On Feb. 8, the local branch will hold its annual Achievers' Reception and Celebrity Luncheon in honor of seven Bay Area Pen Women: writer, poet and painter Betty Auchard of Los Gatos; poet, playwright and English teacher Judith Sutton, artist and photographer Luisa Tosi Claeys and painter Maggie Blackwell, all of Saratoga; painter Janet Gold and symphony musician Jan Turnage, both of San Jose; operatic singer and recording artist Erie Mills of Pleasanton; and artist and art museum curator Susan Landauer of Oakland. The lunch takes place at the San Jose Elks Lodge, located at 444 W. Alma Ave.

Post-lunch entertainment also comes from the ranks of local Pen Women, including singer Susan "Zee" Zerwick and ventriloquist Carol Greene, both of Los Gatos; MC Michelle Gabriel of Saratoga; and fashion designer Jeri Scaife of Oakland, who will show her textured and tapestry fabrics. The afternoon also includes an auction to raise funds for scholarships for high school seniors who excel in the visual, literary or musical arts.

An English teacher for 32 years at Saratoga High School, Sutton created "Readings in the Redwoods," an annual presentation of poetry by the students in her creative writing class. The name comes from the redwood grove in the school's inner quad, where the students read from a raised platform to an audience of students, parents and other spectators.

Sutton is no stranger to public performances, having co-founded Saratoga's Valley Institute of Theatre Arts (VITA) in 1975 with Bill Peck, son of longtime Saratogans Willys and Betty Peck. She even wrote some of the group's plays, including Cherished Christmas Classics. After VITA ran out of steam in 1990, Sutton formed a smaller troupe called Shakespeare Theatre Arts Repertory, which lasted for three additional years.

"I have three loves: teaching, theater and poetry. I've devoted my whole life to the written word," says Sutton, who holds a master's degree in English from San Francisco State University, where she also studied theater. This spring she will publish her first book, a poetry collection titled Prism. She credits her mentor, established Bay Area poet Diane diPrima, with helping her fine-tune the use of verse.

Luisa Tosi Claeys specializes in macro nature photography and exhibits with Gallery Saratoga and the Los Gatos Art Association; her works are also in many private collections in the United States and abroad. She first began photographing flowers while working as a reference librarian at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

A later job near the lush gardens surrounding Sunset magazine in Menlo Park further tempted and taught Claeys about nature photography, although she says it's taken 15 years of research, experimentation and intuition to develop her own "photographic language."

She now totes along her 35mm camera and macro lens whenever she travels for business or pleasure in California, around the United States or in Europe. She is known for seeking out unusual shapes, colors and groupings of flowers and for her technique of photographing them from all possible angles.

The National League of American Pen Women began in 1897 to promote the development of professional women in the humanities. Approximately 5,000 members now belong to the more than 200 branches located in the United States and the former Panama Canal Zone.

League members—artists, photographers, writers, poets, speakers, musicians and composers—meet for workshops, discussion groups, lectures, shows and contests on branch, state and national levels. They also have the option of attending biennial national conventions, held on every even-numbered year.

Tickets to the Pen Women's luncheon are $27 per person. Checks payable to NLAPW can be sent to ShaRon Haugen, 4156 Snowbank Court, San Jose, 95135.