Saratoga News

Saratoga Sampler

Mary Ann Cook

Writer's program benefits Montalvo residency

FAMED AUTHOR Isabel Allende is coming to town, and she'll donate the proceeds of her reading at Montalvo Sept. 23 to the artist residency program at there. Some 10 new living units will be built to expand the number of resident artists Montalvo can accommodate. The Montalvo program offers artists the gift of time (from one to three months) to live on the estate grounds and pursue artistic exploration.

Residency allows an artist to create uninterrupted, to finish up that novel, that painting, that symphony. The new living quarters will be built in the area of the guardhouse entry to the estate. Allende will read from her works at 6:30 p.m. in the Carriage House. Cost is $20, with a Q&A period to follow, as well as a book-signing and a reception. A special patron ticket at $50 for "An Evening with Isabel Allende" will bring you reserved seating and your name on the program.

Allende is also offering a day-long workshop for emerging writers, those traditionally underserved, such as racial minorities. The 20 participants of the workshop will be selected by three women's groups--the Hispanic Women's Council, the Pan American Roundtable and MACLA. Allende is the author of the bestsellers House of the Spirits, Paula (about her daughter, who died at an early age), and Eva Luna. Allende's work is often described as magic realism.

NEW BEGINNINGS: In other Montalvo news, New Beginnings II, a multimedia event, will be held at the villa Sept. 5 at 8 p.m. in the Carriage House Theatre. Based on stories and images by Belle Yang, author of Baba: A Return to China Upon My Father's Shoulders, the event will be narrated by Ashley Ramsden. The San Jose Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Barbara Day Turner, will play compositions by Chen Yi, Michael Touchi and Giacomo Puccini.

FRIENDS OF Jim Graham consider themselves doubly blessed. Not only does Graham remember birthdays and anniversaries and cheer those who are recouping with a timely greeting card, but he creates these missives himself, illustrations included. Since retiring from his manufacturer's rep job a few years ago, he has been sending out personalized special-occasion cards, as well as Christmas greetings, reports his wife, Carolyn. His special greetings include poems or sayings, of his own or others, and watercolor or pen-and-ink drawings.

Besides still working part time, Graham plays tennis three times a week, golfs twice a week, and gardens and travels extensively. He collects seeds from gardens all over the world. Last year the Grahams exchanged houses with a family in the Cotswolds in England for a month and visited gardens galore. They'd recommend that method to others as a great way to see another country from a home base. This summer they toured Paris, the Loire and Burgundy areas. Vive la retirement!

THE TENNIS BENEFIT for the Junior Tennis Council netted approximately $60,000, reports Gordon Collins, tennis director at Courtside. The council helps kids learn to play the game who wouldn't be able to otherwise. Sixty amateurs and 60 pros teamed up for the two-day tourney, with the amateurs paying $400 for the privilege. Winners in women's doubles were Daisy Anzoatequi of Los Gatos and Ewalani McCalla, on the pro satellite tour, who trained at Brookside in Saratoga. In men's doubles victors were Dave Hilton of San Jose and Tye Ferdinandsen, a Fresno pro. Mixed doubles: Bert Okuda of Campbell and Rosie Vareis of Alameda.

THE WRITE STUFF: Saratoga poet Mary Lou Taylor was featured reader at the Willow Glen Book Store's most recent poetry night (held the third Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m.). Some of the poems presented that evening will be found in the new chapbook Taylor is working on, to be called On the Fringes of Hollywood, the area where she grew up. A chapbook, by the way, is so named because the small book (roughly 5 by 4 inches) could easily fit into cowboy chaps. At least that's one explanation for the name. If you have another, let's hear it.

PUBLICATION: Perhaps the hardest writing to market is poetry, so it's always a red-letter day when you hear about a poet who got published. To say nothing of the honor of being published in another country. That's exactly what Dennis F. Augustine accomplished with his haiku which was published in the Basho Festival Anthology in Japan. Augustine's work was written at a haiku workshop held at Hakone Gardens in May. He credits Hakone with helping him reach a newfound appreciation for leading a full-fledged creative life. His books of philosophical musings, a combination of Eastern and Western teachings, can be found at the Hakone gift shop. The titles: Gifts From the Spirit: A Skeptic's Path and Invisible Means of Support: A Transformational Journey. His published haiku:

the bear fishes
flicking its paw
sprinkling the moonlight

ON A DIFFERENT NOTE: Saratogans Patricia Ann Khan and Joanne Frances Michael have been selected for the 1997-98 Santa Clara County Grand Jury.

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