If you are a writer of any kind (fiction, memoir, poetry), then San Diego is a great place to live to hone your craft, exercise your public reading skills and maybe even launch a career.
The community colleges and UCSD Extension offer a range of classes; there are also several non-profit organizations offering weekly or monthly activities where writers at all levels can drop by to get inspiration, network or “prime the pump” as Natalie Goldberg so famously put it in her classic guide Writing Down the Bones. Many of these workshops and events are free or offered at a very low cost.
One such organization is So Say We All, a collective of dedicated writer-performer-organizers that seems to be gathering steam at a relentless pace. One of their staple events is VAMP, a monthly evening of theme-based readings held at the Whistle Stop in South Park. It is a beer-enhanced, friendly literary occasion and a refreshing alternative night out for writers and audiences alike.
This is how it works: each month a theme is announced and local writers are invited to submit short stories that will be considered for a 60 minute lineup (usually five to six readers). All genres are welcome and writers are invited to read their piece with a visual component that can be as simple as a mood-setting graphic or as complex as a full-on text-image performance.
Despite the bar environment, So Say We All takes their mission seriously so the selected works are rehearsed in advance, audio-visual cues are practiced and the whole event is captured on tape for posterity (go to sosayweallonline.com to see some of them).
April’s theme is Obsessed, so stop by for a night of stories about “things we cannot look away from, that focuses us and that could potentially consume us.”
VAMP is Thursday, April 28 beginning at 8:30 p.m. at the Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern Street.
