Photograph by Greg Pio

Anthology Contributor: James D. Houston




Villa Montalvo hosts literary event

By Shari Kaplan

Anthologies have always been a well-used form of literature and a good venue for up-and-coming writers, but as such they are often mixed bags of gems and unpolished stones. Such is not the case with Writing Home, whose subtitle, Award-Winning Literature from the New West, already offers a hint that this anthology is not of the garden variety.

Writing Home, published by Heyday Books of Berkeley, is a collection of short stories, essays and poems by recipients of two distinguished literary prizes: the James Duval Phelan Award and the Joseph Henry Jackson Award.

The Phelan Award was established in 1935 as part of the terms of the will of late U.S. Senator James Phelan, who also bequeathed his Villa Montalvo estate in Saratoga as a public park and nonprofit center for culture and arts. The Jackson Award was established in 1957 by friends of the former San Francisco Chronicle book reviewer and editor. These awards have helped launch the careers of some of many successful 20th century writers, including Ernest J. Gaines, Jane Hirshfield and Philip Levine--all of whom are featured in Writing Home.

On Feb. 27 in the Carriage House at Villa Montalvo, Writing Home editor Brian Bouldrey and foreword author and contributor James D. Houston will read and discuss book selections, talk about the awards, answer audience questions and sign copies of the book.

A San Francisco native who once lived in Saratoga and now calls Santa Cruz home, Houston was a Villa Montalvo artist-in-residence a few times over the past few decades. He used his time there to work on some of his many novels. He has authored six works of fiction, including Continental Drift and A Native Son of the Golden West. He is also known for his nonfiction books that detail the life and times of the West Coast. In the late 1960s, he won the Jackson Award. Houston holds a bachelor's degree in drama and a master's degree in American literature.

Bouldrey, who lives on the Peninsula, won a specially created nonfiction version of the Jackson Award in 1998. He is the author of two novels: The Genius of Desire and Love and The Magician and also has edited Traveling Souls: Contemporary Pilgrimage Stories, Wrestling with the Angel and The Best American Gay Fiction series. His fiction works and nonfiction essays have appeared in numerous literary publications. He is a frequent contributor to the San Francisco Bay Guardian, for which he is the associate editor of the supplement Lit.

The free event begins at 3 p.m. Villa Montalvo is at 15400 Montalvo Road in Saratoga. For more information, call 408.961.5820 or 408.961.5818, or visit the Montalvo website at www.villamontalvo.org.

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