WordBeat, a reading series coupled with open mic, runs the third Saturday of the month, August through October 2004.

Saturday, September 18, 2-4pm
Dr. Insomnia’s Coffee & Teas’ courtyard
800 Grant Ave (at Reichert), Novato, CA (map)
(415) 897-9500

August 21
Poetry with GERI DIGIORNO & CHUN YU

Poet and artist, Geri Digiorno is the founder and director of the Petaluma Poetry Walk. Her poems have appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Mandala, Tomcat, and Bogg, and her books include I’M TAP DANCING, Norton Cooker Press, MARILYN AND ME, and soon WHITE LIPSTICK, which is forthcoming in 2005 from Redhen Press.

Chun Yu began writing poetry and stories in verse while completing her post-doctoral fellowship at MIT as a biomedical engineer. LITTLE GREEN, a memoir in verse and her first book, is forthcoming from Simon and Schuster in February 2005. Though currently writing three other books, Chun works as a principal scientist in a medical device company in the Bay Area.

September 18
Prose/Travel Writing with MICHAEL FALK, LAURIE MCANDISH KING & BRADLEY CHARBONNEAU

Laurie McAndish King has studied medicinal plants in the rainforests of Brazil and Argentina, hunted a lion in Botswana without a gun, survived a kidnapping in Tunisia. Her Tunisian story, “At a Crossroads,” was published in the Lonely Planet anthology THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS. For Laurie’s free e-mail newsletter re: San Francisco Bay Area events for travel writers, please e-mail: laurie at laurieking dot com

Michael Falk swears his novel in progress is not autobiographical: “If I could remember what really happened back then I wouldn’t have to make this stuff up.” An eleven-year cancer survivor, Michael is currently impersonating a real estate agent and in training for a short triathlon, while also working on his novel and a memoir.

Bradley Charbonneau, www.likomaisland.com/design, spends more time promoting other writers than writing or promoting his own work, which is published in anthologies and magazines. He writes about travel, love, and the love of travel, but with a new baby boy, he doesn’t even travel. So as a travel writer who doesn’t travel or write, his first book is naturally URBAN TRAVEL GUIDE TO SAN FRANCISCO.

October 16
Contributors to HOT FLASHES, Left Coast Writers’ Erotica Anthology, will read erotic poems and prose.