellent Jessica Rose and the HighLife band performed a 9 p.m. set, followed by a reading from Submerged: Tales From the Basin, including Lauren Gonzalez, Jean Kahler, Carla Porch, and Ellen Hagan, who unexpectedly shared her forceful poem about a dangerous and unfortunately very real moose-shootin’ bikini wearin’ Russia seein’ no Supreme Court understandin’ Sarah Palin. Ellen performed this poem for the first time during the Poets for a Better Country event at St. Marks Church in New York City last week.

Lauren González & Kelly A. Gola

Updos for Obama was widely publicized in The New York Times, Guardian U.K., New York Magazine, TimeOut NY, and a variety of local papers and magazines, with follow-up coverage and photos (!!) in the New York Daily News, Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Paper, and arts/culture magazine Patrol. Requests for interviews and stories are still coming in as of the time of this writing. Beat that, Karl Rove!

Ellen Hagan reads from Submerged

Kelly concluded about the event: “It felt great to be in the pro-America part of the country with pro-Americans celebrating the right to do with our bodies what we please, including getting updos.” Is Kelly our hero? You betcha!

Jean Kahler reading from Submerged

Submerged contributors Carla Porch and Kelly Gola competed in the Palin look-alike contest, although the winner was Lori Ungemah from Park Slope, who came outfitted with a fake baby Trig, a toy handgun strapped to her hip, and a bible–just like the real deal. The runner up was Yvonne Gumowitz from White Plains, who is editor Lauren Gonzalez’s partner on Heckuvajobgeorge.com.

Kelly A. Gola

Lori and Yvonne won gift certificates for local restaurants, Medusa Hair Salon, a copy of Submerged, a bottle of Palin Syrah, hair product, coffee, and much more. But the real winner, of course, was and will be Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood, which Kelly offered an additional donation in Sarah Palin’s name. Get out and vote, kids!

Submerged: Tales From the Basin will celebrate New Orleans style on October 28, 2008, at the Park Slope Community Bookstore on 7th Avenue and Garfield in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Join us for readings from many of the New York contributors, music by lovely Submerged contributor Alyssa Robbins, Mardi Gras beads, Nawlins cookin’ and Sazeracs at 7 p.m.

Also, if you’re in San Francisco, join Submerged at the Soma Grand on Mission at 7 p.m., November 13th for cocktails and a reading with the West Coast gang! Check the StepSister Press web site for details and check back soon for many more upcoming events!

Photos courtesy David Kuizenga

Note: No moose were injured during the course of this writing.

Lauren González

On Friday night rosy cheeked StepSister Press was one of the local publishing houses inducted into the Chicago Publishers Gallery at the Chicago Cultural Center.

What is the Chicago Publishers Gallery you ask? Good question!

The City of Chicago chose to honor the more than 200 publishing companies found in Chicago by opening a permanent gallery at the Chicago Cultural Center. The gallery is chock full of over 1,500 books from about 70 publishing houses and celebrates the diverse cross-section of publishing opportunities in Chicago.

The night kicked off with a milling/viewing/drooling in the gallery. Picture my visible surprise when looking around, I turned and saw the cover of Submerged proudly displayed. The photographer actually laughed at me as I did a little jump when seeing it. The gallery viewing was followed by an induction from the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Lois Weisberg and a panel forum.

The panel consisted of a great selection of Chicago’s finest. Participating were Haki Madhubuti, poet and publisher of the largest African American run publishing company- Third World Press, Dominique Raccah founder and CEO of the largest woman owned publishing company-Sourcebooks, Inc, artist and author, Audrey Niffenegger, and Jonathan Messinger, the TimeOut Chicago books editor, author and publisher of Feather Proof books was moderated by the legendary and so seductively voiced Rick Kogan. As Mr. Kogan cool as a cucumber noted, “now let the author in me speak let’s get a drink…” And off we went to the rotunda room covered for a little rubbing of the old elbows with the bigwigs while drinking some minty bubblegum flavored drink.

Unlike most people’s ideas of the white box gallery, the Chicago Publisher’s Gallery is a cozy setting mimicking an old gallant homestead’s library. Placed on either side of the grand staircase leading to the famed Tiffany rotunda, bibliophiles can choose from comfy leather armchairs or a desk setting to settle in and pore over the featured books in the warm honey colored light. A big plus for all of the publishers and authors featured is that the Cultural Center’s gift shop will stock the featured books for sale on a curatorial basis.

Sitting in the auditorium and being surrounded by publishing companies, big and small and young and old, was a very inspiring thing. Everyone there loved books as much if not more than me and wanted to insure their future. I felt honored to be there, but more honored to be a part of StepSister Press. The most special warm glow I got from the evening? Looking on as Annie, founder of StepSister, was being interviewed by Chicago Public Radio.

I would highly encourage all of you to take a spin by the Cultural Center at 77 East Washington and take a peek.

I was hoping to blog about this upcoming event a few days ago and got swept up in the weekend’s events. Guess who beat me to the story? The Guardian. That’s right. UpDos for Obama is coming to the Medusa Salon in Park Slope, coordinated by Kelly A. Gola (of “Freelance Fashion & Other Fairy Tales” from Submerged: Tales from the Basin), with readings from Submerged by editor Lauren González and poetry contributor Ellen Hagan. Please join them for literature, political action, and a new hairdo—a great combination. Details from Kelly below.

Updos for Obama flyer

UpDos for OBAMA

Saturday, October 18th, 7-11pm
Medusa Salon
177 7th Ave. (between 1st & 2nd)
Park Slope, Brooklyn

SARAH PALIN UpDo: $75
Chance to win the Sarah Palin look-a-like: $25
Memories of raising $$$$ for OBAMA:     PRICELESS!!!

Join the ladies of Medusa as we celebrate patriotic hairdos the Sarah Palin way. An updo places you in the running to win best SP look-alike & claim a really amazing prize. ALL PROCEEDS GO TO OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN FUND! Mavricks, hockeymoms, PILs (or pitbulls in lipstick), and reformers are welcome (“Joe-sixpacks” are welcome too but we will be serving wine)

For more info call or email Kelly @ 917.699.3989 or kellygola(at)hotmail(dot)com